Title of Book: The Road Author: Cormac McCarthy # of Pages: 287 Star Rating: ☆☆☆☆☆ Why This Book has Value:

The Road is a melancholic novel about a father and his young son that take a journey across post-apocalyptic America. The land is covered with ash and the atmosphere is full of smoke. The whole world is grey and dying. The boy's mother was pregnant with him at the time of the near world ending disaster, she ended up committing suicide before the story begins. The boy and his father realize they cannot survive the winter so the man and the boy migrate by foot towards to the south in hopes to find warmth and escape the cannibalistic gangs. Food, water, clothing and resources are extremely scarce most likely because the few people left on earth already took them and most of everything is destroyed. Houses and buildings have turned into rubble, no electricity, plumbing, running water, no heat, no showers or baths. They just walk and walk and walk in the frigid cold in hopes of surviving until they can no longer go on together anymore and it's time to to accept a new life.

Themes:
One noticeable theme in The Road is the theme of death. Most living creatures and plants have not survived the disaster that destroyed civilization. For example, cows are extinct, and the boy has never seen birds or fish. As the story goes on, we become more aware that the man is dying. "In the night he woke in the cold dark coughing and he coughed till his chest was raw.... He knelt there wheezing softly, his hands on his knees. I am going to die, he said. Tell me how I am to do that" (148).

Another theme in The Road is the theme of love and taking NOTHING for granted. Today, drinking a can of Coke is no big deal and for some it's not even considered a treat it's just a regular thing. In the novel, their discovery of one coke can is a huge treat to the man and his son and they are very grateful for it. Imagine living in a world of luxury like you are right now and then losing everything, only to have the clothes on your back. A very important theme is to love strongly and appreciate everything while you have it because you could lose it at any moment.

Language and Vocabulary:
The language the author uses in The Road is immaculate to conveying the plot and to playing on readers emotions. “Once there were brook trout in the streams in the mountains. You could see them standing in the amber current where the white edges of their fins wimpled softly in the flow. They smelled of moss in your hand. Polished and muscular and torsional. On their backs were vermiculate patterns that were maps of the world in its becoming. Maps and mazes. Of a thing which could not be put back. Not be made right again. In the deep glens where they lived all things were older than man and they hummed of mystery.” This quote vividly allows the reader to picture a beautiful scenery of fish only to be never seen again because of the way he world has been destroyed. Fish are now a mystery to those living at this time. 
The language and poetic way McCarthy used his words touches you. “He walked out in the gray light and stood and he saw for a brief moment the absolute truth of the world. The cold relentless circling of the intestate earth. Darkness implacable. The blind dogs of the sun in their running. The crushing black vacuum of the universe. And somewhere two hunted animals trembling like ground-foxes in their cover. Borrowed time and borrowed world and borrowed eyes with which to sorrow it.”

Plot:
The novel is suspenseful in a way but also numb and mysterious. The man and his son experience many troubles surviving in this world and even stumble upon terrifying sights that will traumatize them for the rest of their time in the living world. At one point in the novel, the father finds a steel padlock blocking the entrance to a door. The son begs his father to leave, but he insists upon breaking open the door to see what is inside. They are so desperate for food in order to survive. Inside the room, the father finds a large group people, "naked people, male and female, all trying to hide, shielding their faces with their hands" (93). One man's legs have been amputated up to his hips, and the room reeks of death and decomposition. The naked and amputated people scream and beg the man for help to escape. The man and his son immediately panic. slam the door and begin running. Just then, across the field, the boy and his father see four men and two women approaching. They run away as quickly as possible, but the cannibals people are quite close. The father hands his son the pistol and tells him that, if necessary, he must commit suicide. "You know how to do it. You put it in your mouth and point it up. Do it quick and hard" (95).  Overall, the plot along with the intense vocabulary lead the reader to very emotional points.

Real world issues: 
The Road connects to readers by bringing awareness to the fact that something could change our world like this at any given moment. Today, we are using our resources unconsciously and we don't think twice before wasting food, water, electricity, etc. It really makes you look at things from a very different perspective knowing that the boy and his father in the novel would do anything to eat just one bag of chips again or have the luxury of drinking a can of Coke. I believe ungratefulness is an issue in this world today along with wastefulness. The novel helped connect me to these issues and look at things with a different lens and I think everyone needs to experience this realization.