Death and Survival (Reflective)

          Destruction, survival, isolation, and death are prominent themes in The Road. Most life has been wiped out by some unnamed catastrophic event. Cities are destroyed; plant life is gone; animals have disappeared. Civilization has broken down, and chaos reigns in its place. No matter where the man and the boy go, houses have no roofs and are rotting from the rain and wind. Most living creatures and plants have not survived the disaster that has destroyed civilization. For example, cows are extinct, and the boy has never before seen birds or fish. The earth is in ashes. Its thorough inclusion in the novel almost gives it the status of a character. The constant threat of death, from starvation, exposure, illness, or murderm, also makes the everyday things in the novel much richer than it otherwise would be. Simple actions like eating, finding clean water, or exchanging a few kind words with another human have much more value then we consider them to have today. Throughout the book you also become more increasinlgy aware that the father is dying. 
          When the he dreams of his wife, who also experienced death, he considers those dreams to be the call of death beckoning him from the bleak reality of his present life. Yet even though his wife chose to take her own life due to her own selfishness, death is actually what pushed the father and boy onward. The father pressed on so that he, and especially his son, may achieve survival and escape from all of the things threatening their lives. He also does this without maliciously harming anyone like we see many other people have done at this time. The only situation that the father is willing to kill someone is if they are threatening the life of his son. Although the father does die in the end, there still may be a glimmer of hope. The deforestation and ash described in The Road would release nutrients from the land into rivers, lakes and the ocean, encouraging further growth. Eventually, slower-growing species would begin to reemerge, we just don't get to see that far in the future when reading this novel. So maybe the son did successfully escape the death that lurked behind he and his father on thier journey, and maybe he did end up having somewhat of a happy ending. I suppose that's something we will never truly know.

My Father's World (Creative) - Inspired by The Road

There is a mistrust spread across this world. It clenches and wraps itself around the earth, choking it as it gasps for breath. This home of mine screams out for relief as it goes in and out of consciousness. How much time is there left to live? From what cocoon does this darkness unfurl? My father does not speak of this. I was born into this place of love of self and self alone which brings to us this bone of mistrust that pollinates and gives birth. Anger was spread across the lands and wrath began to fall. But anger is not within me, and I am told that I am good. My father tells me this. But who declares what is good? And who judges those who destroy? My father is a tower of strength willing to reach down and take my hand. He stands above me from the greater heights pulling me up, and ready to catch me when I fall. He is my strength, my shield, protecting me from evil. A chain of amity and love wraps itself around us, binding us together and holding us secure. Even in times of disagreement it holds us together. My father is my guide; my companion; the foundation of a home I was never granted. And this fire inside of me is building internally within the walls of my heart. It pushes me forward, but I cannot help but wonder do not all flames die out? Can a flame endure the power of a storm and the rain that comes along with it? I trust my father. Never would he leave me nor forsake me. He is appointed by the one I have never known. But there is a fear crawling up the back of mind, weaving a web of uncertainty and apprehension. I fear a deep sleep is near for the one that I origin. A sleep from which you never awake. 

Hebrews 13:5
Revelation 11:18

Psalm 28:7

Psalm 61:3

Can you find them?

The Road (Reflective)

            In The Road, the man's recurring memories and dreams painfully emphasize, the hopeless destruction and violence that characterizes his situation in present reality. These small flashes of memory from the father help to form a vague picture of what was before and what the circumstances were. He wants to remember the past, but when he does, he has trouble focusing on survival. The man dreams of the past, and when he wakes to look around him, the contrast is sometimes unbearable.The lucid pieces of his past life remind him that such a life did once exist, regardless of his present circumstances. 
            Nevertheless, by remembering the past, the man feels he's changing his memories of it, so he tries not to remember too much so that he may maintain them. However, there is a point in the novel where the man actually welcomes his past memories. On page 48 there is a quote that states, "He woke toward the morning with the fire down to coals and walked out to the road. Everything was alight. As if the lost sun were returning at last. The snow orange and quivering. A forest fire was making its way along the tinderbox ridges above them, flaring and shimmering against the overcast like the northern lights. Cold as it was he stood there a long time. The color of it moved something in him long forgotten. Make a list. Recite a litany. Remember." Typically of what the man sees as grey and black is now moved by the sudden awakening of colors. Instead of suppressing memory in this case, he states his desire to make a list of what has been lost. This is quite different from the man's typical avoidance of good memories elsewhere in The Road. An example of the man avoiding his past that I find most memorable is on page 85; this is where the man spreads the contents of his wallet neatly on the road. He puts down his money, his driver's license, credit cards, and a picture of his wife. It seems in this instance that this is a way for the man to try and disengage himself from the past by disposing of what he had left of his past identity. It's a sad moment, but necessary if the man is going to continue on with his son without being weighed down by the past.
            Although the man's dreams of the past in some way confirm the existence of his previous life, the existences of "things no longer known in the world". (111) He still believes that each memory recalled must do some violence to its origins. "What you alter in the remembering has yet a reality, known or not" (111). This passage reveals  the importance of memory for a person.  The human mind remembers, meaning it will attempt to validate circumstances that may no longer be in existence. Failing to remember these circumstances will attribute them to being forever lost. Lastly, the setting of the The Road is so horrific that the man finds himself needing his memories in order to survive. The book presents the past as an unavoidable puzzle. Even though memory connects the man to his past of beauty and goodness, it only reminds him that those things no longer exist.