writting about in relation to the questions-
How the episode impacted on you?
What was the writer doing to evoke this response?
Plot progression (what will happen next?)
Your experience (change of mood? A ligher moment? Increase or release of tension?)
How does this develop character and their relationship?
The techniques employed by McCarthy. Is the language in keeping with the rest of the novel? Are there particular symbols or images that are foregrounded?
Is this in fact a key episode? What makes it important? How does it stand out in a novel without chapters or chapter titles?
- coming across the man who has been struck by lightening (pp. 50-53)
The episode shows the reality of death to the charaters in the road, that not only they are at risk in the world and that it is not just other people who could be trying to kill them ,but the world itself seeming to lash out at what is left of humanity. To evoke this responce McCarthy writes as though nothing has happend to the characters untill they see someone "shuffling along the road before them", nothing is seen as wrong untill this character sits down and looks at the floor as they pass, as though his situation is his fault, that he did something to the earth and is now getting revenge from the earth and sky. the description of the character is also given in stark reallity "one of his eyes was burnt shut". The father makes clear that if they shared their food that they would die also, this foregrounds the fact that they are soon going to starve, brining up the idea of them dieing soon in the book. A moment of tension is when the man and child walk past the lightning struck character, horror dawn on the boy when he see's the extent of the mans injury and panic strikes as he realises there is nothing he can do to help "Can't we haelp him? Papa?". This episode shows the fathers domiination of the child, as the boy at first struggles with the father, trying to get help for the man but his father expels these arguments knowing that there is nothing that they could do, the boy is rthen forced to take this veiw on the matter "He's going to die. We cant share of we'll die too. I know". The techniques employed by McCarthy are those of the road story genre as the man and boy are walking along a road meeting new people ad then moving on like the lightning struck man, he dosent use much gramma to keep in keeping wth the rest of the novel and he uses complex words every s often in an other wise bland and simple speach and narrative language. This is a key episode as it shows that not everyone is out to kill them and that nature is as much their enemy as any other person is.
How the episode impacted on you?
What was the writer doing to evoke this response?
Plot progression (what will happen next?)
Your experience (change of mood? A ligher moment? Increase or release of tension?)
How does this develop character and their relationship?
The techniques employed by McCarthy. Is the language in keeping with the rest of the novel? Are there particular symbols or images that are foregrounded?
Is this in fact a key episode? What makes it important? How does it stand out in a novel without chapters or chapter titles?
- coming across the man who has been struck by lightening (pp. 50-53)
The episode shows the reality of death to the charaters in the road, that not only they are at risk in the world and that it is not just other people who could be trying to kill them ,but the world itself seeming to lash out at what is left of humanity. To evoke this responce McCarthy writes as though nothing has happend to the characters untill they see someone "shuffling along the road before them", nothing is seen as wrong untill this character sits down and looks at the floor as they pass, as though his situation is his fault, that he did something to the earth and is now getting revenge from the earth and sky. the description of the character is also given in stark reallity "one of his eyes was burnt shut". The father makes clear that if they shared their food that they would die also, this foregrounds the fact that they are soon going to starve, brining up the idea of them dieing soon in the book. A moment of tension is when the man and child walk past the lightning struck character, horror dawn on the boy when he see's the extent of the mans injury and panic strikes as he realises there is nothing he can do to help "Can't we haelp him? Papa?". This episode shows the fathers domiination of the child, as the boy at first struggles with the father, trying to get help for the man but his father expels these arguments knowing that there is nothing that they could do, the boy is rthen forced to take this veiw on the matter "He's going to die. We cant share of we'll die too. I know". The techniques employed by McCarthy are those of the road story genre as the man and boy are walking along a road meeting new people ad then moving on like the lightning struck man, he dosent use much gramma to keep in keeping wth the rest of the novel and he uses complex words every s often in an other wise bland and simple speach and narrative language. This is a key episode as it shows that not everyone is out to kill them and that nature is as much their enemy as any other person is.
Great answer Liam, I like the point you make about the world it self attacking its inhabitants. You also make the link to genre whilst remaining conscious of the way in which it also subverts it.
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