Cormac envisions a post-apocalyptic world in which "murder was everywhere upon the land" and the earth would soon be "largely populated by men who would eat your children in front of your eyes" [p. 181]. How difficult or easy is it to imagine Cormac's nightmare vision actually happening? Do you think people would likely behave as they do in the novel, under the same circumstances? Does it now seem that human civilization is headed toward such an end? (200 words)
In a world where no laws exist and survival means free for all, I assume that murder is a first-hand choice and common facet among any survivors. Nothing grows in this world; most organisms besides the few humans aimlessly wandering and bacterial cultures thriving on the bodies have died off from starvation or illness after the catastrophe. Starvation itself is a practical guarantee and logically the blood cults have comprised a foul attempt to survive another day by taking another man's life. It may be a sick way to go about overcoming starvation but we can tell that these cannibals are nowhere near hungry.
ReplyDeleteThat being said, it is easy to imagine a world of murderers and thieves. We already live in our own dangerous world where psychopathic people kill for fun and consumption and steal goods for the sake of their own being. In other words, this nightmare which Cormac envisions already exists. The question we face is if anyone would care about morality in contrast to cannibalism as a last resort. Would we kill and consume our fellow man if we were dying of hunger? In a better sense I believe people like the boy would hold onto humanity as long as they could.
A wise man once said, "You either die a hero or live long enough to see yourself become the villain."
Desperation calls for desperate measures. What happens when there isn't a single scrap of food left? When all the clean water has gone dry? Would people resort to murdering their brothers at the cost of their sanity? My answer would absolutely be no.
The population that survives would reek and rot in disease and filth. In The Road, the man is dying of illness and his boy may starve sooner or later. When the man dies it will mean one less man to walk the earth and one more body lying amongst foundations. Earlier in the book the man says that sooner or later every tree will fall. It may have context to foreshadow his own death and the death of his boy when old age and illness claims him too. It may also refer to the complete annihilation of the human race, a gradual but process that will occur at some point in time.
Right now in our world many wars are happening. It is a consideration to wonder whether our world could ever end in a way envisioned in The Road. It is true now a days murder is everywhere upon the land.Movies and fiction novels are keen and often meant to sensationalize. Unfortunately, we are not that affected anymore by man-eating sharks or over sized gorillas so need much more to spark the imagination. However, even eating your colleagues after a plane crash is not enough to satisfy the human appetite! an unfortunate or maybe fitting choice of word (appetite). For me if our world end the same thing as The Road is. I assume people would actually act the same thing as the people in the novel. When this end come. There are no civilization, no government no one can control you. You have to do anything to able to survive. We see the effects of climate change and previously lush land turned into desert. We see tsunamis and earthquakes swallow people up and destroy lives. We see, despite our best efforts how children still die of starvation in this world of plenty. We see evil men and women harm children in the most unthinkable way but even Cormac McCarthy left us with hope of something beyond the scope of the world he created. By creating characters that remain "the good guys" in the face of this destruction also provides a glimmer of hope. On a small scale, man may lose his direction and even lose hope the man and boy are largely unaffected by the presence of plant life towards the end as they have lost focus and don't even know why or whether they survive to this point. But still the father has hope for his son and is determined that the "fire" does not go out, enabling the boy to find something better. The randomness of the man's appearance at the end - the possibility of a real family - and the unquestioned goodness of the family also provide for the belief that random acts of kindness will endure even in the most unimaginable hardship.
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