The part where the man dies.
I believe this is the part where the road actually ends because throughout the whole story the boy and the man have very little emotion towards each other. To separate themselves from each other. So that if the day comes the man could shoot the boy if anything happened. But this one particular moment in the book the man and the boy show their true emotions and we actually see who they really are. It is like McCarthy made them wear masks through the story and then suddenly take them off at this one crucial part. 'I cant. I cant hold my son dead in my arms. I thought i could but i cant' the man shows how he really feels about his son. Who he actually calls his son. It's like in people's final moments they show you who they truly are. The boy's reply to the man is 'You said you wouldn't leave me.' This particular line doesn't fit in the whole story. It is thrown in with so much emotion and it's very cheesy and it shouldn't be in there. But McCarthy obviously wanted to show how emotional it is for the boy and the man.
Monday 19 November 2012
5+5=1
5 Things
1. He links a lot to classic horror films (real link to Dawn Of The Dead and the part when he finds the people in the cellar of the house.)
2. Expansion and contraction of time.
3. There is a poetic rhythm throughout the book.
4. He builds tensions in parts of the book just using punctuation.
5. He uses his surroundings in his writing style.
5 Words
1. Horror
2. Time
3. Poetic
4. Tension
5. Surroundings
1 Word
Classic
1. He links a lot to classic horror films (real link to Dawn Of The Dead and the part when he finds the people in the cellar of the house.)
2. Expansion and contraction of time.
3. There is a poetic rhythm throughout the book.
4. He builds tensions in parts of the book just using punctuation.
5. He uses his surroundings in his writing style.
5 Words
1. Horror
2. Time
3. Poetic
4. Tension
5. Surroundings
1 Word
Classic
Thursday 8 November 2012
Homework Part 1
Coming across the man who has been struck by lightening. (pp. 50-53)
When reading this episode in the book i got a feeling of tension when the man first saw the tracks on the melted road. I started to question who the tracks were, why they were walking at night, and where were they now? McCarthy writes this first paragraph in short sentences which also created tension. 'They just suddenly appeared.'
You get a sense of time passing when McCarthy continues onto the next paragraph 'I don't know. Who is anybody?' to 'They came upon him shuffling along the road before them.' This suggests that the man and the boy carried on walking and following the tracks in the road until they came across him. When McCarthy describes the man who was struck by lightening he describes him like their surroundings. Such as: 'He was burntlooking as the country.' The man who was struck by lightening almost seems to fit in with the land, molding into the background. McCarthy writes that the boy whispered to his dad about helping the man. This suggests the politeness of the boy, not letting the man hear him and not being about the hear the mans response to the boy. The mans response was very blunt and straight forward towards the boy. This also shows up a bit of their relationship and feelings towards each other, trying to detach themselves from each other.
But we see on page 52 that the boy is only still a little boy. when McCarthy writes 'The boy was crying.' he wanted to help the other man and he obviously cares a lot about helping people. But the man seems to have made his feelings not matter anymore. Like he's had to push them aside because of things that have happened (the suicide of his wife) and what might happen along the road.
Shooting the 'roadrat' (pp. 62-69)
This was a very up beat moment in the book, and there isn't many. We don't hear a lot about the man sleeping its just the boy. And the man watching and protecting the boy while he sleeping. But this time we do hear about him sleeping. Only to be woken up by the people on the road. You can sense the fear as soon as he wakes up. 'Something woke him.' this short sentence creates tension and the punctuation used makes the reader pause and build tension also. The way that McCarthy describes the people on the road makes an eerie setting, like in a horror film, especially with the people wearing the hoods over their head and the people wearing the canister masks. Both these items stops the man from seeing their faces. This also adds to the horror and the tension. They are also described carrying 'clubs' and 'lengths of pipe.' and we know instantly they are for hurting or killing the people they find.
When the man is waking up the boy to tell him they have to move, time speeds up. McCarthy uses short sharp sentences and reading it out loud, it sounds like it's jolting. It keeps pausing for the tension of whether they would be seen or heard hence why the man is whispering. When they are further into the forest McCarthy writes that the boy is 'frozen with fear' and when i was reading this episode i felt the boys fear even though it's not explained you can imagine the boys face struck with fear.
When running through the forest a dip in the land is described as a cut. This links into the whole horror film genre. And all of a sudden they have stopped running, they're hiding and they are trying to catch their breathe. The whole scene just stops for a minute. Throughout the whole running scene the man is constantly telling the boy that it's all right. He's comforting the boy which we don't see often.
Reading the first paragraph on page 64 when reading it, it almost sounds like the erratic breathing of the man and the boy. And then at the end McCarthy says ' Then it quit.' And you feel as if that the man and the boy stopped breathing because of the blunt ending. The next paragraph seemed to slow the time of the story down ridiculously. Building up the tension like a classic horror film. And if you read it out loud you start to read it in a low voice almost whispering. When the roadrat came closer to the man he held the gun to him very calmly and told him to 'keep coming'. There is a lot of dialogue on page 66-67 but McCarthy has no speech marks or sentences after saying how the other person reacted.Which in a way makes it more difficult to read but then when you read it, it flows a lot better like actual speech would.
On page 68, McCarthy refers to the 'boy' as 'child' for the first time. This is significant because it shows that man is strongly emotionally connected to the boy, and as he tries to show that he is trying to detach himself from the boy, he is finding it difficult because he is the only person he has left. The writing on the last paragraph on page 68, echo's the movement of the roadrat and his quickness to dive and grab the boy. Instead of using punctuation McCarthy uses the word 'and' to make his sentences roll and move faster. And when you read them you read them faster because you can't take a breath. This speeds up the time in the story. 'He dove and grabbed the boy and rolled and came up holding him against his chest with the knife at his throat.' McCarthy is very attentive to how the man actually shoots roadrat. 'The man had already dropped to the ground and he swung with him and leveled the pistol and fired from a two-handed position' This could suggest something about the mans background before the apocalypse happened. He could have been an ex army soldier or just been trained with guns. 'Lay with blood bubbling from the hole in his forehead.' This brings us back to the gruesome horror film genre.
Finding the cellar of naked a mutilated people (pp. 112- 121)
Throughout this whole episode the tension is building. It is also a classic tension building for a good horror film. McCarthy describes the house fully, as a sagging posh dream house. 'waterstained and sagging.' we have this picture of a bright beautiful dream house which has been burnt and broken and is now sagging in places.
At the bottom of page 113 McCarthy describes the outside world from inside the house. The only color he sees is gray. 'Gray trampled grass. Gray snow.' This adds to the dullness of the world and the lack of life it now contains. On page 116 McCarthy really starts to build up the tension. It is ridiculously slow almost hauntingly slow. He makes the reader pause a lot with short sentences 'coldness and damp. An ungodly stench. The boy clutched at his coat.' He's leaving you hanging on the edge of your seat expecting something to jump out at you at any moment... and then carries on building the tension higher. Then all of a sudden he breaks the tension. But again it is done slowly. 'Huddled against the back wall were naked people, male and female, all trying to hide' The reading speed increases with his use of commas. 'He turned and grabbed the boy. Hurry, he said. Hurry' You can hear the fear in the mans voice. And the way he repeated the word 'hurry' shows emphasis to the boy that it was urgent. And it doesn't say whether the boy had actually seen the people or not. When the people down in the cellar got used to the light, they started walking towards it, which is a classic scene from a horror film dawn of the dead. Which is where the idea came from of the people in the cellar crawling and stumbling towards the man and the boy saying ' Help us' And one bearded man saying 'Please' walking up the stairs after them. Then you think it's all over when they are out of the cellar and back into the house, but then McCarthy described the boy just standing 'pointing out the window' And the mans sudden coldness as he saw people walking towards the house, maybe they were people who lived there and ate the bodies, or maybe they were just passing like the man and the boy looking for food. And again at the end of that paragraph on page 117 he repeats the word 'run' again for emphasis and urgency.
When reading this episode in the book i got a feeling of tension when the man first saw the tracks on the melted road. I started to question who the tracks were, why they were walking at night, and where were they now? McCarthy writes this first paragraph in short sentences which also created tension. 'They just suddenly appeared.'
You get a sense of time passing when McCarthy continues onto the next paragraph 'I don't know. Who is anybody?' to 'They came upon him shuffling along the road before them.' This suggests that the man and the boy carried on walking and following the tracks in the road until they came across him. When McCarthy describes the man who was struck by lightening he describes him like their surroundings. Such as: 'He was burntlooking as the country.' The man who was struck by lightening almost seems to fit in with the land, molding into the background. McCarthy writes that the boy whispered to his dad about helping the man. This suggests the politeness of the boy, not letting the man hear him and not being about the hear the mans response to the boy. The mans response was very blunt and straight forward towards the boy. This also shows up a bit of their relationship and feelings towards each other, trying to detach themselves from each other.
But we see on page 52 that the boy is only still a little boy. when McCarthy writes 'The boy was crying.' he wanted to help the other man and he obviously cares a lot about helping people. But the man seems to have made his feelings not matter anymore. Like he's had to push them aside because of things that have happened (the suicide of his wife) and what might happen along the road.
Shooting the 'roadrat' (pp. 62-69)
This was a very up beat moment in the book, and there isn't many. We don't hear a lot about the man sleeping its just the boy. And the man watching and protecting the boy while he sleeping. But this time we do hear about him sleeping. Only to be woken up by the people on the road. You can sense the fear as soon as he wakes up. 'Something woke him.' this short sentence creates tension and the punctuation used makes the reader pause and build tension also. The way that McCarthy describes the people on the road makes an eerie setting, like in a horror film, especially with the people wearing the hoods over their head and the people wearing the canister masks. Both these items stops the man from seeing their faces. This also adds to the horror and the tension. They are also described carrying 'clubs' and 'lengths of pipe.' and we know instantly they are for hurting or killing the people they find.
When the man is waking up the boy to tell him they have to move, time speeds up. McCarthy uses short sharp sentences and reading it out loud, it sounds like it's jolting. It keeps pausing for the tension of whether they would be seen or heard hence why the man is whispering. When they are further into the forest McCarthy writes that the boy is 'frozen with fear' and when i was reading this episode i felt the boys fear even though it's not explained you can imagine the boys face struck with fear.
When running through the forest a dip in the land is described as a cut. This links into the whole horror film genre. And all of a sudden they have stopped running, they're hiding and they are trying to catch their breathe. The whole scene just stops for a minute. Throughout the whole running scene the man is constantly telling the boy that it's all right. He's comforting the boy which we don't see often.
Reading the first paragraph on page 64 when reading it, it almost sounds like the erratic breathing of the man and the boy. And then at the end McCarthy says ' Then it quit.' And you feel as if that the man and the boy stopped breathing because of the blunt ending. The next paragraph seemed to slow the time of the story down ridiculously. Building up the tension like a classic horror film. And if you read it out loud you start to read it in a low voice almost whispering. When the roadrat came closer to the man he held the gun to him very calmly and told him to 'keep coming'. There is a lot of dialogue on page 66-67 but McCarthy has no speech marks or sentences after saying how the other person reacted.Which in a way makes it more difficult to read but then when you read it, it flows a lot better like actual speech would.
On page 68, McCarthy refers to the 'boy' as 'child' for the first time. This is significant because it shows that man is strongly emotionally connected to the boy, and as he tries to show that he is trying to detach himself from the boy, he is finding it difficult because he is the only person he has left. The writing on the last paragraph on page 68, echo's the movement of the roadrat and his quickness to dive and grab the boy. Instead of using punctuation McCarthy uses the word 'and' to make his sentences roll and move faster. And when you read them you read them faster because you can't take a breath. This speeds up the time in the story. 'He dove and grabbed the boy and rolled and came up holding him against his chest with the knife at his throat.' McCarthy is very attentive to how the man actually shoots roadrat. 'The man had already dropped to the ground and he swung with him and leveled the pistol and fired from a two-handed position' This could suggest something about the mans background before the apocalypse happened. He could have been an ex army soldier or just been trained with guns. 'Lay with blood bubbling from the hole in his forehead.' This brings us back to the gruesome horror film genre.
Finding the cellar of naked a mutilated people (pp. 112- 121)
Throughout this whole episode the tension is building. It is also a classic tension building for a good horror film. McCarthy describes the house fully, as a sagging posh dream house. 'waterstained and sagging.' we have this picture of a bright beautiful dream house which has been burnt and broken and is now sagging in places.
At the bottom of page 113 McCarthy describes the outside world from inside the house. The only color he sees is gray. 'Gray trampled grass. Gray snow.' This adds to the dullness of the world and the lack of life it now contains. On page 116 McCarthy really starts to build up the tension. It is ridiculously slow almost hauntingly slow. He makes the reader pause a lot with short sentences 'coldness and damp. An ungodly stench. The boy clutched at his coat.' He's leaving you hanging on the edge of your seat expecting something to jump out at you at any moment... and then carries on building the tension higher. Then all of a sudden he breaks the tension. But again it is done slowly. 'Huddled against the back wall were naked people, male and female, all trying to hide' The reading speed increases with his use of commas. 'He turned and grabbed the boy. Hurry, he said. Hurry' You can hear the fear in the mans voice. And the way he repeated the word 'hurry' shows emphasis to the boy that it was urgent. And it doesn't say whether the boy had actually seen the people or not. When the people down in the cellar got used to the light, they started walking towards it, which is a classic scene from a horror film dawn of the dead. Which is where the idea came from of the people in the cellar crawling and stumbling towards the man and the boy saying ' Help us' And one bearded man saying 'Please' walking up the stairs after them. Then you think it's all over when they are out of the cellar and back into the house, but then McCarthy described the boy just standing 'pointing out the window' And the mans sudden coldness as he saw people walking towards the house, maybe they were people who lived there and ate the bodies, or maybe they were just passing like the man and the boy looking for food. And again at the end of that paragraph on page 117 he repeats the word 'run' again for emphasis and urgency.
Tuesday 30 October 2012
5+5=1
5+5=1
5 things I learnt in the lesson.
1. Road story - a story about a journey one person has and meets others on the way.
2. Deathscape - A world of death.
3. Post apocalyptic - After the end of the world.
4. post modern - after the future, makes it not real.
5. low cultural - unsophisticated / trashy
5 words.
1. Journey
2. Death
3. Apocalypse
4. Surreal
5. unsophisticated
1 word.
Surreal
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