C+-Erin+G

The road is a very difficult book when it comes to making connections. McCarthy has written and created a world that doesn't existed yet, and that no one has ever experienced. McCarthy allows his readers to make connections to the few characters he has created by using triggers to evoke emotions in his readers.

The first connection that I was able to make was the idea of fear. The main character, has a son, and he seems to be young still.While the father goes in to his old house, the son tries to persuade his dad to leave by saying that "I'm scared". At some point in everyone's life they have felt fear, while it may not be the fear he has, the fear of losing his life, or his father, we have all experienced fear. I've experienced a lot of fear in my life. The first time my dad told me that he was going to Iraq I feared that we might lose him, and that our family would never be the same. While not all fear is this great everyone feels fear.

The second connection is not a connection that is directly related to me. Recently I finished a book called //The Hunger Games//, which is set in a post-apocalyptic world in which they have to fit to survive. Like the father in //The Road// the adults in //The Hunger Games// worry about if they will have enough food to survive to the next day. The father was forced to worry about his family, or what was left of it, and the main character in The Hunger Games, Katniss Everdeen was forced to protect not only her little sister and her mother, but her friends. Everyday they questioned if they would survive, and if they didn't what would happen to their family?


 * 1) pg. 47, Bodies in the truck
 * 2) Did the people die or were they kill, and how will this affect the father and sons plans?
 * 3) pg. 49, people
 * 4) How will the father react to other people, will he assume the worst of hope for the best? Will the man they didn't help show up later in the book?
 * 5) pg. 53, Child
 * 6) What does the child expect for his future, and will the south live up to those expectations?
 * 7) pg. 54, Wife's photo
 * 8) Why did the father leave the picture of his wife behind on the road?
 * 9) pg. 77, The good guys
 * 10) Will they maintain being the good guys, or will they change. What does the son mean by "The good guys"?

Literary Luminary “Dressed in clothing of every description, all wearing red scarves at their necks. Red or orange, as close to red as they could find. He put his hand on the boy’s head. Shh, he said.” “Behind them came wagons drawn by slaves in harnesses and piled with goods of war and after that the women, perhaps a dozen in number, some of them pregnant, and lastly a supplementary consort of catamites illclothed against the cold and fitted in dogcollars and yoked each to each.” “Now you, Papa, he said.” “He stopped. Listen to me, he said. Just stop it. We’re starving do you understand? Then he raised the hatch door and swung it over and let it down on the floor behind.” “Huddled against the back wall were naked people, male and female, all trying to hide, shielding their faces with their hands. On the mattress lay a man with his legs gone to the hip and the stumps of them blackened and burnt. The smell was hideous.” “If they find you you are going to have to do it. Do you understand? Shh. No crying. Do you hear me? You know how to do it. You put it in your mouth and point it up. Do it quick and hard. Do you understand? Stop crying. Do you understand?" Top of page quote long “The came upon themselves in a mirror and he almost raised the pistol. It’s us, Papa, the boy whispered. It’s us.” “but when he bend to see into the boy’s face under the hood of the blanket he very much feared that something was gone that could not be put right again.”
 * Pg. 91
 * Pg. 92
 * Pg. 100
 * Pg. 110
 * Pg. 110
 * Pg. 113
 * Pg. 114
 * Pg. 132
 * Pg. 136

Vocab Connections > i. The boy forgot to turn of the valves on the tank and when his father goes to turn on the tank in an attempt to light a fire he realizes that it is empty. The father attempts to hide from the boy the fact that it was empty but he realized it was empty and remembered that it was his fault. Like most parents would he attempts to convince the boy that it wasn’t his fault, but he understands that it is, or might be. As a kid I would do things on accident and my parents would say that it wasn’t my fault, it was just mistake but that never took away that gut feeling that you ruined something. > i. The boy, while in a world where little is happy the boy is able to feel happiness and excitement. I personally can’t make this connection but younger children can, while they are in a moment where few people are happy they are able to find a little shred of happiness in a dark world. I think this will be an important part in his and his father’s future because it is a crucial part in how they will survive Questions
 * 1) gelid
 * 2) Icy; extremely cold
 * 3) bivouacked pg. 168
 * 4) Stay in such a camp: "the battalion was now **bivouacked** in a field."
 * 1) ## 1. Connections
 * 2) a. Pg. 177
 * 1) b. Pg. 201
 * 1) pg. 238
 * 2) "He set the empty tin between his feet. Every day is a lie, he said."
 * 3) What does the father mean by everyday is a lie
 * 4) pg. 245
 * 5) "I dont know what we're doing, he said."
 * 6) What does the boy not understand? Does he not understand why they are still going on?
 * 7) pg. 250
 * 8) At the top of the page the father is talking about the last day. What does he mean the last day, is he planning on ending it all now or does he know he won't be able to survive.
 * 9) pg. 278
 * 10) what made the dad change his mind when it came to going into the darkness with his son. I know he can't bare the sight of the holding his dead son, but is there something else. Does he believe that for the boy there is hope?