Category: The Road

Introduction

Although nowadays, in the 21st century, the threat of global war is insignificant, many other dangers have appeared that humanity did not worry about before, including human-made, information, and ecological catastrophes. The theme of the apocalypse, in this context, is of mounting concern to society, reflected in the development of the science fiction genre, especially in the direction of post-apocalypticism. A prominent representative of this genre is the novel The Road by American writer Cormac McCarthy, which concerns meaningful and everlasting topics, such as good versus evil, love, death, and survival. This paper aims at discussing the importance of faith, trust, and hope in the context of continuously life-threatening circumstances, isolation, and calamity.

Plot Summary

The novel takes place several years after some unknown global catastrophe that destroyed the usual civilization order and resulted in the extinction of a significant number of people, animals, and plants. The main characters, a father and a little son born after the disaster, are trying to cross the former USAs territory on foot and reach the long-awaited sea. They suffer from hunger and fear of other people, especially bandits and cannibals. The father is sick, coughing up blood, and fully realizes his end. He connects the last hopes for the sons future with a journey to the sea and repeats to his son, were the good guys and were carrying the fire as opposed to the bandits (McCarthy 40).

Experiencing different hardships and terrible sights, father and son eventually reach the sea, cold and gloomy, and do not know what to do next. In the end, the father suffering from the inflamed leg wound inflicted by an arrow asks his son to leave him and move on alone. The son leaves but then returns and remains in the camp until the father dies in his sleep. Later, the son meets a benevolent family, a man, a woman, and two children, who take him with them. The son continues to talk to the deceased father as if he was nearby.

Faith, Doubt, Trust, and Hope

Religious notions such as faith and doubt play a critical role in this novel as, in terrible and challenging times, people frequently need a God to believe in or, leastwise, blame. In The Road, the man feels forsaken, but he still seeks God and attempts to talk to Him like He exists. When a father travels south to ensure his sons survival, he pursues his goal with religious fervor, holding to the belief that if his son is not the word of God, God never spoke (McCarthy 1). Besides, when Eli is surprised about the meeting with the child, the father retorts, What if I said that he is a god? (McCarthy 55). Indeed, the man esteems his son above all others and even himself, with a deep devotion that presumably exceeds the usual feelings of paternal affection and protection.

On the other hand, the man manifests considerable doubts or at least challenges the existence of supernatural power when he kneels and asks, Are you there? Will I see you at the last? (McCarthy 3). According to Wielenberg (2), this scene alludes to the occasion when Job kneels in ashes, exhibiting that it is inherent in a persons faith to hesitate under adverse circumstances occasionally. Moreover, Wielenberg notes that this specific presence of religious faith in God indicates that in challenging conditions, people are inclined to believe much stronger; this idea can also refer to societies altogether. Regarding Ely, he categorically rejects the likelihood of Gods existence in such a horrible place as the earth by saying, Where men cant live gods fare no better. Youll see (McCarthy 55).

The boys faith is complicated and remains ambiguous in the end. When Ely asks the father if his son believes in God, the latter responds, I dont know what he (the boy) believes in (McCarthy 56). Moreover, the boys faith in God does not carry any significant and practical meaning for him compared to his faith in people. This can be witnessed when although the woman whose family saves the boy at the novels end teaches him about religion, the boy prefers to talk to his father rather than God.

In addition to spiritual belief in God, the problem of trust between people acquires special significance in the cruel and severe world of The Road. The two main characters constantly face the dilemma of trusting anybody they may encounter because the permanent danger of being robbed, raped, and even murdered overhang them all their way. The boy is more inclined to trust than his father since he often seeks to help others and distribute necessary food even despite dangerous circumstances (Badi 2). This credulity, which is the feature of the boys purity, is the central belief in humanity, which surpasses outside cruelty. Overall, the bodys capability to believe in the dignity and goodness of others is impressive.

However, the mans attitude toward thrust for others proximately contradicts to sons sentiments. Even dying, the father teaches his son about compassion against a brutal world where, herewith, most humans should not be trusted (Andrade 6). It is also worth mentioning the relationships between the father and the son, which sometimes gain a note of mistrust, especially from the former towards the latter. In one episode, the father directly speaks to the son, You dont believe me (McCarthy 60). Nevertheless, the son manages to ensure his entire trust for the father, saying, Yes, I do. I have to (McCarthy 60).

Despite the presence of the dull, bleak, and pressing atmosphere, the idea of hope also looms in the novel clearly and even serves as the engine inciting the two heroes to move and seek further. In particular, a symbol of the virtue in human hope and perseverance is the fire, the place of which can be tracked perhaps throughout the plot, and that helps the father and son to survive. Furthermore, the father assures his son that they are carrying the fire, which implies humanity, a sense of compassion, and the strength to refrain from murder and cannibalism irrespective of conditions (Strand 4). According to the father, the good guys are only those who keep trying. They dont give up. (McCarthy 43)

Conclusion

The paper has discussed the importance of faith, trust, and hope in the context of continuously life-threatening circumstances, isolation, and calamity. As the novel demonstrates, these integral human sentiments, even weakly, can persist regardless of the situations and events. For instance, although man feels forsaken by God, he still attempts to talk to Him like He exists. Moreover, the trust between the father and the son strengthens during their journey and while experiencing various difficulties. These two characters are excellent examples that even if individuals cannot temporarily find their destinations, they should hope and continue their way.

Work Cited

Andrade, Glenna M. The Road to Post Apocalyptic Fiction: McCarthys Challenges to Post-Apocalyptic Genre. Feinstein College of Arts & Sciences Faculty Papers, 2009, p. 20.

Badi, Sattar A. Apocalypse Fantasy and Myth in the Road Novel. International Journal of English Language and Linguistics Research, vol. 6, no. 3, 2009, pp. 1-6.

McCarthy Cormac. The Road. Web.

Strand, Linus. The Road at the End of the World-Sentimentality and Nihilism in the Journey through the Post-Apocalyptic World of Cormac McCarthys Novel The Road. Göteborg Universitet, 2013.

Wielenberg, Erik J. God, Morality, and Meaning in Cormac McCarthys The Road. The Cormac McCarthy Journal, vol. 8, no.1, 2010, pp. 1-19.

The Road Essay Introduction

The Road is a chef-doeuvre novel by Cormac McCarthy talking about the dangers of human activities to the environment. The main characters are an unnamed boy and his father as they walk on a long road looking for food and shelter after an apocalyptic event has struck. Throughout the novel, the protagonists face episodes of good and bad luck in their quest to survive the chilling weather and the possibility of starvation.

McCarthy uses this novel to explore different themes such as mortality and violence, familial love, compassion, forgiveness, and faith in the face of adversity. The author also uses different literary devices, such as symbols, imagery, allegory, setting, tone, and style to convey the different themes of the novel. This paper is an analysis of the book, The Road, by Cormac McCarthy to understand its themes and the stylistic devices used.

Summary of the Novel

The opening scene of the novel occurs after an unidentified apocalyptic disaster has hit the earth killing the majority of its inhabitants. In the first few pages, the author takes the reader through an isolated landscape full of ash. Along the journey, the protagonists have their first dangerous encounter after meeting the bad guys who rape, plunder, and eat fellow human beings (McCarthy 56). The father shoots and kills one of the bad guys as he tries to take the boy. After this escape, the protagonists run out of food and water, and in the process of replenishing their supplies, they discover human beings held in a basement store probably as food for the bad guys.

The boy and his father flee, and they are lucky to find food and water. They travel south and east to reach the coastline, but upon arrival, they are disappointed to find a gray and lifeless sea. As they head south through a coastal town, the man is hit with an arrow, and he ultimately dies from the resulting wound. Luckily, the boy finds another family and the book ends with the hope that perhaps the few good people will survive and rebuild humanity.

Summary of Book Reviews

Review in The New York Times

Janet Maslin wrote the books review in The New York Times on September 25, 2006. The writer focuses on the poetic nature of the book and McCarthys mastery of literary expressions as he conjures brutal images of a quickly fading humanity. Maslin says, This is an exquisitely bleak incantation  pure poetic brimstone. Mr. McCarthy has summoned his fiercest visions to invoke the devastation (par. 2).

The writer continues to explore McCarthys outstanding abilities to describe how the book is a road through hell, paved with desperation. Maslin also explores the different artifacts that the author uses throughout the book. In conclusion, Maslin insists on the books outstanding literary mastery by saying, The Road offers nothing in the way of escape or comfort. But its fearless wisdom is more indelible than reassurance could ever be (par. 15). The article is well written to highlight how McCarthy uses his literary skills to warn humanity about the consequences of its actions.

Review in The Guardian

The books review in The Guardian was written on November 4, 2006, by Alan Warner. The writer starts by contextualizing the books occurrences by saying, This is a very great novel, but one that needs a context in both the past and in so-called post-9/11 America (Warner par. 1). Therefore, throughout the review, the author interprets the books occurrences within the American context. He says, The other uncomfortable, tellingly national moment comes when the father salvages perhaps the last can of Coke in the world. This is truly an American apocalypse (Warner par. 9). The writer argues that the book highlights the real apocalypse that the US has caused in Iraq and other places.

Student Analysis of Novel

Themes

The most outstanding theme in this novel is violence, death, destruction. An apocalyptic event has struck the earth causing unparalleled destruction of almost all living things. The scarcity of resources has turned human beings into cannibals, thieves, and murders in a bid to survive the vagaries of the extreme conditions in the post-apocalyptic world. Land and sea lack the vibrancy of life with only ash and darkness covering the place. Death is a constant factor that the characters have to live with. At one point, the boys mother decides to commit suicide, but before she dies, she says, Ive taken a new lover. He can give me what you cannot (McCarthy 57).

This personification of death underscores the hopelessness of the survivors of this brutal world. The novel ends on a sad note after the man is fatally wounded by an arrow. He dies painfully, and the misery is compounded by the fact that the son has to watch as his father takes the last breath. Violence is also another constant feature throughout the novel. The survivors of the apocalyptic disaster have become inhuman. The bad guys rape, plunder, and kill anyone who stands in the way. Therefore, the only way to live in this unforgiving world is to fight the bad guys or flee.

Another notable theme is the power of love even in the midst of chaos, fear, and desperation. Despite the hopelessness that surrounds the protagonists, the father does all he can to protect his son. He assures his son, My job is to take care of you. I was appointed by God to do that (McCarthy 77). Early in the book in the opening scenes, the son asks, What would you do if I died (McCarthy 11), and the father responds, If you died I would want to die too& So I can be with you (McCarthy 11).

The fathers love for the son is evident throughout the events. He even kills one of the bad guys who try to snatch the boy from him. The boys mother also offers another form of familial love. She chooses to commit suicide instead of staying alive to be eaten and raped like other people. She also urges the father to kill the boy and save him from the suffering and torture that have visited the world. Additionally, at the end of the novel, the orphaned boy finds another family where he is accepted as one of their own. The boy is strange to the family, but he is accepted, which is an act of selfless love.

Faith and perseverance are also other themes highlighted in this story. Throughout their journey, the protagonists have to persevere through harsh weather and the possibility of starvation by keeping the faith that they would soon find good guys and habitable lands. The boy has faith in his father and trusts that they would soon overcome their struggles and defeat the constant evil that has been following them. The man keeps on questioning the existence of God. However, despite his doubts and questions, he has the hope of a better tomorrow. This explains why he endeavors to reach the coastal town and probably escape the harsh weather and violence of the bad guys.

Stylistic Devices

Symbolism

The road is the most outstanding symbol in this novel. Most of the occurrences in the novel happen on the road as the protagonists travel towards the coast to find habitable places and escape the cannibalism of the survivors. The road symbolizes the human drive to continue living and searching for purpose despite the many challenges along the way. Similar to the man, people have to keep on persevering and continue living and hope for a better future.

The coke can is another symbol to underscore the effects of the capitalistic consumerism that defines most societies around the world. McCarthy says, &He withdrew it slowly and sat looking at a Coca-Cola (23). The father stares at the Coca-Cola can as if he is questioning the role that consumerism has played in contributing to the apocalypse.

The flare-pistol also symbolizes the protagonists lost hope and questioning of the existence of God. The man shoots the flare-pistol into the ocean, but he does not have any hope that someone would see it. This act symbolizes the total abandonment that the man and the boy are experiencing.

The Road Essay Conclusion

In the novel, The Road, the author, Cormac McCarthy, paints a picture of desolate earth with nothing but horror, chaos, and lifelessness. Death is a constant factor throughout the novel, and it ultimately consumes one of the protagonists when the father dies from the arrow wound. The Road is a riveting and horrifying account of the destruction that human beings can bring upon themselves through the wanton destruction of the earth and its resources. Coca-Cola can symbolize human beings unquenched consumerism and its devastating effects. The significance of this book is to highlight the self-destructive nature of human behavior. The novel is significant in contemporary literature as it contributes to the debate on global warming, pollution, and the exploitation of the earths natural resources.

Works Cited

Maslin, Janet. The Road Through Hell, Paved With Desperation. The New York Times. 2006. Web.

McCarthy, Cormac. The Road. Vintage Books, 2006.

Warner, Alan. The Road to Hell. The Guardian. 2006. Web.

“Perhaps the greatest utopia would be if we could all realize that no utopia is possible; no place to run, no place to hide, just take care of business here and now.”

A utopia is not a state but rather a state of mind. Composers of utopian and dystopian literature offer an inherent political and social critique of their contexts which allow for an expression of the possibility of either hope or fear. These are two opposing conditions of thought, they are not physical entities in this or another world. The kinetic drive to improve is what will ultimately motivate society away from the predicted disastrous future towards sustainable living. We should fear a dystopian environment like Cormac McMarty’s post-apocalyptic novel The Road presents to us or we should engage in hope through the ideas of Ernest Callenbach’s Ecotopia for the utopia even if it may never exist.

Currently, the scientific evidence has not been enough to shift our beliefs and behaviours on a scale great enough to steer away from an environmental dystopian disaster. We humans have evolved to hyperbolic discount. INSERT DEFINITION/EXAMPLE. (back burner) Our cognitive biases are limiting our ability to respond to what could be the largest crisis humanity has ever created or had to face.

In the last century, storytellers who created fictional environmental dystopias, emphasise the impact of climate change, shaping the future attitudes of humans in ways scientists may not achieve as successfully. It has been proven that when facts are woven into stories they are more successful in evoking change. Ultimately, narratives affect viewers and this is why they play an important role in spurring climate change action. Greta Thunberg, a German youth environmental activist wants us to “panic, to feel fear everyday. And then act, act as if your house was on fire because it is.” Kinetic action and drive is what she’s after too.

Ecotopia, one novel I will explore, is a visionary piece of literature forming a blueprint of how a utopian state could exist. It generates a state of mind directed towards hope and to move further from a dystopian environment. Another text I will reference, is the post-apocalyptic novel, The Road By Cormac McCarthy who consistently displays what humankind is capable of destroying, in particular nature, in order to satisfy their desires. In recklessly pursuing this path, he highlights the high likelihood of total environmental degradation.

In McCarthy’s The Road, climate change is a backdrop to the narrative’s setting. Critical concerns about climate change being disregarded as high up as the American President, George Bush in 2001, prompted writers such as McCarthy to respond using scientific evidence framed in a fictional world. The Road depicts a realistic wasteland and imagines the reality of life when humanity is deprived of its social, ethical, and material support. The setting depicts a degradation of human morality under the conditions of survival. It lacks state order but envelopes the reader in a mood that dominates feeling anything but satisfaction. These ethical truths manifest in the novel – critiquing the way in which we value our current environment. As the Sydney Morning Herald’s David Astle rightly says “The dark glossary, a dialect forged to articulate our changing planet” is evident in the opening where it captures the dark setting through the hyperbolic simile “nights dark beyond darkness… like the onset of some cold glaucoma.” This mood of death and desolation establishes the characters’ initial struggle to be able to survive in an environmental dystopia. This evokes fear in the reader and hopefully motivates us to recalibrate our worldview. Further we notice McCarthy’s efforts to evoke change as the “gunmetal light” connotes the dull setting. The repetition of the color grey symbolises the bareness of the landscape. Moreover, we are presented with a critique of our current attitudes towards our environment as the punctuation is sparse. This is a metaphor for the sparseness of resources and therefore the ability to sustain life. The structure of diary entries, linear, with flashbacks is effective by further emphasising the limited days they survive. Ultimately, The Road successfully ensures we won’t become desensitised to our capabilities of destruction and hopefully evokes action such as those endorsed by Greta Thunberg.

Ernest Callenbach’s Ecotopia, both timely and prophetic, is a hopeful antidote to the environmental concerns of the 1970’s, set in an ecologically sound future society. Callenbach offers a visionary blueprint for the survival of our planet and our future. Unlike Hollywood, which has a knack for showing utopian worlds full of robots he challenges this view in the hope that this negative approach could be suppressed. Ecotopia challenges the popular ecological press which made numerous suggestions that weather changes were indicative of potential global cooling and perhaps even another ice age. Although it wasn’t backed up by scientific evidence popular opinion raised levels of concern. Ecotopia is a portrait of what a sustainable world might look like. It attempts to rethink standard processes: this could be household or industrial. It encourages its readers to invent something ‘better’, save money/ energy/ less space/ efficient. It also urges our world rethink this entire panoply of industrial operations that we have. It offers new narratives around the environment in order to focus on what is at stake and to decipher how humans and nature impact on each other. It considers the effect of human development and intervention on accelerating climate change. It considers the climate not just as an environmental issue but also a social, political and economic condition also. It provokes consideration of contemporary relations to the world, including how we might take care of the places we inhabit today. It investigate concrete solutions to environmental and social challenges. It bears witness to the changing character of a landscape under pressure from climate change and development. Thus, it recognise human behaviour is significantly and permanently affecting our planet. Ultimately, with its strength, optimism and urgency, woven through the novel it pushes the conceptual possibilities and accelerates a response to climate change.

‘Symbolism is no mere idle fancy or corrupt degeneration; it is inherent in the very texture of human life” (Nair 1). Symbolism has become an essential component of most literary works and in The Road, McCarthy uses symbols very frequently and subtly. The novel The Road was written by Cormac McCarthy. The main characters in this novel are the man, the boy, and the cannibals. The novel takes place after the apocalypse and surrounds the survival of a man and a boy who remain nameless throughout the novel. The man and boy are struggling to survive while taking a journey to the coast in search of a good group of people. Both the man and the boy encounter many dangers including cannibalism, death, and violence. The man dies and the boy moves on with another family but continues to “carry the light.” Cormac McCarthy’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel incorporates many symbols which include the flare pistol, the fire, and the road to enliven and deepen his story.

The first symbol McCarthy uses in the novel is the flare pistol. The flare pistol symbolizes the man and boy’s abandonment by both other people and, at times, he and the boy feel that even God deserts them. It is also interesting to note that later on, the man uses the flare gun as a weapon, which transforms it into a symbol for the atrocious changes that they have had to endure. After they finally make it to the coast, the man finds the flare pistol in a boat and joins the boy in firing it as a “celebration.” However, the boy later realizes that there is nobody left to see the flare, not even God. There is no hope that anyone will see the signal. Later, when the flare is used as a vicious weapon, the reader realizes that the symbolic meaning has clearly changed. While traveling along the coast, they pass through an abandoned town. The man hears a whistle. After seeing a stranger in a window drawing a bow at them, he grabs and covers the boy in an effort to protect him. However, the man is shot in the leg which results in him firing the flare pistol at the stranger. This affirms that the flare pistol, which was once a tool of communication, is now a sick weapon. Ultimately, the flare pistol serves as a reminder that the man and boy only have each other to count on.

Another symbol McCarthy uses constantly in The Road is the fire. In the expression “carrying the fire,” the fire symbolizes the normal human desire to go on and seek something better. It also symbolizes the corruption of basic morals in The Road. Before he dies, the man advises the boy to keep carrying the fire and keep hope alive in a despairing world. “I want to be with you.” “You cant.” “Please.” “You cant. You have to carry the fire.” I dont know what to do.” “Yes you do.” “Is it real? The fire?” “Yes it is.” “Where is it? I dont know where it is.” “Yes you do. It’s inside you. It was always there. I can see it.” Further down the road, while searching for supplies, the man and the boy stumble upon a house. There they find a cellar full of naked people, some with missing body parts. The cannibals, known as the “bad guys,” are holding people captive and eating them, which reveals that some people will do anything to survive even if it means devouring each other. As a result, they come to the realization that morals do not exist anymore and that they have to continue to be the “good guys” in a dystopian world.

Finally, the most significant symbol McCarthy uses is the road, which also serves as the title and setting. The road symbolizes danger and hope. While on the road, the man and the boy come across a group of armed people in a truck. One of the strangers finds them hiding, which causes the man to draw the pistol. The man gets aggressive and threatens to kill the stranger for staring at the boy. The stranger pulls out a knife and runs towards the boy holding it against the boy’s throat. The man quickly shoots the stranger, and they escape conveying that danger is present throughout the novel in many ways. It also shows to what extent some humans will go in order to survive, even if it means turning on one another. While facing danger, one must also have hope. When the man sadly dies, the boy stays with his dead body for three days and then starts a journey down the road. On the road, someone is following the boy, and he is quick to draw the pistol. He asks if the stranger is one of the “good guys.” The stranger replies by saying yes and asks him if he wants to stay with the dead father or come with his group. The boy agrees to go with the stranger and meets new people from his group. The road shows that hope is the only thing that can help people going through hard times. In the end, the road gives both the man and boy a reason to continue in search of something better.

In order to unravel and deepen The Road, McCarthy uses numerous symbols which include the flare pistol, the fire, and the road. The flare pistol serves as a symbol. It symbolizes abandonment and appalling changes they have to make during the apocalypse. The fire is a reoccurring symbol in the novel. It symbolizes the man and boy’s determination to keep going as well as the demoralization of society. However, the road is the most predominant symbol. It symbolizes the danger and hope throughout the journey. McCarthy utilizes plenty of symbols in order to make a connection with his audience so that they could relate with the characters throughout the novel, which evokes thoughts and feelings.

Introduction

The transport sector is among the most important factors promoting economic growth. The sector is responsible for documenting how roads are used and keeping an account of road accidents. Over the last few years, the Australian government has had difficulty trying to identify why the rates increased despite implementing road safety mechanisms. The current project seeks to establish a reasonable cause and help reduce the cost and damages brought by road accidents. The main objective of this investigation is to determine the cause of crashes to help authorities in the transport sector establish techniques for reducing road crashes. This can be conducted by studying different predictors, but in the case of this investigation, drunk driving is given priority. Therefore, we seek to establish a link between alcohol consumption and an accident.

Data

The data used in this project is obtained from the Australian transport department and presents road crashes for the last five years from 2013 to 2019. Data preparation, including wrangling and cleaning, will be done, and findings from explorative data analysis will be used to provide key insights into the data. There are 74,908 entries of road accidents keyed across 63 attributes, including region name and gender.

Data cleaning

Data cleaning is done to ensure that the dataset only contains entries relevant to the project. The first step involved the removal of unnecessary columns. The data contains several identifiers, including ‘OBJECT_ID,’ ‘ACCIDENT_NO,’ and ‘NODE_ID.’ Only one identifier, ‘OBJECT_ID,’ will be retained. Additionally, there are different coordinate options such as ‘LONGITUDE,’ ‘LATITUDE,’ ‘VICGRID_X,’ and ‘VICGRID_Y’ that can be reduced to maintain only one option.

There are also several missing entries, including those for ‘SRNS’ and ‘SRNS_ALL.’ For instance, there were 53,244 missing entries for ‘SRNS’ and ‘SRNS_ALL,’ over 71% of the entire dataset. These columns were also removed because the missing data was significant, and completing them would be difficult. Tableau’s data conversion function converted the remaining attributes into appropriate data types. For instance, ‘LGA_NAME’ represents Australia’s Local Government Area which was converted into ‘County’ in Tableau. At the same time, ‘REGION_NAME’ was converted into ‘Country/Region.’ Tableau also has an important geographic region feature which was significant in the project, especially during assigning missing locations for the missing data. The day of the week factor was also significant for exploration. Therefore, all entries with blank days of the week were removed.

Exploratory Data Analysis

The retained variables of interest were in line with the study’s objective. Twelve attributes spanning driver status, gender, age, vehicle type, and fatality were included in the investigation. These included ‘DRIVER,’ ‘MALES,’ ‘FEMALES,’ ‘OLD_DRIVER,’ ‘YOUNG_DRIVER,’ ‘PEDESTRIAN,’ ‘PASSENGER_VEHICLE,’ ‘INJ_OR_FATAL,’ ‘HEAVY_VEHICLE,’ ‘MOTORCYCLE,’ ‘UNLICENSED,’ and ‘FATALITY.’ These entries were represented using histograms to illustrate their distribution. The dashboard illustrates these entries to provide a better understanding of their frequency. It is also important to note the numeric feature distribution of these entries based on histograms where the x-axis illustrates the values while the y-axis illustrates their frequency.

From the main objective of establishing a connection between car crashes and alcohol consumption, the analysis revealed insightful observations. For instance, injuries above 10 are less likely to be attributed to alcohol consumption. More passenger cars involved in an accident did not mean that all drivers were under alcohol consumption. However, the analysis revealed that there are some elements of alcohol use among old and young drivers contributing to car crashes. The dashboard illustrates these observations with a focus on lower incidences involving alcohol consumption.

Another important analysis was the role of alcohol in crashes. Here, the focus was on the outcome of an accident, injury, or fatality due to alcohol consumption. Again, we note that alcohol consumption is not a major predictor of the outcome of a crash. However, there are several instances where alcohol has resulted in casualties. Despite this, the number is low compared to no relationship suggesting that more casualties in road crashes are not alcohol-related. Various studies reveal that drunk drivers cause many road crashes despite other factors, such as improved infrastructure, light conditions, and the number of vehicles involved (Wright and Lee, 2021). The investigation also aimed to reveal this observation by focusing on alcohol as a significant predictor of road crashes. However, since the visualizations illustrate a different finding, it is accurate to predict that other factors characterize alcohol-based road crashes. This realization is made after affirming that alcohol-based crashes are only responsible for lower crashes resulting in an injury or fatality. At the same time, non-alcohol-related incidences lead to increased crashes. Therefore, it is essential to establish a causal or inherent relationship between the relative factors contributing to alcohol-related crashes.

Lighting

Lighting condition was also another important consideration to complement the findings of this investigation. There is a perception that lighting conditions can contribute to road accidents, especially when drivers are under alcohol (Keall et al., 2005; Li and Chihuri, 2019). This information is vital when establishing working interventions to reduce road crashes. Most scholars have revealed that alcohol consumption is a major predictor of road crashes (Carfora et al., 2018; Lasota et al., 2020). This would suggest several underlying factors contributing to road crashes caused by drunk driving. These observations also translate to how a road is used at different times of the day and the occurrence of crashes. For instance, lighting influences the frequency of nighttime crashes instead of daytime crashes. Based on this assumption, it is essential to note that road lighting has vital road safety benefits that reduce the prevalence of crashes. The data illustrates crashes on roads in Victoria, which are mostly in urban regions suggesting that crashes are common despite the characteristics of a region. Therefore, these situations can be depicted as having poor or improved lighting conditions based on the recorded crashes. The challenge arises in defining what poor and improved conditions consist of since there is no causal relationship between safety and lighting parameters where authorities and researchers can establish lighting standards for safety. As a result, concentration on improving lighting to increase road safety would still fall under the broader funding category for road safety.

Conclusion

We can conclude that crashes are not only predicated on alcohol consumption from the analysis. This has been shown by greater incidences where drivers were sober, suggesting that other unidentified elements caused the increased rate. This perception does not address the objective of this investigation but paves the way for further investigations about the predictors contributing to road crashes due to alcohol consumption. Currently, lighting conditions have been considered the major predictor of this condition based on previous research, but determining their prevalence in contributing to crashes is not yet achieved, mainly because most studies that suggest this were conducted over ten years ago. It is also important to consider that economic growth translates to improved infrastructure, which would suggest that many roads will be equipped with new lighting technologies to try and minimize road crashes. Therefore, there is a concern growing enough to establish a link between lighting conditions and alcohol-related road crashes through multivariate studies.

Recommendations

Road crashes are a growing area of concern for the Australian government, despite the measures introduced to curtail their prevalence. The current investigation reveals that the relationship between road crashes and alcohol consumption is very low, suggesting that other factors should be considered. Several additional elements can provide comprehensive results from the data, such as location, time of the day, and speed limit. For instance, location becomes a significant measure as it compares accident prevalence between different regions (Ochieng et al., 2022). If one region records a lower rate, recommendations will be based on the interventions carried out in the study region. On the other hand, if the time of day is considered, authorities will evaluate the prevalence of an accident based on time and issue interventions suited to address the issue, such as reduced traffic usage during specific times or increased traffic supervision during risk times (Eboli et al., 2020). Finally, suppose speed is considered the major cause of car crashes. In that case, traffic authorities will be responsible for regular traffic supervision, employing advanced technologies to monitor how motorists are using the road and if they observe the maximum speed limit assigned to a given area (Zhang et al., 2022). Such measures can only be implemented if future investigations can establish a link between the said factors and the prevalence of road crashes.

Tableau Data Visualization

The current investigation has attempted to establish the relationship between road crashes on alcohol consumption, failing to establish a strong link. However, the visualization approach employed with Tableau’s visualization tools presents an explorative presentation of data, including key indicators used in the study. The investigation includes two dashboards focusing on different indicators. For instance, the first dashboard illustrating the frequency of roach crashes based on driver status, age, and vehicle type includes histograms presented in a blue bar. Since the entries all illustrate the same rising trend, the color presents an overview of a positive increase.

References

Carfora, A., Campobasso, C.P., Cassandro, P., Petrella, R. and Borriello, R., 2018. Alcohol and drugs use among drivers injured in road accidents in Campania (Italy): A 8-years retrospective analysis. Forensic Science International, 288, pp.291-296.

Eboli, L., Forciniti, C. and Mazzulla, G., 2020. Factors influencing accident severity: an analysis by road accident type. Transportation Research Procedia, 47, pp.449-456.

Keall, M.D., Frith, W.J. and Patterson, T.L., 2005. The contribution of alcohol to night time crash risk and other risks of night driving. Accident Analysis & Prevention, 37(5), pp.816-824.

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People often wonder where writers get their ideas for books. Many might be surprised at how old some of the stories may seem to be when they are traced back to their original source. In Cormac McCarthy’s novel The Road, one can see some of the journeys toward the moral and ethical, the enlightened, man described in Plato’s writing as the main character and his son make their way from the north to the south in a post-apocalyptic North America. As Plato was a disciple of Socrates, Socrates’ concept of ethics is relevant to an understanding of Plato’s views on enlightenment as well as the discoveries of the characters in Cormac McCarthy’s novel. According to Socrates, it is the man who does not know himself who cannot accurately judge his capabilities and his unique path to the greatest good based on the accurate use of his strengths and knowledge of his weaknesses.

Socrates takes this another step by suggesting that knowledge of oneself will instruct from within regarding those things which are good (moral and ethical) and those things which are not.

As the man and boy travel through the barren landscape in McCarthy’s novel, it can be seen that the ethics of the boy have developed along different routes than the ethics of his father, leading them each to different paths of salvation. This progression toward enlightenment can be most clearly seen by making a comparison between Plato’s Allegory of the Cave and the situation in which the man and boy find themselves within McCarthy’s novel, particularly in terms of the characteristics of the cave, the nature of the forms presented and the ultimate enlightenment each character receives, revealing that much of the concepts underlying the book actually comes from ancient philosophy.

To understand how McCarthy’s novel echoes Plato’s philosophy, it is necessary to understand Plato’s philosophy.

Plato’s allegory begins with the placement of all humans within a dark cave, positioned in such a way that they can only see what their captors have elected to allow them to see. In the dialogue he presents, Socrates explains “here they [human beings] have been from their childhood, and have their legs and necks chained so that they cannot move, and can only see before them, being prevented by the chains from turning round their heads” (Kreis 2004). From where they sit, the world is composed of the shadows of things that are passing behind them, illuminated by a light source that cannot be seen. What the people know about their world is two-dimensional, never provided depth or texture.

Within the dialogue, Socrates explains that when one of these individuals is released from the bonds that bind him, “he will suffer sharp pains; the glare will distress him, and he will be unable to see the realities of which in his former state he had seen the shadows” (Kreis 2004). Even when facing the true reality, these individuals will strive to reject what they see, still preferring to believe that what they once knew is still real.

However, Socrates continues the discussion by explaining that once this individual is forced to live in this newer light, the person will begin to understand their new perception as being the true reality by degrees: “… first he will see the shadows best, next to the reflections of men and other objects in the water, and then the objects themselves; then he will gaze upon the light of the moon and the stars and the spangled heaven” (Kreis 2004). From this acceptance, Socrates theorized that the person would be very reluctant to return to the cave and would instead take pity on those he had left behind him in the cave.

The connection between Plato’s cave and the world introduced at the opening of McCarthy’s novel is almost impossible to miss. It is described as “nights dark beyond darkness and the days more gray each one than what had gone before. Like the onset of some cold glaucoma dimming away the world” (McCarthy 3). The sun is permanently hidden behind the clouds, as are the moon and stars. Everything, everywhere has been burned, turning the world into black and grey underneath a ‘sullen’ light that casts only feeble shadows at its peak. What colors that do exist are muted within this light and covered by the pall of ash and the biting cold. There are no animals, no plants and very few people. Of these, most are rightly considered hostile. “The world shrinking down about a raw core of parsible entities. The names of things slowly following those things into oblivion. Colors. The names of birds. Things to eat. Finally the names of things one believed to be true. More fragile than he would have thought” (McCarthy 75). The reduction of the world into only a limited number of possibilities sounds very much like the reduced world of Plato’s cave.

As they travel through this darkened world, the man and boy are experiencing the same sort of pain and natural rejection of reality that is described by Socrates as being felt by the man emerging from the cave. The difference here is that the pain is the pain of a man being forced to re-enter the darkness of the cave despite all his conceptions of a better world while his son is enlightened by his father’s confusion. The man’s reluctance to accept the reality before him forces him to feel pity for the young son. This is obvious in the touching scene when he finds the can of Coke. “[H]e put his thumbnail under the aluminum clip on the top of the can and opened it. He leaned his nose to the slight fizz coming from the can and then handed it to the boy. … You drink it … It’s because I won’t ever get to drink another one, isn’t it?” (McCarthy 20). As the man comes to realize, the world he remembers will never be anything more than a fantasy world to his son, a place of unrealizable possibilities for which the son must ultimately pity the father for having lost.

In the Allegory of the Cave, Plato sets forth the idea that mankind is only living in an illusion of life, that the reality is beyond the scope of our own senses and can only be reached through the intellect. As has been described, humans are locked within a specific position that only provides them with a two-dimensional, strictly limited understanding of the world around them. In this vision, Socrates explains that the human beings are watching a giant screen on which marionettes and other things dance, but the humans can only see the shadows of these moving things. The actual colors and nature of these things cannot be perceived from such a perspective, but not having known anything else, Socrates argues that the humans don’t know there’s something to miss: “To them, I said, the truth would be literally nothing but the shadows of the images” (Sahakian, Sahakian 388). While the people understand that the shapes on the screen are triangular or circular, they are unaware of the significance of the pyramids or the rubber ball. Although this is their reality as they can see it, Plato indicates a sense of mystery must pervade everything as the light source itself must provoke a sense of inquiry.

This can be compared in a very material sense with the forms of the remaining world that are often recognizable to the father, but have no meaning for the son. Where the father sees a can of Coke and remembers childhood togetherness with family and friends, the son sees a round metal cylinder, which could be something good to eat or something poisonous or something to power a kind of useful machine. Toy trucks are given sound only through the vocal chords of the father and trains are, to the boy, only stationary creatures standing on tracks to rust away with the centuries. Again, though, the author introduces a particularly poignant symbol of the differences between the forms of the father and those of the son with the finding of the sextant. A sextant is a tool of navigation that utilizes the sun, moon or stars as a light source to find direction (Nova 2002). The man “held it to his eye and turned the wheel. It was the first thing he’d seen in a long time that stirred him” (McCarthy 192). The reason he didn’t bring such a useful tool back for his son to use was because it no longer worked. The sun, permanently hidden behind clouds of ash, could only provide the earth with a diffuse light. Much like the hidden source of light in Plato’s cave, it is incapable of providing direction.

In Plato’s dialogue, Socrates explains that when one of the individuals from the cave is released from the bonds that bind him and “he is reluctantly dragged up a steep and rugged ascent, and held fast until he’s forced into the presence of the sun himself”, he has made an intellectual journey into a higher realm of understanding. Once his eyes become adjusted to the new light, this individual is able to more correctly assess the reality of the world he finds around him by degrees: “… first he will see the shadows best, next the reflections of men and other objects in the water, and then the objects themselves; then he will gaze upon the light of the moon and the stars and the spangled heaven” (Sahakian, Sahakian 388). If that person returned to help the others find their way out of the cave and could make himself accepted as such, Socrates indicates the people would have a tendency to idolize him, but having only been ahead of them in seeing the true reality, this leader would be reluctant to take on such a role. However, if the person had returned to their imprisonment within the cave before their sight was adjusted, they would instead be ridiculed, considered crazy by the inhabitants of the cave who had never left and held as an example for why no one should try venturing out of the cave.

At the beginning of the book, the narrator tells the reader about the dream the man was having just before he woke up into the grey world of his present reality. In the dream, “he had wandered in a cave where the child led him by the hand” (McCarthy 3) and the light source seems to have been their bodies symbolizing that both individuals are ‘enlightened’ beings. However, the son was born just after the apocalyptic event occurred and has no memories of the world his father survived. While it seems clear the father is enlightened because of his experience of the world before, there is no reason why the son should be considered an enlightened being.

Constant references to his blond hair and angelic look continue to reinforce the idea that the son is perhaps even more enlightened than the father. The reason for this relates back to Plato’s basic metaphor of adjusting one’s eyes to the light. While the man continues to hope for a better future for his son, he slowly begins to realize that the type of fire that once burned in him is useless in this new world. The discovery of an old coin forces the man to face reality. “The lettering was in Spanish. He started to call to the boy where he trudged ahead and then he looked about at the gray country and the gray sky and he dropped the coin and hurried on to catch up” (McCarthy 173). As he realizes his survival skills and knowledge are based upon a world that no longer exists, the man’s fire can be seen to burn into ash and he dies, instructing his son to continue going south and to keep his fire burning.

The fire of the son, though, is enlightenment brought about by already having his eyes adjusted to the new light of the world. He is aware that he has lost much in losing the world of his father, but he is also aware that he must find a means of surviving in this world. Intuitively, he perceives that this salvation will only come from finding a way of joining up with other ‘good people’ and beginning the process of rebuilding society. While his father’s goals are simply to keep the two of them alive, the boy realizes that the final destruction of humanity is the loss of kindness. He finds it increasingly difficult to obey the instructions of his father as they continue south, finally breaking down in tears to force his father to do the right thing for a man who had thought to steal everything they owned. Later that evening, the man tells the boy, “I wasn’t going to kill him” and the boy answers back “But we did kill him” (McCarthy 219). The boy is the leader of the future because his eyes are already adjusted to the light of a world completely alien and incomprehensible to those of his father’s generation. Although he will require the help of the elder members of a group to interpret the forms of the previous generations, it will be his clear sight in identifying the unique value of the human being that will eventually push him to become the carrier of the light his father envisions.

Cormac McCarthy’s novel The Road is an interesting investigation of Plato’s allegory of the cave from the perspective of an enlightened society being forced to re-enter the darkness of a completely alien and hostile world. Both stories rely on a darkened, two-dimensional world in which options are few, environments are hostile and colorless and light is diffuse and mysterious. Within these worlds, there are items or forms that are equally mysterious and unidentifiable, such as the can of Coke and the as compared to the marionettes of Plato’s world. While these are amazing things, they are things that just don’t exist and thus remain outside of the world of the child or the people in the cave. The man, having come from an enlightened world, introduces his son to those things that were missed as is predicted by Plato, but is unable to pass that enlightenment along because it no longer applies to this new world under this new light. Thus the man moves in a reverse direction. However, the boy is moving into a new enlightenment. Like Plato’s enlightened leader, the boy understands the world as it is revealed under his new light and shows promise of finding humanity’s salvation in his mercy and kindness.

Works Cited

Kreis, Steven. “Plato: The Allegory of the Cave.” May 13, 2004. The History Guide. Web.

McCarthy, Cormac. The Road. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2006.

Nova. “How a Sextant Works.” Shackleton’s Voyage of Endurance. Nova. New York: PBS, February 2002.

Sahakian, W. and Sahakian, M. Ideas of the Great Philosophers. New York: Barnes and Noble Books, 1966.

Introduction

The Road is a post-apocalyptic novel written by an outstanding American author Cormac McCarthy in 2006. It depicts the world destroyed by a global disaster, horrible activities of survived people, violence, and the unexpected love of the father and his son who travel across the country to the sea. This is the story of lost humanity and the offensive side of human nature, on the one hand, and self-sacrifice, compassion, and hope, on the other hand (Hillier, 2015). In this work, The Road will be reviewed with the provided summary, the description of the main characters and themes of the novel, and personal opinion.

Summary of the Novel

An unexpected cataclysm, probably a nuclear war, destroys cities and causes the death of people, animals, and plants. The main characters, a father and son, try to cross the former territory of the United States on foot and reach the sea to survive the winter (Beathan, 2019). They are suffering from diseases and hunger, and they avoid other people as they can appear to be gangsters or marauders. The pair has a supermarket cart to carry their supplies and a revolver with only two bullets for defense. The father and son visit the town and the house of the father’s childhood. When the weather is turning colder, they meet a group of marauders. One of them threatens the boy, and the father has to shoot the marauder down; escaping from the gang, they abandon their cart.

In the ruins of the town, the main characters meet another boy who flees from them. Afterward, they enter the territory of a powerful gang, and they notice the army of equipped bandits with slaves and supplies. When the pair are searching for food, they discover crippled people locked in the cellar of an ancient manor. The father realizes that they are in the house of cannibals and quickly takes his son away. Later they discover an invaluable storage bunker with food and other supplies. After several days of regaining strength, they continue their route with a new cart and provisions. They encounter a ninety-year-old man who is very unfriendly, frightened, and suspicious of other survivors. The boy insists on sharing food and staying with him for a short time, and the older man unwillingly speaks about himself. Afterward, the father and son observe three passing men and a heavily pregnant woman. Soon, they find an abandoned camp with the remains of an eaten newborn child. The main characters begin to starve until they discover another hiding place containing supplies.

The father and son finally reach the sea, where the man investigates a boat driven ashore and discovers supplies and a signal flare pistol. The son catches a chill, and while the father is nursing him, somebody steals their cart. Later they find a man with the carriage, and the father forces him to give it back and deliver all his clothes and shoes as well. They continue their journey, understanding that the naked thief will freeze to death.

In a coastal town, the father gets injured by an arrow from a local man. The father shoots him with a signal pistol in return. Despite the man’s attempts to stitch up a wound from an arrow and move on, his condition is worsening. Finally, he apprehends he cannot continue their way and asks his son to leave him and proceed with his journey alone. The father dies in his sleep, and the son stays with him for several days. Afterward, the boy encounters a benevolent man with a wife and two siblings. The man manages to earn the boy’s trust, and the family takes him under protection.

Main Characters of the Novel

The main characters of The Road are a father and his son, whose names are unknown. The father is a courageous and self-sacrificing man, but he is suffering from a severe disease and coughing with blood. Despite his condition, he dedicates his life to save his son after the apocalypse. He is continuously searching for supplies and nursing the boy. He instructs the son in how to use a weapon against marauders, assuring him they are good people who will die “Sometime. Not now” (McCarthy, 2010, p. 7). The boy spends his entire life with the father on a devastated land. His mother had been pregnant at the time of the calamity and committed suicide several years before the beginning of this storyline. She supposedly preferred to end her life not to accept the horrifying circumstances of the changing world. At the beginning of the novel, the boy is frightened and depressed, although, towards the end of it, he becomes more confident and strong. He does not forget his father after his death, “I’ll talk with you every day. And I won’t forget. No matter what,” he whispers, and keeps talking with him in prayers (McCarthy, 2010, p. 18). He continues his journey with his potential new family like his father wanted.

Main Themes of the Novel

In his novel, the author colorfully describes all the horridness of the post-apocalyptic world where the lack of food and comfort, the endless winter, and numerous deaths turn few survivors into marauders, thieves, murders, and cannibals. This book invokes awareness concerning global environmental safety and international conflicts between states, which can lead to the same catastrophe (Johns-Putra, 2016). The absence of governance and law uncovers the worst sides of human nature. The survival, by all means, becomes the single purpose of every person. Though even in the cruel world, there is a place for love, and in opposition to inconceivable violence, Cormac McCarthy puts a story of the tender love between the father and son. The main characters care about each other with compassion and self-devotion. Isolation, inhumanity, and indifference around them make their love more precious. The author endeavors to show the development of a human character through the main protagonists. The son transforms from a frightened boy into a courageous young man through all experienced struggles.

Personal Opinion

The Road can be defined as a novel that does not allow anyone to stay indifferent, the suspenseful storyline of which makes it highly recommendable for reading. The images of hideous human activities in austere environments provoke reflections concerning human nature. The novel encourages the reconsideration of personal behavior, actions, and relationships with other people. The story frightens with the descriptions of possible future and evokes gratitude that the modern world is better. It warns the society that people’s inattention to global issues may lead to catastrophe. The novel shows that even in the worst times, goodness, compassion, and love can stay in people’s hearts.

Conclusion

The Road by Cormac McCarthy describes the traveling of the father and son across America destroyed by an unspecified, probably, nuclear calamity. Although the main characters suffer from diseases, cold and hunger, and encounter marauders, bandits, and cannibals, they love each other and show care and support. The Road is an outstanding story about love and death, despair and inner strength, unbelievable violence and self-sacrifice, isolation, and compassion. It teaches that in peaceful times, there is always a place for catastrophe, and amid cruelty, there is a place for love.

Reference List

Beathan, A. (2019) Summary of The Road by Cormac McCarthy. Singapore: Abbey Beathan Publishing.

Hillier, R. M. (2015) ‘“Each the other’s world entire”: intertextuality and the worth of textual remembrance in Cormac McCarthy’s The Road’, English Studies, 96(6), pp. 670-689.

Johns-Putra, A. (2016) ‘“My job is to take care of you”: climate change, humanity, and Cormac McCarthy’s The Road’, MFS Modern Fiction Studies, 62(3), pp. 519-540.

McCarthy, C. (2010) The road. London: Picador.

‘The Road’ is a book by Cormac McCarthy that focuses on a post-apocalyptic event involving a nuclear war. Evil is prevalent and man seems to have lost any sense of morality. Theft, murder, cannibalism and all forms of brutality seem to be the order of the day. This quote from the book is a clear indication of how worse things had become:

People sitting on the sidewalk in the dawn half immolate smoking in their clothes, like failed sectarian suicides. Others would come to help them. Within a year there were fires on the ridges and deranged chanting. The screams of the murdered, by day the dead impaled on spikes along the road. What had they done? He thought that in the history of the world it might even be that there was more punishment than crime but he took small comfort from it (McCarthy 53).

The story is centered on a post apocalyptic event that causes the suffering of humanity. People lack the most basic necessities and live under extreme cruelty. An unnamed man and his small boy are exposed to the brutality. There are incidences of rape, theft and cannibalism all over. When they try to escape from the brutality, they come across one of the ‘bad guys’ who intends to kidnap and kill the boy.

The man shoots him and they escape but they are disturbed by the incidence. When the man and the boy run out of food, they go to a place where they come across some scary scenes. Humans are held captive by some gang, and are kept like livestock to be feasted upon. Such was the intensity of human cruelty. In one of the passages the writer says; “The frailty of everything revealed at last. Old and troubling issues resolved into nothingness and night (McCarthy 24).”

People are prone to hunger and starvation, the man and the boy, for instance, are at the verge of starvation when they come across an apple orchard and a well. This cushions them against starvation. When they run out of their food reserves again, they came across canned food at some bomb shelters but they do not take the same with ease as they fear for their security.

The theme of violence is also brought out when the boy’s mother clearly expresses her fears that they might soon be found, raped and killed, as such had become normal in the society. She even states that in the past they would talk about death but they no longer did as it was being witnessed everywhere. This is evident in her statement:

No, I’m speaking the truth. Sooner or later they will catch us and they will kill us. They will rape me. They’ll rape him. They are going to rape us and kill us and eat us and you won’t face it… We used to talk about death,” she said, “We don’t anymore. Why is that?… It’s because it’s here. There’s nothing left to talk about (McCarthy 93).

All these point to the absence of law and order. The scarcity of resources drives people to steal, kill and even become cannibals. Those who attempt decency try to avoid the vices and are only driven to the extremes out of necessity.

This is evident in the passage, “The man had already dropped to the ground and he swung with him and leveled the pistol and fired from a two-handed position balanced on both knees at a distance of six feet. The man fell back instantly and lay with blood bubbling from the hole in his forehead (McCarthy 102).” In spite of all these, the man and the boy remain compassionate and generous.

The boy, for instance, does not harm anyone, while the man does so only when it is really necessary. This implies that in the midst of all the cruelty, the virtues of compassion and morality can still prevail. The woman however opts to commit suicide so as to escape the cruelty. The man also preserves two bullets in the gun for self destruction incase things get to the extreme. This is evident in the passage:

She was gone and the coldness of it was her final gift. She would do it with a flake of obsidian… and she was right. There was no argument. The hundred nights they’d sat up debating the pros and cons of self destruction with the earnestness of philosophers chained to a madhouse wall (McCarthy 94)

This is a clear indication that suicide seemed a better option under extreme brutality.

On their journey, they come across incidences of cannibalism as evident in the passage, “Coming back he found the bones and the skin piled together with rocks over them…He pushed at the bones with the toe of his shoe.

They looked to have been boiled (McCarthy 110).” In the novel, it is also quite evident that the people are subjected to abject poverty to the level that some do not even have clothing as evident in the passage, “Huddled against the back wall were naked people, male and female, all trying to hide, shielding their faces with their hands (McCarthy 168).”

Such lack is what drives the people to cruelty for survival. It is a man-eat-man society and virtues seem rare. People are raised just like livestock for slaughter, and the conditions under which they are raised are pathetic. The boy is exposed to the world at its worst and the man is not even able to explain the same to him.

Cruelty had become normal and one had to use any means including hurting or killing so as to survive. Someone, for instance, tries to kill them by shooting them with an arrow. The man is wounded on the leg but manages to protect the boy. Before the offender could aim again, the man shoots at him and they all hear him scream.

The Man and the boy seem to be living in isolation from the good people. It almost seems as though even God had abandoned them. In spite of all these, their affection for each other remains strong. Their memory of a better past makes it so hard for them to come into terms with the current happenings. The writer seems to be pointing to the fact that with such cruelty, human are likely disappear from the face of the earth. One of the characters, for instance says:

When we’re all gone at last then there’ll be nobody here but death and his days will be numbered too. He’ll be out in the road there with nothing to do and nobody to do it to. He’ll say: Where did everybody go? And that’s how it will be. What’s wrong with that? (McCarthy 237).

At first the boy is left by the mother, who opts to commit suicide as she can no longer cope with the hopelessness. At the end the boy is also left by the father, who dies and leaves him alone in a world that is so difficult to cope with. People are in a state of disillusion and it is even hard for one to imagine that things will ever get better. The man for instance says, “Well, I don’t think we’re likely to meet any good guys on the road (McCarthy 224).” This is a clear indication of the hopelessness that existed.

The land is unproductive and in desolation. It is quite evident from their conversation that people were hiding from each other. The phrase points to the fear and isolation that had become evident. No one could trust another. The man refuses to imagine that the ancestors were watching and that there would be any form of justice at the end. According to him, they were dead and that was all. It is as though the human history and morality had been eroded by that devastating apocalyptic event.

While asked the purpose of the gun, the man indicated that he possessed it for the purpose of setting others on fire and not necessarily signaling. Such are the extremes that the world had reached so that a grisly weapon is used for signaling and setting others on fire. The society seems to be divided into two, the ‘good guys’ and the ‘bad guys.’ The bad ones seem to engage in acts that demean and even eliminate those that are weaker than them.

They enslave, torture and even kill them while the good ones try not to harm others unless if it is out of necessity as in the case of self defense. The man and the boy fall in this category. He assures the boy that they were still good guys. The man goes ahead to assure the boy that they would not eat a human even if they were starving. This is a basic form of decency that any man is expected to have but it is quite surprising that most people.

Works Cited

McCarthy, Cormac. The Road. New York: Pan Macmillan Limited, 2010. Print.

Art has various manifestations, and often, the way a specific idea is expressed adds more value to it than idea represents in a simple and understandable form. Creators use a variety of forms and techniques to attract more audience attention or make them assess something from a different point of view. Moreover, artists, writers, directors, and other creative personalities often leave space in their creations for personal interpretation and for the audience to discover something new in themselves. Works such as Lessons of Darkness and The Road are examples of pieces in which the authors’ ideas are presented through an unusual narrative.

Lessons of Darkness is a film shot in the documentary style by the German director Werner Herzog which conveys the consequences of the war in Kuwait – oil fires in a decontextualized way. The Road, a fiction novel written by Cormac McCarthy, in turn, presents a description of the main characters’ lives in the post-apocalyptic world. Despite the differences of the works, they are both meditations on catastrophes and human nature conveyed using unusual techniques, religious reflections, and fantasy.

Without knowing the details of the film Lessons of Darkness, an ordinary viewer can for some time accept it as science fiction or a religious film about the apocalypse. The speaker, who is the director himself, does not name the place where the events are happening, nor the reason (Lessons of Darkness). As a result, the main advantage of using decontextualization and alienated observation is the depth of experiences that arise in response to what the audience sees. The images are presented so unusually and fascinating that they attract more attention and give the film a unique mood. The footage is not similar to the one people used to see on television, in the news – there are no hasty comments about the events. Such a style provokes not an instant and quick reaction but a more thorough reflection about human nature and the consequences of its manifestation.

The disadvantage of decontextualization is the potential lack of understanding of the work due to the use of technic. The most obvious assumption is that the author, with his film, wanted to draw attention to the consequences of the war and focus on their horrors. However, his alienation from events through missing the place and actual context, as well as the images’ beauty, leaves room for doubt. As a result, another interpretation may arise, such as the attractiveness of the apocalyptic world or the aesthetics of disaster. Moreover, another potential decontextualization problem may be the feeling of lack of the film’s idea, making it not an art but an art-like work.

The work of Cormac McCarthy The Road is a novel describing a post-apocalyptic life. One may find some parallels between this novel and the film Lessons of Darkness. The narrative methods of the authors reinforce the apocalyptic emptiness of the represented places of events. Moreover, in The Road, signs of decontextualization can also be noted. The author does not indicate the exact location of the main characters, except the direction in which they go – South. Readers also do not find the reason for destroying the world in the book and even do not know the main characters’ names. This context is not so crucial for reflecting on their experiences and the author’s meditation on how people act in difficult situations.

The Road is the novel full of despair, cruelty, and at the same time, love. McCarthy uses descriptions to convey the atmosphere of his post-apocalyptic world – every day, the characters go among leafless trees, and the ashes almost constantly spill on them. This world is filled with various shades of gray, which is periodically replaced by a red brew of fires. Desperation was transmitted by the deeds of some people that began hunting for other survivors for food. The main characters – father and son hide from such hunters and often find dead.

The narrative also often includes a man’s religious reflections on whether God exists and memories of past life before the disaster. These episodes give an additional mood to the novel, provoking thoughts about spirituality and moral strength. The only character whose name, though not the real one, readers may find, is Ely, who says, “There is no God and we are his prophets” (McCarthy 143). His contradictory statement makes one wonder whether people’s suffering means that there is no God or that they will accept and cope with the new reality faster by losing faith.

Thus, the film Lessons of Darkness and the novel The Road share common features. The authors present their thoughts on human nature and how far people can go in their acts. Both works show signs of decontextualization used to strengthen the effect of the idea, which the authors would like to convey. The film does not indicate the events’ place and cause, and the book does not tell about the apocalypse’s cause or even the names of the main characters. For the novel, this technique does not have such potentially severe negative consequences as for the film. The Road has more descriptions that cause unambiguous adverse or positive reactions. The Lessons of Darkness, in turn, represent beautiful images of the negative consequences of war, which can be perceived ambiguously.

Works Cited

Lessons of Darkness. Directed by Werner Herzog, Canal +, 1992.

McCarthy, Cormac. The Road. Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, 2006.