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tuesDAY, february 6 (1)

The Road discussion, pages 145-167

Section 3

What is the significance of the two’s discussion of the crows flying? What is the metaphor/comparison described in this discussion? Why does the discussion end with the boy saying that he threw away his flute? What is the significance of the two’s encounter with the old man? Do you think it was a good thing for the two to allow the old man to come with them? Why does the man allow the old man to come in the first place? Why was only his first name given? Why does McCarthy give this man a name at all?

wednesDAY, february 7 (2)

Topic strings and paragraph hooks: A review

Your essay on The Road is due Tuesday, February 20. It should be 1500 words (10% on either side is fine). Submit to turnitin.com ONLY. It will be worth 2, 100-pt grades, double the value of the thesis / body ¶. It's the major grade of the 3rd quarter.

Given the length of the essay, the old tried-and-true (and should-be-forgotten) five-paragraph essay model won’t work. You have your thesis and one topic; now you need to decide on the rest of the developing topics/ideas your topic/thesis needs. Then, as you draft the arguments for those ideas, let paragraphs become units of thinking and composition. Follow the basic rules for paragraph writing: one paragraph=one unit of thinking; don’t let paragraphs become so long that the reader forgets the main point; paragraph=emphatic unit. Not every developing idea will—or should—be one paragraph.

You will likely include small transition paragraphs and reminders of the essay’s or section’s main points. What you can expect a reader to remember in a three-page essay, you cannot expect him to remember in a six to eight-page essay. So keep your key ideas before his mind and refresh his memory of key arguments. In other words, build and maintain coherence. Remember the New Yorker article we reviewed in the fall. This one is great, too.

Know that my reading of your essay will be slightly different than it has been. Now, I’m very interested in your argument as an argument and your ability to sustain and maintain that argument. I’m more interested than I have been in the intellectual merits of what you say. Expect me to quarrel with and challenge your assertions and arguments.

Sounds daunting, I imagine. Maybe it is. But work through your ideas and build an essay. (Notice the verb, engineers.) Once you’ve got a thesis idea, loads of evidence ready for use, and ideas aplenty, make an outline of some sort. Begin with the thesis if you make one for the argument itself, or begin with the opening ¶’s first sentence. But make an outline. Make a structure to hang those ideas of yours on. A tailor uses a pattern, an architect a blueprint. A writer uses an outline.

No Shmoop, no Google, no other “research.” Just you and your book, alone, in the fading night. Just as writers intended. So have the courage to see what you think as you think it. And have the courage to be less than perfect. Developing your ability to think for yourself isn’t easy. No one ever said it was.

Work hard. Make this your best work yet.

thursday, february 8 (3)

The Road discussion, pages 168-189

LUNCHTIME TUTORIAL - Which quote is the right quote to choose? And then what do I do with it?

Section 6

The old man makes a few sullen, hopeless statements some of which being “People were always getting ready for tomorrow. . . Tomorrow wasn’t getting ready for them”, “I might wish I had died. When you’re alive you’ve always got that ahead of you”, and “Where men can't live gods fare no better” (McCarthy 168, 169, 172). What do you think of the old man and his outlook on life in this world?

In pages 164-165, the boy and father talk about what they are going to do with the old man. In this conversation the man talks with the boy rather than telling the boy he's wrong and doing it his way like before in multiple occasions, what do you think caused the man to treat the boy this way.

The father shows no desire to help the old man by giving him food and is unable to understand why his son chooses to do so. Why do you think the son is so generous and kind to the man as opposed to his father?

The old man shows no gratitude to the boy and father even after they gave him food. The father seeks to protect the boy by asking the old man to say thank you to boy. After the old man refuses the father says, “you wouldn't understand, I'm not sure I do.” What’s the boy's motivation for being nice, is it only his innocence or is there something else which makes him be nice to others.

Back to the boy's first encounter with another human being on page 50 the man struck by lightning. The boy, after the father refuses to help the man, constantly looks back, however this time after they send off the old man the book states “the boy never looked back at all”

On page 175, the father begins to cough for the first time in a very long time. He says at the bottom of the page “I am going to die. . . Tell me how I am to do that” Following this, things begin to go badly for the two. They are hungry and the boy accidentally leaves the gas on, so they can’t heat their food. It rains and the boy has nightmares of crying and his father not waking up. What do you think the novel is trying to say about the state of the relationship between the father and son? How is this moment different from earlier discussions of the father possibly dying?

In the same moment on page 175 before he asks the question of how he's going to die, he thinks about the old man first. Why do you think the old man came into his mind first before his son in the moments before asking this question? Spiritual sense: could the old man be used as a person sent to test the man's faith in God?

Page 183 the boy's dream of the father not responding, here the boy's biggest fear of being left alone is explicitly told, the boy takes the father's non responsiveness as him being dead in the dream, Because the father tries to prepare the boy for that event do you think that is the reason for it being his worst fear, Do you think the father realizes this or he's he just pushed it aside because it's a necessity that the boy be prepared.