The+Road

= The Road by Cormac McCarthy = Click on the pictures to link to the Prezis we have done in class.

=Instructions= I have divided the novel into quarters. Each week I expect you to read at least 75 pages. There is no one in this class who cannot read a novel in a month. There are no chapters and it is a surprisingly quick read. The language in it is sparse and at times economical which reflects the bleak, gray tone of the novel.

Each week there will be questions and/or tasks for you to complete. You will have a choice to how you want to present your answers to me. I will also provide my **summary of each section of the novel **which you can print off for study notes for the exam.

Here are some suggestions: Really, the possibilities are limited to your imagination. What I want to see is that you are understanding the novel.
 * Create a PREZI that shows how you have brainstormed your thoughts about the themes/characters/setting etc
 * Create a GROUP PREZI where each member looks at a different part
 * Individual one-on-one discussion with me
 * Small group discussion with me
 * Static images
 * Traditional written answers
 * Role plays
 * Avant guard musical theatre
 * Interpretive dance
 * Q&A session with me or vice versa
 * Communicades with the author through his blog/website

At the end of the novel study we will have a 1 hour practice exam where you will write a 300-400 word essay in exam conditions. =** Pages 1-75 **=

**Vocabulary. Find the meaning of these words:**
//Litany, marauders, langour, sconces, macadam, serpantine, flue, translucent, skeins, coax, alabaster.//

Easy Questions (Write full sentence answers) 1) From the first 3 pages, list three language features. For each, what is the effect? (think-what is the tone of the novel?) 2) What do they carry with them? 3) How many bullets do they have on them? Is this number significant? 4) On what page do they see their first corpse? 5) What advice does the man give his son when they see the corpse? 6) What treat does the man find for the boy? 7) What place do they visit that is significant to the man? 8) What does the man do to the man who touches his son? 9) What happens to their cart?

Medium Questions (Write paragraph answers)
11) Explain the boy's reaction when they come across corpses. 12) Why did they not stop for the man (p51)? Give evidence from the text that shows the differences between the man and the boy and their attitude to survival. 13) From what you have read and my introduction Prezi, choose your top 3 themes. Give one quote from the text that illustrates this theme.

Hard Questions (Write paragraph answers)
14) The clues to what happened to the earth are are in the backstory. They are presented in flashbacks. Give your explanation of either- what happened to the mother OR what happened to the earth. You will find clues on pages 27-8, 32-3, 49-50, 54, 57. 15) What is the effect of the dreams? Why has McCarthy put so many in?



Pages 76-150

Vocabulary: Here are some words you may find hard. Look up the ones you do not know. //Chalice, Quoits, viscera, gait, palimpsest, sapper, parsible, phalanx, bedlam, kerf, idiom, referants, supplimantary, consort, catamites, accrue, illucid, chary//

**Easy Questions** (Write full sentence answers) 1) What do they have left? (p76) 2) What is it they decide to do when they see smoke? (p82) 3) What do tehy take from the corpse? 4) What happens in the forest? (101) 5) How many men walk past? (110) 6) What do they use to open the basement? 7) What treats do they eat and drink? (131) 8) What do they find on page 146?

Medium Questions (Write paragraph answers) 9) What does he mean the boy is a "golden chalice"? What is he saying about the boy and their need for survival? 10) How does he feel about the first human contact they had had in a year? (p79) 11) What is the structural anomoly in the way the story is told (p91). Why does McCarthy do this? (I have no answer.) 12) Is the father lying on pages 106-7? Why do you think this? 13) What happened to the man's legs (p116)

Hard Questions (Write paragraph answers) 14) Count the references to God in these pages. At this stage, what are the man's beliefs? 15) Read the paragraph over pages 92 and 93. Explain the man's thoughts about the existance of life on Earth as it used to be. 16) How does the "ragged hoarde" represent the worst of the human condition? Compare them to the people on pages 116-7.

THEMES:
 * Here are some questions on themes for this section. Answer 1 of these now. Read over the rest when you are studying for the exam.**


 * GOD:** See question 14. Expand on your answer.


 * DEATH:** Pages 106-7 they have a conversation about death. How does the father keep his son's hopes up during this arduous and trecherous journey. Remember, they are surrounded by death daily and they are threatened with death almost constantly.

On page 118 he is almost certain that they will die. Find a quote that backs this statement up. What are his fears about dying this way? What do you think about the alternative he has given his son (p119)? Or the alternative he has given himself (120)?

What sparks his thoughts about cows (p127)? What do cows symbolise for the man?


 * GOOD vs BAD:** A stand out theme in this book is the clear distinction of good vs bad. When nothing is left in the world, when all the structures and laws that govern us are gone, McCarthy is saying all that will be left of human nature will either be good or bad. It is that simple. It is very black and white. Good or bad. What would be your choice? What would you have done in the situations the man and the boy are faced with. Write a mini essay about this theme using the 3 example from this section of the book; The ragged hoarde (p96), the people who capture people, keep them in the basement and eat them (p116-118) and the man and the boy. Look at page 145 and see what they man says about the good guys. What other ways does he describe the difference to the boy?


 * FATHER AND SON:** Another theme is the father and son relationship. How is their relationship? What is the father's job (p77,80)? How do they differ and what examples are there that show how they are different, especially in the area of //compassion and survival.// (There are human examples as well as the dog example on page 86, and the incident with the other boy (p88).


 * LONELINESS:** Just imagine the lonliness and despair of this world. What is the symbolism of the flute in regards to this theme? (p81). The incident with the boy gives us an indication of the world the boy has grown up in. What then, is the symbolism of this moment?


 * NORMALCY:** What is the symbolism of the items on page 140?



Pages 151-225

Vocabulary: Here are some words you may find hard. Look up the ones you do not know. //Balustrade, cairns, enkindle, scrim, piedmont, tentatively, myriad, secular, middens, fey// **//Easy Questions//** (Write full sentence answers) 1) What are some of the things he finds in the bomb shelter? 2) What do they find at the market that they find useful? 3) How far from the coast are they? (166) 4) What do they give the old man? (p184) 5) How do they get past the three men? (198) 6) What do they eat at the house? (221)

Medium Questions (Write paragraph answers) 7) Reread pages 153-165. Make a list of words with positive connotations. What is the effect of using these words in this scene in the book? 8) What is the meaning behind the boy's reaction to the bodies on the road on page 203? Why does the father say he is "So strangely untroubled"? Compare this to the body they see on page 212. 9) Why do you think the boy is cared of going in the house? (218)

Hard Questions (Write paragraph answers) 10) Why do you think they stop for this old man (p173)? Why is it different to the other man at the start of the novel (p51)? 11) What is the purpose of the conversation with the old man (p179-185)? ( My theory is that the old man is plot device, a voice put there to voice things about the state of the world that the boy and the man could not say. Perhaps he is another perspective on the end of the world?) He says, "I knew this was coming". What does he mean by this?

THEMES:
 * Here are some questions on themes for this section. Answer 1 of these now. Read over the rest when you are studying for the exam.**


 * GOD:** What is the effect of comparing the boy to an angel? The man and the blind man talk of God. Which one believes in God?

Write a short essay about the baby on the spit. What is the purpose of having this in the book? How effective is it in meeting this purpose? (Incidently, this scene was cut from the movie.)
 * DEATH:** Another animal that they talk about being extinct is crows. How do thoughts like this add to the atmoshere of the novel?


 * SURVIVAL:** When they meet the old man he tells them they can look in his bag as he has nothing. The father says, "I know I can look." What is the significance of this statement in regards to this theme? Also, how do you think this man has survived so long on the road?


 * IDENTITY:** Who is the only character in this book who is given a name? Is it even his name?

On page 172 the old man asks "What are you?" Why is "Who are you" an unimportant question in this novel?

What do they find on page 193 and what is the symbolic meaning of this find?


 * EXISTENCE:** The train scene (p192) is a harrowing and terrifying example of how alone they are in the world. It is another example (like the man's thoughts of cows and crows) of how much has been lost, how many people have died recently, and how life on Earth will never be the same again. Sit on a hill on a clear night and contemplate your place in the vast and infinite universe. When you have discovered the meaning of life, write a short essay about it and then eat it.



Pages 226-307

Vocabulary: Here are some words you may find hard. Look up the ones you do not know. //Vigilant, sepultre, pampooties, cognate, transom, ominous, imponderable, suture, crozzled, stippled, hydroptic, hove.//

**Easy Questions** (Write full sentence answers) 1) What do they take from the house? (227) 2) What do they find on page 230? 3) What do they find on page 236? 4) What are some of the things on the boat? 5) What do they lose on page 248? 6) How do they find their stuff on the beach? 7) What happens to the boy on page 264? 8) How do they track the man who stole their belongings?

Medium Questions (Write paragraph answers) 9) On page 228, what hope does the man have of making the coast? Did you think they were going to make it? 10) What words describe the sea when they get there? What is the effect of using these words? 11) Why do you think the boy cries after swimming in the sea? (233) 12) On page 265, what promise is the man refering to?

Hard Questions (Write paragraph answers) 13) What did the man (or, what did you) expect when they made it to the coast? How is it any different to being on the road? 14) Analyse how the man treated the theif and his subsequent change of heart. Use some of the following words in your answer: //compassion, fairness, hatred, regret, fear, lawlessness.//

THEMES:


 * Here are some questions on themes for this section. Answer 1 of these now. Read over the rest when you are studying for the exam.**


 * GOD:** Many people read the ending as having a religious symbolism, especially with what the woman says on page 306. Compare how she describes him and how the father has described him in relation to God and the hope for humanity after the novel has finished. (pages 3, 78, 80, 87 ("because we're carrying the fire"), p234. Is this novel about the presence of God or the absence of God?
 * DEATH:** There is a story within the story, a flashback to the man's past. How is this memory symbolic of the man's headspace at this time?

On page 278, did the man kill the theif? With the absence of law, was it fair what he did?

The encounter on page 282 is an example of how every encounter on the road is usually a life or death situation. Write a short essay discussing the morality of how it was okay (or not) to kill the man in order to survive.

What is the quote on page 296 that signals the end of the journey for the man.


 * DREAMS:** What is the significance of the man's dream on page 292?


 * IDENTITY:** Discuss in a paragraph the significance of what the boy does at the end of his father's life in terms of this theme.
 * OKAY:** Why does Mr Williamson consider "okay" to be the most powerful word in the novel?

Thanks to Nich Campbell from Nelson Boys College for the inspiration for the Prezi Images from: [] [] [] [] []