The+Road+Runners



Constitution of the Road Runners

We the Road Runners of American Literature, in order to form a more perfect group, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessing of Mrs. Clark Evans to ourselves and our Wikipage, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the Road Runners.


 * 1) Thou shalt do their homework on time and to thy best of their ability.
 * 2) Thou shalt contribute to thy group conversations
 * 3) If thou havith an idea, present it to thy group!
 * 4) Thou shalth always be productive!

Meep. Meep.

Rory Jase Sabrina Lauren

[]


 * Vocabulary-**

Riprap-a foundation or wall that seems irregular.
 * Effigy**- A roughly made version of a particular person or thing.
 * Starkly**-Severe or bare in appearance or outline.

Siwash: to camp without tents, with natural shelter frieze: an ornamental band or strip on a wall
 * mecomium**: the first baby poop composed of bile mucus and epithelial cells

**Accrue -** To increase, accumulate, or come about as a result of growth. Mendicant - A member of an order of friars forbidden to own property in common, who work or beg for their living **Palimpsest** - Writing material used one or more times after the original writing had been erased. **Gelid**- extremely cold.

**Middens** (pg 177): A dunghill or refuse heap. Piedmont (page 183): A district lying along or near the foot of a mountain range.
 * Balus ****trade** (pg 159): any of various symmetrical supports, as furniture legs or spindles, tending to swell toward the bottom or top.

**Seethed** (237) - Filled with intense but unexpressed anger **Dredged** (244) - Bring up or cl ear. Bring to one's attention **Wimple** (286) - To bend, curve, or turn (like a river or road)


 * Quotes-**

"He said the right dreams for a man in peril were dreams of peril and all else was the call of languor and death" (18) "But he knew if he were a good father still it might be well as she had said. That the boy was all the stood between him and death." (29) "The boy didn't answer. Then he said 'the winder wasn't turning'" (37) "He held him and floated about, the boy gasping and chopping at the water. You're doing good, the man said. You're doing good" (39)

Page 51-102-Rory "He came forward, holding his belt by one hand. The holes in it marked the progress of his emaciation and the leather at one side had a lacquered look to it where he was used to stopping the blade of his knife." (page 63) "A single round left in the revolver. You will not face the truth. You will not." (page 68) "When you've nothing else construct ceremonies out of the air and breathe upon them." (page 74) "'Are we still the good guys?' he said. Yes. We're still the good guys. Amd we always will be. Yes. We always will be." (pg 77)

"Maybe you should always be on the lookout. If trouble comes when you least expect it then maybe the ting to do is to always expect it." (page 151) <How on edge they are

"Borrowed time and borrowed world and borrowed eyes with which to sorrow it." (page 130)

"Maybe he understood for the first time that to the boy he was himself an alien. A being from a planet that no longer existed...He could not construct for the child's pleasure the world he'd lost without constructing the loss as well and he thought perhaps the child had known this better than he." (page 154) <-- like he is a different "specie" of human that only knows this new, destructive world, while he is from an endangered species dying out that holds any connection to the world of before.

"People were always geting ready for tomorrow. I didnt believe in that. Tomorrow wasnt getting ready for them. It didnt even know they were there" (168).

"Where men cant live god fare no better" (172).

"He'd not have thought the value of the smallest thing predicated on a world to come. It surprised him. That the space which these things occupied was itself an expectation" (186).

"When your dreams are of some world that never was or of some world that never will be and you are happy again then you will have given up. Do you understand? And you cant give up. I wont let you" (189).

 "He set the empty tin between his feet. Every day is a lie, he said. But you are dying. That is not a lie" (238).

"No matter what. I will not send you into the darkness alone" (248).

Here they camped and when he lay down he knew that he could go no further and that this was the place where he would die." (277)

"She said that the breath of God was his breath yet though it pass from to man through all of time." (286) "She said that the breath of god was his breath, yet though it passed from man to man through all of time." (286)


 * Literary Connections**

Flashbacks- He had his flashbacks during difficult times, so that he could remember good times. Kind of like when you do something hard and think of something to make it easier. The cold- When your'e so cold that you feel it in your bones.

Page 51-102-Sabrina People feel depressed sometimes and feel like death is the only answer (mother says killing herself is the only option) The apocalypse that is occurring in the book is like a natural disaster but on a larger scale. --> It brings out the most inhuman traits in us. Wouldn't be able to kill the dog for food, feels like humans can make their own decisions but animals don't have that ability

What really struck me from this reading was the condition that the people under the basement were in. I have read // The Road // before and this was one of the scenes that stuck out in my head a lot. I had been waiting for it to come, and when it did it was still as striking as it was the first time. The people in the basement that were crying out and calling for help reminded me of the infected people that I had seen in the movie // I am Legend. // They were naked and the shied away from the light at all costs as they gathered into a corner. These "zombies" were nothing at all human, they were monsters and shells of their human selves. They had human emotions and their habits had turned them into something unrecognizable. This is just like the people that were awaiting their death in the house. They too had become zombies because of the sheer terror that they were under. Like the infected, they hid from the light and did not know how to respond once they saw it. pg(192-193)

When the Dad and the son were sitting down and eating, and the Dad says he thinks he's being followed. It made me think of times when you don't know, but your gut feeling tells your that somebody is watching or following you.

pg(215) When the dad could see the disappointment in sons face when he saw the ocean wasnt blue. It made me think of times that I would get excited for something, and it wouldn't be all it was cut out to be, like when you go on a hike your excited about the end, and it turns out its not as good as you thought.

The boy is growing up, and there are definite examples of his increasing maturity. He is embarrassed, thinking for himself more and even arguing with his father about what is fair and not fair, like when the man forces the thief to take off his clothes because he stole their things. The man says he didnt kill the thief, but the boy says he really did and is actually angry with his father. these sorts of behaviors show the reader how the boy is growing up, slowly but surely.

When the man told his son to get him the first aid kit after he was shot by an arrow and the boy just sat there, the man yelled at him. This unnecessary action hurt the boy and the man ended up feeling guilty. I'm sure we can all relate to moments like this...maybe yelling at siblings over small things or being the one getting punished in a moment of haste.


 * Discussion Direction**

The father said the land was "godless"?

Perhaps the disaster made give up on religion.

They have no names yet, why would this be?

Without society perhaps we have no names?

The boy claims to have seen another boy, how and why would this matter to him?

The boy wants a childhood, and the dad tries to provide this the best he can ( coca cola, swimming, reading stories, etc)

The man tries to show no emotions why?

He shows no emotion to protect himself and the kid.

Page 51-102-Lauren 1. Was the woman right when she said it was better to control her own fate and just killer herself, rather than waiting for someone to hurt, kill, and eat her? Was this a selfish act or rational? -Rational if she was by herself, but selfish because her family needed her

2. Is it wrong that the man doesn't want to help the child or the old man, or is he being mindful of their own needs and knows they wont be able to help them? Is this selfish or wise? -Father understands that on a larger scale they cannot help everyone

3. The man tells his son not to look at the horrible, dead and disfigured bodies they encounter because you cannot "un-see" something and as the man says, "you remember what you want to forget and you forget what you want to remember." The boy says once that its ok and that he can look at the bodies, even when the father tries to make him stop to protect him. what does this say about the boy? -Is he still a child, or has he matured quickly in these sorts of ways that makes him more like an adult. -Is the boy part of a new generation of humans that will live on this new, destroyed planet since he is able to watch things like this...

4.The boy knows that cannibalism is bad, even if you are starving and have no other option. He says that the good guys dont do that. Do you think, even if the opportunity is there and they are on the verge of death, would the man make the boy eat a dead human because his urge to save him was so strong? -man wants to keep the boy pure, doesn't want to make the "god" a cannibal -wants to give the child a real childhood as much as possible -wants to keep the boy together as the world around them falls apart

Why was the man so unwilling to help the people in the basement? The victims could of followed him and his son if he had helped them out and that would of endangered them.

Would the man have been able to kill his son if it meant protecting him? No because even when he's faced with that situation he told the boy that he had to shoot himself. The father couldn't do it.

Why is the boy unable to let go of the thought of other little boy? Curious and is worried about the boy.

Was it the right idea to leave the safety of the bunker? Yes, the bunker wasn't well concealed and they would of gotten found eventually. Have to keep moving.

Religious connections within the reading -The name Ely, "where men can't live, gods don't fare better", very religious name -Ely was blind -Ely and Elijah are scarily similar
 * How would you know if you were the last man on earth
 * There is no God
 * In Greek Mythology, the prophets we're always blind, Homer was a blind poet
 * Ely is the blind man that was helped by Jesus
 * Jesus was the boy trying to help the blind man
 * The father realizes that his son is not the word of God as he could not help Ely, it was an act that was very reminiscent of Jesus
 * Change in the boy as he doesn't care about seeing the dead bodies anymore, "but they'll still be there" the ideas are always with him,
 * Elijah was prophesied to have come "before the coming of the great and terrible day of the Lord"
 * The relationships to God don't mean anything to the boy, so he wouldn't discern anybody, its the right thing to do to help the man

-Are people still judged for their deeds? Is there still any heaven?
 * Why still be good if there is no heaven still?

Foreshadowing
 * The boy's dream
 * That the man was asleep and would never wake up
 * Sleeping more
 * called the sleep of death

Where are they? -Found a coin with Spanish -References to the American south throughout the book

Page 230-end: Why did the Dad shoot off the flare pistol, even thought it was a clear signal to anyone around that someone was there? -Maybe like the dad's last action, metaphor for his life fizzling out -doing for himself and his son, rather than looking for help -last chance to please his son with something cool and something for the boy to remember

The Dad mentions lessons to the child, and at several places in the book (the bunker when he asks the child to read the can) tests him of his reading ability. Why would the Dad consider education an important part of the child's life during this time and place? -reading and lessens were important to the dad, so he saw this as important to the child

The dad says to the kid when he is sick "I will not send you into the Darkness alone". If darkness is death in this instance does this mean that the Dad would die with him? -he doesn't want the son to be on his own in the world, the boy is his whole life if he dies then he dies. if it is reversed he tells the boy he must go on

When they first encounter the man the description is first of his hand and how the fingers were cut away. The book states that he was an outcast of one of the communities. What community would do this?

The boy has a noticeable change in character when he and the Dad discuss stories. How has he changed? -says the stories aren't real, he asks his father arent good dreams bad? He is starting to realize that he is the one who will have to carry the fire alone without his dad. He's becoming more realistic and mature.

When the boy meets the new family, he asks the man if hes carrying the fire, to which the eventual response is yes. How could this answer affect the boys decision to go with him? -is he a good guy? is he carrying hope and the will to light the world into a better place?

The notes how far they come on the road, and how dangerous it was. How might the journey have been different if they had avoided the road? -they wouldn't know where they were if they didnt follow the map -they would have developed "social skills" sorta, learning how to be wary of other people

THEMES: Is the boy still a child? -very mature for such a young person, wise in avoiding death but not wise in experience. -saw things no child should, had to face reality too soon -since he was never really a child, he cant really fit our standards of an adult. a new childhood and adulthood in this new world