...In The Road by Cormac McCarthy, It is said that fear is the strongest motivator in the world. People in fear are willing to do whatever, go beyond any border and forget all rules. Fear can easily take over our mind and control our every move. But how much does it take to push a person beyond his limits? What kind of a fear can make us forget everything about humanity and morals? These questions are one of the main themes in Cormac McCarthy’s novel ”The Road” We are all afraid of different things. Some are afraid to lose their family and friends others on the other hand their money and possessions. Cormac McCarthy’s great novel ”The Road” tells us a story of a post-apocalyptic world where everything is destroyed and life is almost extinct. There are left only handful people, who are willing to do everything to survive. But some of them are willing to go further than the others. Fear influences every person differently. But how can some of us still maintain our moral values even though we might be scared to death? In ”The Road” the main characters, the man and the boy represent a group of people who does not let the fear control their minds. The man is constantly afraid of his son getting killed or starving to death. The boy is worried about his father and about being left alone in this terrible world if his father should die. Every single day they live in fear. They can never be sure whether they find food, whether they will survive the cold nights in the woods, or whether...
Words: 828 - Pages: 4
...On the Road The main theme of the book and its common thread is the journey, seen as an element that breaks the monotony of life and brings the individual to deal with ever new realities, always looking for a new form of existence that could avert the danger of "boredom ". The journey takes on the function of true teacher of life for all the characters. It is not only meant as the material form of physical movement but also as a "virtual" journey through the use of drugs and abandonment in pleasures. All this, however, is not presented as a process of decay, but as a quest for a primitive instinct of human creativity and innocence now lost and suppressed by mod-ern conformism. The journey told in the book, however, is not just a figment of the writer: On the road, in fact, col-lects real travel experiences that the writer has made in over seven years with his friend and teacher of life Neil Cassidy (Dean Moriarty in the book). The novel, in fact, was written on a “scroll” by the writer within three weeks revising its travel notes, under the effect of Benzedrine. The trip, however, is not the only theme in the book. The other themes, in fact, are: the promotion of art in all its forms as a tool to uncover the truth, the search of love and the importance of friendship. As frame the entire novel, then, there is the per-ennial tension between the big cities and small towns, between life without brakes and inhibitions and tranquility of the family, between traveling and staying...
Words: 328 - Pages: 2
...present to you the research, the designation of which is «Lexical analysis of the novel «On the road» written by Jack Kerouac». Trips, journeys, wanderings and youth are the main sources of inspiration for Jack Kerouac whose book has remained bestseller for more than 60 years. Buddhist, philosopher and travelling writer, not only wrote the book about hitchhiking, but also gave the name to the whole direction in literature and society, namely beat generation. Besides, the novel is characterized by autobiographical features since Jack Kerouac depicts the life of beat generation, the representor of which he was. From linguistic point of view, «On the road» is a unique example of spontaneous prose invented by Kerouac therefore it is an interesting material to research. Furthermore, little research has been undertaken to study the novel ‘On the Road’ as a linguistic phenomenon. The actuality of the theme of our research consists in research of the emotive prose as a linguistic prose, stylistic and lexical peculiarities of which are not investigated enough. The purpose of this study is to examine and analyze lexical and stylistic items used in novel ‘On the Road’ by Jack Kerouac. The tasks of our paper lie in description of stylistic characteristics of emotive prose, in detection and analysis of lexical and stylistic items in the novel. The object of the research is the novel ‘On the Road’ written by Jack Kerouac. The subject of the paper are stylistic and lexical special features...
Words: 922 - Pages: 4
...A relationship between father and son could be described as loving or hated. However in the book The Road by Cormac McCarthy, it is put into a completely different situation. The father and son of The Road are surviving for each other. From a post apocalyptic setting they are trying to reach the south. The father and son of The Road are left with no names, which makes it more mysterious. Within the book the father often times lies to the son about certain things. For the good of the son and humanity, it is a good choice to tell his son what is for the better. The better of things could be for the son’s future. The father and son go through a long journey to the south. The father believes that the south should be an easier place to be for the father and son to survive the deadly cold winter. The story tells of the father constantly telling himself that his son is the best thing that has happened and that he is the only light left in his life. They have to try to avoid many obstacles like those trying to steal their belongings or others trying to kidnap them to eat them. The father always seems to believe there is nothing left of his life except to keep his son safe and as happy as he can be. In parts of the book the son asks the father about their life. His son would ask if he would die what would the father do? The father easily answers that he would die also to be with his son. The father lives only for his son and would be willing to do anything for him. The father tells...
Words: 1421 - Pages: 6
...The Road to a Quest What is a quest? If unaware as to what a quest is, it is a long search for something. What makes up a quest? What primarily makes up a quest is a questor, where the questors are going, stated reason for the quest, challenges and trials, and the real reason for the quest. Quests can be seen anywhere from movies to books. In the book The Road by Cormac McCarthy for example. That is a great story of a quest and survival. An important part of a quest is completing it. In the story The Road it has everything to make up a quest, but The Man and The Boy could not complete it. The two questors are The Man and The Boy. The story never identified their names. The Man is a great survivalist. He has great skills as to tracking, and using the weapons around him. Everything he does is dedicated for The Boy. The book establishes this very early on, “When he woke in the woods in the dark and the cold of the night he'd reach out and touch the child sleeping beside him” (McCarthy 1). The Boy is very mature, and smart for his age. The book does not tell his age but it is easy to tell he is young. He is very thoughtful of others, and wants to help others. An example of this is, “We should go get him, Papa. We could get him and take him with us. We could take him and we could take the dog. The dog could catch something to eat” (McCarthy 73). They both may be different types of people, but they need each other. The place where The Man and The Boy are heading is to the coast...
Words: 772 - Pages: 4
...Ramisa Mehjabeen 766986 Mr.Seravalle Part 4 “On the road” by Jack Kerouac describes the huge cultural change, which began to take form in America during the 1960’s. The American pop culture included entertainment, music and sports. It was distributed across many forms of mass communication including newspaper magazines, television. Kerouac found the energy and excitement of jazz to be particularly inspiring. Beat Generation in the 1950s marked the beginnings of a major cultural turning point in the United States. Jack Kerouac dominated the literature world with a new sense of adventure during the counterculture movement of the 1960s.No author described the connection between jazz and the beat movement better than Jack Kerouac. On...
Words: 1258 - Pages: 6
...Jack Kerouac’s novel, On the Road, is about the journey of a young college-age man across the country in search of something more from his life in post-war America. The book revolves around a young man named Sal Paradise, and the whole story is told from his perspective. The rambling writing, while hard to understand sometimes, offers a detailed record of his pursuit and the ensuing antics. The story starts in 1947 where Sal meets a man named Dean Moriarty, a lively and animated man who was a “sideburned hero of the snowy West” (Kerouac 2). It was Dean who prompted Sal’s adventurous travels west. Along the way, Dean and Sal befriend Carlo Marx, an energetic young poet who shares the same view of wanting something a little more out of life. Sal’s journeys across the U.S. and to Mexico open his eyes to the good and bad, the up and downs in life. His constant stints on the road with madman Dean sometimes got him in trouble with the law. Other times, the trips allowed Sal to truly find out more about himself, and relate to Dean on a more personal level to share and connect The meaning behind the title On the Road lies in Sal’s innate desire for something more. The road in this novel comes to symbolize freedom and the solution to answer life’s problems. Sal constantly finds a refreshing sense of purity once he hits the open road, especially in the company of Dean, whose spirit was the catalyst for the voyages in the first place. However, once Sal and Dean get to Mexico City...
Words: 1254 - Pages: 6
...Imagine you are driving at night on a winding road. The snow is coming down and you cannot see, as you begin to approach a curve. You make out dim brake lights of traffic ahead, but despite the driving conditions, you feel safe. How can you feel safe under these conditions, you ask. Very easily, the way of the future will be Scott Brusaw’s Smart Road. Owned by Virginia Department of Transportation, the Smart Road will lead to safer highways and vehicles, more conventional travel, and less stress behind the wheel. Researchers will get to apply their creative ideas to real-life situations in a low-risk environment, while business developers could gain profitable partnerships and new projects. The Smart Road is a rare, state-of-the-art, full-scale, closed test-bed research facility which features weather-making capabilities, an experimental lighting system, pavement markings, road weather information systems, a signalized intersection, a differential GPS system, road access and surveillance, and a computer-equipped control center. It is the first of its kind with a long history and possibly an even longer future. It all started when the idea and the proposal for a connecting road from Blacksburg to Interstate 81 was introduced in 1985. Roanoke Mayor Noel Taylor favored the idea introduced by Roanoke-Virginia Tech Advisory Council in 1986. The following year the Department of Transportation was asked to consider short and long-term answers for traffic jamming along Route 460. Governor...
Words: 2166 - Pages: 9
...There’s much to say about Robert Frost’s The Road Not Taken. In what seems like a simplistic array of symbolisms, the metaphor of the poem takes us much deeper. It instantly creates an intimate bond to the familiar theme: Decisions. It was said that Frost referred the speaker of the poem to be his friend and colleague Edward Thomas. He would describe Thomas, as “a person, whichever road he went, would be sorry he didn’t go the other.” (cite) With that knowledge, it gives validity to the poems multiple layers of decision-making, regret and curiosity. The speaker begins with the vivid description in the first stanza of where he is and the significance of his dilemma. “Two roads diverged in a yellow wood” (1), is where the poet drops us right in the thick of it. The two roads are a metaphor to the important and crucial choices we must decide in our lives. Frost vividly and simply painted a picture with only his first line. He gave us a time, place, color, and a dilemma. The yellow wood is a description of the season, giving a visual of a forest with yellow leaves which concludes that its autumn. That indication also serves as a time limit to the decision, implying that the speaker is running out of time. The speaker must make their decision before winter comes, which is a cold and dead season of progressiveness. The yellow also serves as a cautionary color, giving warning to the speaker that the decision must be made with careful and astute consideration. There is also...
Words: 1149 - Pages: 5
...Alvarez | [Poetry Essay] | | “The Road not Taken” by Robert Frost demonstrates the power of allegory in simple writings of poetry with vivid use of symbolism to convey the true message. “The Road not Taken” is written by Robert Frost who was born on March 26, 1874 and passed away on January 29, 1963. His father William was a 1872 Harvard graduate and a teacher and his mother Isabelle was a Scotswoman and a teacher as well. They moved from Pennsylvania to San Francisco where they had their first son who they named after the southern hero General Robert E. Lee. Robert had one sister Jeanie who was born in 1876. Robert seemed to struggle as a child in school but after graduating from Lawrence High school top of his class he started college at Dartmouth College but dropped out before the semester ended. In 1894 Mr. Frost sold his first poem and shortly thereafter 1895 he married his high school sweetheart Elinor. In 1906 Derry Enterprise publishes “The Tuft of Flowers” after a public reading of the poem. Shortly thereafter in 1913 David Nutt and Company publishes Frost’s first book of poems called “a Boys Will. In 1937 Frost won The Pulitzer Prize for “A Further Range”. In the midst of all the publications and literature success Frost is plagued with family problems that include the death of several of his children one by suicide and the passing of his wife and he himself passed away on January 29, 1963. “The Road not Taken” clearly shows the use of allegory...
Words: 754 - Pages: 4
...When I think of the poem, The Road not Taken, it makes me reflect on an image that constantly captures my attention. That would be the image of a path. For me a path is symbolic of choices and movement. Will I continue moving forward or turnaround and go backwards? This is exactly what the poem, The Road not Taken is about choices. For example, the first line of the poem Frost speaks of choosing between two roads of diverging paths in a wood. When I think about choices, there always seems to be at least two: Yes or No, Right or Wrong, Left or Right, Up or Down, On and Off , and In or Out to new a few. Although making choices are important in life, I believe the bigger issue would be can we live with the decisions we make. Eleven years ago my family was faced with one of the toughest decision ever. Our mom was diagnosed with stage three Ovarian Cancer, and we needed to help her decide the method of treatment. The decision was should our mom receive Herbal Therapy or Chemotherapy? Naturally, my family was in a quandary much like Frost who expressed, “And sorry I could not travel both, And be one traveler, long I stood, And looked down one as far as I could, To where it bent in the undergrowth” (Robert Frost). Although both therapies could have been possible considerations, we needed to decide which therapy would be the most effective given our mom’s condition. Therefore, my siblings and I were task to research the treatments, side effects, etc. Well, after carefully...
Words: 462 - Pages: 2
...The Road Not Taken Poetry Essay In order to write a poetry analysis essay, the reader must first understand the symbols and deeper meaning behind the speaker’s words in the poem. In his poem, “The Road Not Taken”, Robert Frost faces two roads which seem to depict choices in life. The speaker evaluates his choices and consequences, makes a decision, and follows it through regretfully. The writer used imagery to describe the road he took and diction to imply regret and reflection regarding his decision. He used symbolism and archetype in the statement “fork in the road” which reflects unseen choices about life that must be made. In the first stanza, the speaker writes “Two Roads Diverged in a Yellow Wood” in which he describes his situation (610). He has come upon a fork in the road. The poem was written in 1916, when there were scarcely cars around so the imagery in this stanza depicts that the roads were most likely worn out paths with a lot of yellow leaves on the ground. In lines 2-3, the speaker wants to go down both roads but realizes he cannot be on two roads at the same time. He appears regretful that he cannot travel down both paths and so he stands there initially hesitant. The word “stood” in line 3 suggests he was not driving a car. The line “And Looked Down One As Far As I Could” illustrate he is looking down the road to see where it goes (610). One could imagine what if it was not really a fork in the road but a fork in the road of the speaker’s...
Words: 917 - Pages: 4
...Analysis 1 – Road Rage Road Rage has become a widespread hazard on the nation’s congested, fast-paced roads, especially on highways. In fact, Road Rage is a serious national problem. Do you curse and honk your horn if a driver tries to cut you off, or slam on your brakes to annoy someone who’s tailgating? Aggressive driving, better known as “Road Rage”, occurs when furious motorists lose their temper over traffic disturbances. Almost every day you hear of another incident involving an aggressive driver. Speeding, weaving in and out of traffic, following too closely, yelling and gesturing are actions that characterize the aggressive driver. Psychologists believe that anger is the root of Road Rage. They describe four major traffic situations that trigger road rage: (1) feeling endangered, such as being cut off, (2) being closed in by other drivers who are going slow, (3) watching other drivers breaking the rules of the road and (4) feeling the need to retaliate. Also, if a driver gets in the vehicle already angry due to a prior incident, that anger can trigger even greater Road Rage responses. Angry drivers on the road merit great attention. Road Rage causes health problems. Driving under stress is a serious health risk. Does your blood boil when you’re cruising along the highway and some slowpoke is driving in the passing lane? With everyone over worked and having less free time, stress plays a key role. Most people do not have a lot of patience...
Words: 648 - Pages: 3
...APA Thesis: Robert Frost’s, “The Road Not Taken” uses symbolic language to describe his turmoil in deciding which direction he should go in. This lyric poem expresses the thoughts and feelings of a single speaker. I. Introduction a. Coming to a fork in the road the how to decide II. Body a. Setting b. Choosing the right direction in life III. Symbolic Meaning a. Imagery IV. Conclusion Road Not Taken Essay The first line of the poem leads me to believe that this takes place in early autumn because he speaks of leaves of golden and green and mentions that there are leaves on the ground. The poem consists of four stanzas and five lines all with a rhyme scheme of ABAAB. In the poem it doesn’t mention where he’s going or where he’s coming from but there is a dilemma he is facing because he has come to a fork in the road. As he stands and ponders which direction he should take, he analyses both roads. In the beginning he believes that one is less traveled than the other but as he continues to observe them both he rethinks his first opinion and believes they have been traveled equally. I guess that was his initial process of elimination in choosing which direction to go based on which road had been traveled the most. Since both were traveled equally he had to make a decision on his own. He attempted to look as far down each road as his eyes could see but found a bend it the road which prevented him from seeing as far...
Words: 856 - Pages: 4
...Sydney Faulkner Poem Analysis “The Road Not Taken” By Robert Frost can be defined as a narrative poem because it tells a story, uses symbolism, mood, tone, and assonance typically associated with narratives. The poem describes a person, who chooses between two roads and wonders about his choice later. In the first stanza of the poem the person walks in the woods and comes to the place where two roads go to two different sides. The traveler is full of doubts since he does not want to miss the opportunity and wants to choose the right road. He spends time looking for both roads and thinking about the right choice. The road in this poem becomes a symbol of life, change and transformation. That is the reason the choice becomes so important for the traveler. He thinks not only about the right way to choose in the forest but also about the right path in life. That is the reason we can feel the switch of the mood by the end of the poem. When the traveler realizes that he will not be able to take another road, left by in the past, he regrets it as lost opportunity. He is disappointed because of the opportunity he missed. He states: “I kept the first for another day!” and we can hear regret in his tone. Now he realizes that his choice was final and looking at the road he did not choose, he “doubted if I should ever come back”. By the end of his journey the traveler realizes that each decision we take influences all our further life and this decision cannot be changed. Decisions...
Words: 568 - Pages: 3
