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Over the Christmas recess I'd like for you to read pages 3-13 of Cormac McCarthy's The Road, so we have some text to work with on day one. Respond to the following in your notes. I want you to have a good chunk of your notebook reserved for The Road. This will be your storehouse of insights for use later in the third quarter.

(1) How do you characterize McCarthy's style?

(2) What is the novel's first action? Whose action is it? Why begin with that action? What theme does it set immediately?

(3) How does the father show love to his son? Why does the father care so much for the boy? (Think. Question not as stupidly obvious as it seems.) What does the son mean to the man?

monDAY, january 8 (1)

Welcome back. The final term of high school. We'll review policies and reset for what's to be a great term. "The School Where I Studied"

Hope you have your notes, your text, a few brain cells. We'll start with a little quiz.

Tonight I'd like you to watch Oprah's interview with Cormac McCarthy to the right. We'll use it during our discussion tomorrow.

tuesDAY, january 9 (2)

"When he woke in the woods in the dark..."

Your initial reactions.

Take us to THE passage.

Set The Road Discussion Project

Tomorrow you have your first vocabulary quiz of the semester, testing your knowledge of the words from pages 3-33. You should also note the reading schedule for the coming month. Know when you're presenting, and remember that you're responsible for coming to class each day having read the pages your peers and I plan to cover.

wednesDAY, january 10 (3)

Vocabulary Quiz, words from pages 3-33

Reading questions for tonight:

What's the tone of the book so far? The world is bleak. Is the tone? Is the narrator without hope? Are the characters? How does McCarthy describe and characterize the boy? What traits does he emphasize? What about him does he draw our attention to? Why? McCarthy's style is very often like poetry in its images, its sensory richness and the way it leads us to see familiar things in unfamiliar ways. Look at some imagery and some figurative language (similes and metaphors, for instance). Choose your favorite example and think about what it does. Much of this section is centered on the man. What does McCarthy want us to know about him? How does McCarthy shape our reactions to him? Do we admire him? Does he seem a good father? What are his struggles, his conflicts? What "progress" do the man and boy make in this section? Any significant advances or setbacks?

thursday, january 11 (4a) / friday, january 12 (4b)

The Road discussion, pages 14-25

Questions for 26-46

Section 1

1. What do you believe is the significance of the boy’s dream? What could the mechanical penguin symbolize? What’s so scary about the penguin?

2. Throughout the text, the boy seems to be preoccupied with how long things last. He asks the father how long the road will last as well as how long the dam will last. What is the significance of these questions and how could it possibly relate to the dream he had?

3. Where are they going? What worries the father about their destination? How does the father’s worries relate to the boy’s dream?

4. How does McCarthy’s style add to the text. How does it relate to the dream?

Section 3

Although the father and son often fit their expected roles, in this environment, the divide between these two characteristics has become blurred. Where can we see this reversal of roles and what does it reveal about the father and the son?

One of the themes in the book is the role of religion, specifically Christianity, in the world that neither has Christianity nor a reason to believe in it. What role does McCarthy suggest Christianity have in such a bleak reality?

Section 4

As they journey through the mountains the man reflects on many of the memories that he shared with his father in the same places. What is significant about the similarities between these two father son bonds? Pg.33
Why include the boy’s dream? What does it show about their relationship with the way the father handled it? What does it show about the child’s state of mind? Pg.36
Why do the two go swimming in the pool beneath the falls? Pg.38
At the falls they find Morels. This is the first sign of life in a long time. Are things getting better? Pg.40
Pg. 43 the boy doesnt know what states were. What does this tell us about the boy and his father? Is his father hiding things from him? Was he born after the apocalyptic event or did he just never learn?
Is there more to the truck? Is it just there to show us how difficult it is to find resources? P. 46

thursday, january 18 (1)

The Road discussion, pages 26-46

Questions for 47-69

Section 1

When the man and the boy finally find someone else like them why do they make no attempt to make contact with or help him? The man describes the disaster as “a long shear of light and then a series of low concussions.” What can we infer about the disaster? Why does McCarthy not give us any more details about the disaster than this? Why does the man’s wife refer to death as her lover? In both deaths described in this part of the novel, why does the boy not show or express any emotion whatsoever? Do you agree with the man’s choice to come out of hiding to point his gun at the mystery man or do you think they should have stayed hidden? What do you think the man’s knowledge of the brain infers about his life before the disaster? Should the offer of food in exchange for helping his friend from the bearded man been accepted by the two travelers? Do you agree with the man’s decision to kill the bearded man? How was he able to shoot him him the forehead so easily?

Section 6

Does the blackness represent the boy or the darkness in the world (P67) Was the photograph of the wife left out of sadness or anger? What is the significance of using “death as a lover”? (P57) We keep hearing the man refer to everyone else alive as a murderer or cannibal but the first man they meet seems to calm? Why is the man described as feeling as if he’s down something wrong. (P50) Is the story meant to critique modern worries and problems? Consider the passage of page 54.