The news media has influenced the general public since the day it was created. Many issues the media covers are exaggerated to get people to react. Like it or not, that is the media’s job; to grab the public’s attention so they will watch or read more. Regardless of this idea, there are concerns present in society that do render enough importance to cause apocalyptic thinking. War has always concerned nations because of the destructive nature it does to a country’s economy, government, military force, landscape and so on. The way wars are fought always changes. Technological advancement and battle techniques are always improving in order to impose the most damage to an enemy. Warfare is becoming trickier to predict and wars are taking longer to end as other countries change up the usual conventions that combat used to be held to. The U.S. current war on terror isn’t even on any country in particular. The U.S. is trying to eliminate all forms of terrorist activities but America only has assumptions to where the terrorist groups are hiding. This proves to be challenging and it has resulted in the elongated period of time that the U.S. has had presence in Iraq. Various countries are being accused of storing nuclear weapons which instills fear into any human being because, when used, nuclear bombs are the most powerful weapon that exists. Critics will argue that even if these countries posses weapons of mass destruction there is no reason that the bombs will ever be used. The world’s dependency on petroleum is enough for any country to use nuclear bombs as a reason to get the oil that their nation needs. Saudi Arabia is the prime supplier of petroleum to the world and the second most supplier of oil to the U.S. Once oil reserves start to reach extreme lows the Middle Eastern countries will be forced to supply less and less oil to the U.S. and the world. A nuclear war on oil is a far shot to most civilians but the world’s dependency on oil should not be taken lightly. If conflicts occur between countries it is not a stretch to imagine an all out nuclear war which predictably could lead to the apocalypse.
Since World War II, nuclear weaponry has been on the forefront of every nations mind. Nuclear weapons are the ultimate tool for control and whichever nation can get their hands on them immediately becomes a threat to every other country on earth. The atrocity of nuclear bombs is unmatched by any other weapon. On the fateful days of August 6th and 9th of the year 1945 the U.S. demonstrated the true killing power that atomic bombs possess. The only uses of nuclear weapons in warfare are America’s “Little Boy” and “Fat Man” which were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki respectively on those historic dates. In his article “Nuclear Weapons, Deterrence, and Crisis Escalation”, Daniel S. Geller has the death count surmounting 220,000 people, not including anyone who died from radiation or other causes. After dropping the bombs other countries took notice and began designing and building their own nuclear bombs. The U.S. and Soviet Union took building bombs to an extreme which began the arms race known as the Cold War. Although there was never another bomb dropped, the severity of two nations trying to build as many nuclear weapons as fast as they could can’t be ignored. The arms race finally slowed in the late 1980’s ending the period of exponential atomic weapon growth. Anxieties of nuclear weapons have always existed, but in modern society the concerns of nuclear weaponry are growing rapidly. The most recent example would be the invasion of Iraq. With worries that Iraq possesses weapons of mass destruction people don’t feel safe like they used to. Now just turn on the news and one will see that North Korea, Iraq, and Iran (also known as the “Axis of Evil”) are all threatening the world by acquiring nuclear weaponry. Afghanistan has been pursued for holding nuclear weapons also and it seems that everyone is joining the trend of building nuclear weapons. It’s not possible to prove whether or not these countries hold or will use these weapons, but if atomic bombs are used the destruction will be insurmountable and will reminisce conditions that can be comparable to an apocalypse.
Now throw oil in to the mix. Oil is arguably one of the most important imports that America buys. According to the Energy Information Administration the U.S. purchased and used over 7 billion barrels of oil in 2003, just shy of ¼ of the total amount of oil consumed in the whole world. This number may be surprising, but critics will argue that we’ve maintained a steady majority use of oil in the world and there hasn’t been a need to change yet. The problem with this is that China is going through an industrial revolution and their oil use is only second to America. Reporter Joe McDonald for CNBC.com reported that China’s economy is growing at an annual rate of 11.2% and their petroleum consumption is expected to increase by 17.4% when 2010 arrives. If the U.S. continues on the path of burning ¼ of the world’s oil per year and China’s annual oil consumption rate continues at over 10%, then gas prices will rise to outrageous prices and petroleum will become extremely scarce. Put all future predictions aside and oil is still a problem right now. Saudi Arabia is the number one producer and exporter of crude oil and that’s not likely to change for awhile. The American government and society have adopted the idea that Iran is holding weapons of mass destruction and they are therefore a threat to the U.S. and the world. This situation proves problematic because the U.S. is fighting terror in the Middle East while mass importing petroleum from Saudi Arabia. If the U.S. decides to take any form of military action toward Iran it will be a very dangerous situation. Iran has full access to Saudi Arabia’s oil reserves and refineries, and to U.S. oil tankers. It would be no problem for Iran to destroy Saudi Arabia’s production of oil with the weapons they are accused of holding. If this occurs then the world will be out of its main exporter of oil and will lose 10,665 barrels of oil produced a day (statistic given by the Energy Information Administration). If Iran decides to take military action against the U.S. oil fleets instead, terrible if not worse outcomes can arise. The U.S. is estimated to have over 10,000 active nuclear bombs and America might not hesitate to use them in a quarrel over oil. Even if Iran fails to take any military action whatsoever, even if the U.S. just lets Iran be and chooses to never invade, petroleum is still running low. The main producers of petroleum reside in the Middle East and eventually oil will run dry. Before this happens, however, the petroleum producers will be forced to significantly decrease the amount of barrels that are exported each year. Critics will claim that alternatives for gas will be ready by the time that oil is gone. Currently there are two alternatives to gas, which is the main commodity that crude oil is converted to. Ethanol and hybrid cars have been created to silence the doubters who claim that there is no alternative to fuel. Each has its problem and more importantly no one is taking measures to find effective alternatives for all other aspects that crude oil is used to make. Ethanol is a corn based fuel that is environmentally friendly and looks very good politically. For every unit of energy that it takes to create ethanol, ethanol puts out one unit of energy. Basically, this unit of energy could have been spent somewhere more productive instead of wasting it on an energy source that is ineffective. The use of ethanol also raises the prices of food everywhere. It doesn’t take an economist to figure out that milk prices have risen enormously the past year. This is because the money spent on corn to feed cows is now being spent to create ethanol. Here’s another problem with this inefficient fuel; there are no active stations for the public to even use ethanol if they wanted to. When’s the last time you’ve been driving by and seen an ethanol station? It is only a matter of time before ethanol dies and disappears from the world. Hybrid cars have their problems too, but not near as many that ethanol contains. Hybrid cars are efficient and are a good stepping stone toward a gas- free future. They still use gas, though, and even if every person on earth changed to a hybrid, gas consumption would still be a problem. Problems arise in this situation because it is ridiculous to think or believe that every person on earth would convert to a hybrid. Green Car Congress.com reported that hybrid cars went up 10% in the last quarter which is another good sign for gas supply. To believe that there will be magically a solution to the scarcity of oil is ludicrous; nations must start plotting new ideas now in order to avoid a future that will have no oil. If alternate solutions are not created then a grave future is in store. Nations will take desperate measures to acquire oil; a conventional war won’t break out, but instead a nuclear war which, if relied upon, will result in the apocalypse.
The concerns for nuclear weaponry and oil scarcity are present everywhere. The media and news may exaggerate certain ideas, but atomic bombs and petroleum shortage are very real anxieties that if handled incorrectly can lead to the apocalypse. Wars are a natural part of society and it only seems a matter of time before the whole world is involved. Countries like North Korea, who aren’t even involved in the major petroleum trade, are just waiting for the moment to cause havoc in the world. Kim Jong-il and other dictators can be the key factor to a full on war among a vast variety of nations. If the petroleum consumption continues at the current rate then the world will have to fight for the oil they desire. Nuclear weapons are the single handed most powerful weapon the world has ever seen, and countries could result to using them if oil scarcity becomes that bad. If the bombs are dropped, the destruction that will result is undeniable. The world will become a full on battlefield if a nuclear war erupts. The news often covers the gas prices and small countries who acquire nuclear weapons. The anxieties that society holds for both of these ideas is causing apocalyptic thinking and it is justifying that indeed the apocalypse may be a petroleum war fought with petroleum bombs.
Wednesday, April 16, 2008
War of American Traditions
In Steven Spielberg’s War of the Worlds it is very apparent that the main conflict consists of aliens operating giant robot machines to vaporize humanity. Although the threatening of mankind’s existence instills fear into the audience, War of the Worlds offers deeper meanings into the post 9/11 American culture that we live in today. Spielberg presents the everyday struggles that a broken American family goes through and how they must come together in the most crucial of times. The film illustrates the call-to-action that Americans experience when there is terror on U.S. soil. War of the Worlds is an apocalyptic movie with an emphasis on an alien takeover, but the film has much more to claim about post 9/11 American society and family that exists in the modern era.
The title is simple and straightforward: War of the Worlds. There is no gray area when reading it, it simply suggests our world vs. another. However, the cinematography reveals something completely different; Tom Cruise’s subjective view of the alien attack. Other than the frame, the viewer only sees through Tom Cruise’s perspective which is limited to his journey from New York to Boston. The only times that the viewer gets to see anything happening anywhere else in the world is through a news report that Tom Cruise is watching or passing by. All other accounts of alien attacks on the rest of the world are told through rumors of people that Tom Cruise encounters on his voyage to Boston. This cinematography is what makes the frame so interesting. Morgan Freeman narrates the frame telling of the alien beings that have been watching us and inevitably want to destroy the entire human population and take earth for their own. The frame starts out with the visualization of tiny cells mindlessly floating around in a water droplet. It then moves on to what is distinctly unique about the frame which is while Freeman is narrating, the only pictorial’s shown are of regular activities (such as walking, laughing, and playing baseball) that humans partake in during regular everyday life. This sets up the notion of innocence and helplessness that humans possess as opposed to the aliens. The viewer is left confused after the frame ends as the film immediately jumps in to Ray’s (Tom Cruise) story of survival. It doesn’t become clear what the frame does until the second half of it is shown at the end of the movie. The frame shows the earth from outer space and then zooms in presenting a water droplet reflecting an image of the earth. The camera zooms in again depicting the same tiny cells floating around. While of this is being illustrated to the viewer, Freeman is narrating about how ordinary bacteria and the common cold killed the aliens. The frame demonstrates that even though the aliens were clearly more dominant and powerful than humans, it our weathered experience on earth that kept us from submitting to death from microorganisms. The frame relates to today’s standards because like 9/11, a tragedy can occur but it is the strong-willed nature of humans to survive and take a stand. The aliens weren’t ready for what humans had withstood for thousands of years and as a result their bodies couldn’t handle and they died.
Ray is an interesting character and Spielberg focuses a majority of the film on Ray’s personality and behavior transition for the better during his role as the father in a broken family. As the divorce rate increases to over 50% and people are staying married for fewer and fewer years, it is safe to say that marriage is a collapsing institution. Rather than dwell and mourn about these statistics, War of the Worlds suggests a solution that can work for any family in need: find an alien invasion, endure through countless perilous attacks, and if you make it out alive your family will be functional and ecstatic. Although the story line is cheesy at times, War of the Worlds suggests a truth claim that works for today’s post 9/11 American society. That is, crisis will join people together no matter what the situation is, it’s in a human’s instincts to care for someone in need. Ray is no exception to this claim either. At the beginning of the film Ray is a selfish, self-absorbed blue collar worker who has a very poor relationship with his kids. His two children Robbie (Justin Chatwin) and Rachel (Dakota Fanning) constantly disrespect him by calling him Ray, Rachel speaks to him as if she is more mature, and they always talk about how their step-dad Tim (David Basche) does so much more than Ray. Don’t feel bad for Ray though, he hasn’t done anything to earn their respect. The one weekend that Robbie and Rachel come to visit him; Ray shows up late, he doesn’t have any food for them, and he goes straight to bed instead of interacting with them. It’s so bad that Robbie steals Ray’s car without permission just in order to get away from Ray. Ray is a poor father figure in American’s eyes and he demonstrates the characteristics that are given to the stereotypical father who leaves his wife and kids. This immediately puts Ray in with a bad taste to the audience and his chances of being a likeable character appear to be futile. As the film progresses Ray transitions in to the fatherly figure that American’s like and appreciate. He starts protecting his children and putting their lives as more important than his own. He even allows Robbie to join the fight against the aliens because Ray knows that he must trust Robbie to be a good father. By the end of the film he has earned the respect of his children and the affection of the audience. Although it took a crisis to do so, Ray’s transition into a good father is one that the audience wanted to see. It puts a surreal spin on life because it brings up the question, why must it take a tragedy in order to cause change? In the real world the father is a role with much expected of him, and too many times the father will give up and forget the fatherly necessities that children need. War of the Worlds demonstrates that change is possible even in as something as complex as a person’s behaviors. Society must take these visualizations of change to heart, or the trend of broken families will continue. Marriage is strong institution and is not completely diminished, but change is needed in order to keep it from collapsing.
Steven Spielberg expresses numerous situations throughout War of the Worlds that allude to 9/11 and terrorist attacks. The most notable scene is when Ray, Robbie, and Rachel are staking out at Tim’s house when the whole establishment begins to shake. Ray walks outside and realizes that a plane has just crashed into and destroyed the neighborhood that Tim lives in. The plane wreck makes a direct reference to 9/11 and it relates to any American audience member watching. This scene wouldn’t have been as breathtaking to the American public if the terrorist attack on the twin towers had never taken place. This film works for the post 9/11 society that we live in today because Spielberg adds scenes, like the image of the fallen plane, that force the audience to feel emotion and react. The terror of 9/11 left each American with a different impression, but few people feel neutral on the tragedy. After the terrorist attacks happened, many Americans had a sense of anxiety and national security became the frontline of every news report. Spielberg utilizes the fears and insecurities that most Americans feel post 9/11 to reinforce the emotions that the people in War of the Worlds are experiencing. One way Spielberg does this is by demonstrating the call-to-action that people undergo when their homeland is being attacked and innocent people are dying. Robbie’s reaction to the alien attacks stand out the most; anytime an army vehicle passes him he immediately bolts for it in the effort to suit up and join the fight. Robbie is only a 15 year boy and has no experience or expertise in fighting or firing a weapon so it seems absurd that he would be willing and insisting to fight. Although his immaturity shines through in these instances, his character reveals the anger and fury that an American can sense when there is terror threatening the U.S. Despite one’s limitations, when homeland is endangered people unite as a nation and fight for their right to live safe, secure, and anxiety-free. Ray explains to Robbie that it is in his and Rachel’s best interest to keep going and Ray urges Robbie to separate from the idea of assisting the army. Ray watches Robbie throughout the film and sees that Robbie proves himself to be a courageous person who puts his life on the line to help others. Ray’s witness of Robbie’s selfless acts established that he is mature enough to make his own decisions, so when Robbie tries to fight again later in the film Ray objects at first, but then lets Robbie go realizing that he made the right decision. The world trade center attacks left Americans with worry and concern that drew us as a nation closer together. War of the Worlds suggests insights to post 9/11 American culture that reveal as a nation we rally in a time of need, and terror on U.S. soil is unacceptable. American’s experienced a call-to-action after 9/11, and through War of the Worlds Spielberg illustrates the reaction that American’s endure when U.S. lives are put in danger.
American society has changed drastically in recent years. Marriage is no longer treated as an institution that cannot be broken, and the general public has national security anxieties. War of the Worlds sets it apart from other films by confronting these two issues head on. Spielberg visualizes the American family gone wrong, but insists that change back to the unacceptability of divorce and good parenting is tangible. Spielberg also suggests truth claims about the operation of our post 9/11 society which calls for American’s to react and unite when terror is afoot. Steven Spielberg’s War of the Worlds is a contemporary film with more to say than “aliens are attacking”; its meaning can be derived much farther into what we are as an American society.
The title is simple and straightforward: War of the Worlds. There is no gray area when reading it, it simply suggests our world vs. another. However, the cinematography reveals something completely different; Tom Cruise’s subjective view of the alien attack. Other than the frame, the viewer only sees through Tom Cruise’s perspective which is limited to his journey from New York to Boston. The only times that the viewer gets to see anything happening anywhere else in the world is through a news report that Tom Cruise is watching or passing by. All other accounts of alien attacks on the rest of the world are told through rumors of people that Tom Cruise encounters on his voyage to Boston. This cinematography is what makes the frame so interesting. Morgan Freeman narrates the frame telling of the alien beings that have been watching us and inevitably want to destroy the entire human population and take earth for their own. The frame starts out with the visualization of tiny cells mindlessly floating around in a water droplet. It then moves on to what is distinctly unique about the frame which is while Freeman is narrating, the only pictorial’s shown are of regular activities (such as walking, laughing, and playing baseball) that humans partake in during regular everyday life. This sets up the notion of innocence and helplessness that humans possess as opposed to the aliens. The viewer is left confused after the frame ends as the film immediately jumps in to Ray’s (Tom Cruise) story of survival. It doesn’t become clear what the frame does until the second half of it is shown at the end of the movie. The frame shows the earth from outer space and then zooms in presenting a water droplet reflecting an image of the earth. The camera zooms in again depicting the same tiny cells floating around. While of this is being illustrated to the viewer, Freeman is narrating about how ordinary bacteria and the common cold killed the aliens. The frame demonstrates that even though the aliens were clearly more dominant and powerful than humans, it our weathered experience on earth that kept us from submitting to death from microorganisms. The frame relates to today’s standards because like 9/11, a tragedy can occur but it is the strong-willed nature of humans to survive and take a stand. The aliens weren’t ready for what humans had withstood for thousands of years and as a result their bodies couldn’t handle and they died.
Ray is an interesting character and Spielberg focuses a majority of the film on Ray’s personality and behavior transition for the better during his role as the father in a broken family. As the divorce rate increases to over 50% and people are staying married for fewer and fewer years, it is safe to say that marriage is a collapsing institution. Rather than dwell and mourn about these statistics, War of the Worlds suggests a solution that can work for any family in need: find an alien invasion, endure through countless perilous attacks, and if you make it out alive your family will be functional and ecstatic. Although the story line is cheesy at times, War of the Worlds suggests a truth claim that works for today’s post 9/11 American society. That is, crisis will join people together no matter what the situation is, it’s in a human’s instincts to care for someone in need. Ray is no exception to this claim either. At the beginning of the film Ray is a selfish, self-absorbed blue collar worker who has a very poor relationship with his kids. His two children Robbie (Justin Chatwin) and Rachel (Dakota Fanning) constantly disrespect him by calling him Ray, Rachel speaks to him as if she is more mature, and they always talk about how their step-dad Tim (David Basche) does so much more than Ray. Don’t feel bad for Ray though, he hasn’t done anything to earn their respect. The one weekend that Robbie and Rachel come to visit him; Ray shows up late, he doesn’t have any food for them, and he goes straight to bed instead of interacting with them. It’s so bad that Robbie steals Ray’s car without permission just in order to get away from Ray. Ray is a poor father figure in American’s eyes and he demonstrates the characteristics that are given to the stereotypical father who leaves his wife and kids. This immediately puts Ray in with a bad taste to the audience and his chances of being a likeable character appear to be futile. As the film progresses Ray transitions in to the fatherly figure that American’s like and appreciate. He starts protecting his children and putting their lives as more important than his own. He even allows Robbie to join the fight against the aliens because Ray knows that he must trust Robbie to be a good father. By the end of the film he has earned the respect of his children and the affection of the audience. Although it took a crisis to do so, Ray’s transition into a good father is one that the audience wanted to see. It puts a surreal spin on life because it brings up the question, why must it take a tragedy in order to cause change? In the real world the father is a role with much expected of him, and too many times the father will give up and forget the fatherly necessities that children need. War of the Worlds demonstrates that change is possible even in as something as complex as a person’s behaviors. Society must take these visualizations of change to heart, or the trend of broken families will continue. Marriage is strong institution and is not completely diminished, but change is needed in order to keep it from collapsing.
Steven Spielberg expresses numerous situations throughout War of the Worlds that allude to 9/11 and terrorist attacks. The most notable scene is when Ray, Robbie, and Rachel are staking out at Tim’s house when the whole establishment begins to shake. Ray walks outside and realizes that a plane has just crashed into and destroyed the neighborhood that Tim lives in. The plane wreck makes a direct reference to 9/11 and it relates to any American audience member watching. This scene wouldn’t have been as breathtaking to the American public if the terrorist attack on the twin towers had never taken place. This film works for the post 9/11 society that we live in today because Spielberg adds scenes, like the image of the fallen plane, that force the audience to feel emotion and react. The terror of 9/11 left each American with a different impression, but few people feel neutral on the tragedy. After the terrorist attacks happened, many Americans had a sense of anxiety and national security became the frontline of every news report. Spielberg utilizes the fears and insecurities that most Americans feel post 9/11 to reinforce the emotions that the people in War of the Worlds are experiencing. One way Spielberg does this is by demonstrating the call-to-action that people undergo when their homeland is being attacked and innocent people are dying. Robbie’s reaction to the alien attacks stand out the most; anytime an army vehicle passes him he immediately bolts for it in the effort to suit up and join the fight. Robbie is only a 15 year boy and has no experience or expertise in fighting or firing a weapon so it seems absurd that he would be willing and insisting to fight. Although his immaturity shines through in these instances, his character reveals the anger and fury that an American can sense when there is terror threatening the U.S. Despite one’s limitations, when homeland is endangered people unite as a nation and fight for their right to live safe, secure, and anxiety-free. Ray explains to Robbie that it is in his and Rachel’s best interest to keep going and Ray urges Robbie to separate from the idea of assisting the army. Ray watches Robbie throughout the film and sees that Robbie proves himself to be a courageous person who puts his life on the line to help others. Ray’s witness of Robbie’s selfless acts established that he is mature enough to make his own decisions, so when Robbie tries to fight again later in the film Ray objects at first, but then lets Robbie go realizing that he made the right decision. The world trade center attacks left Americans with worry and concern that drew us as a nation closer together. War of the Worlds suggests insights to post 9/11 American culture that reveal as a nation we rally in a time of need, and terror on U.S. soil is unacceptable. American’s experienced a call-to-action after 9/11, and through War of the Worlds Spielberg illustrates the reaction that American’s endure when U.S. lives are put in danger.
American society has changed drastically in recent years. Marriage is no longer treated as an institution that cannot be broken, and the general public has national security anxieties. War of the Worlds sets it apart from other films by confronting these two issues head on. Spielberg visualizes the American family gone wrong, but insists that change back to the unacceptability of divorce and good parenting is tangible. Spielberg also suggests truth claims about the operation of our post 9/11 society which calls for American’s to react and unite when terror is afoot. Steven Spielberg’s War of the Worlds is a contemporary film with more to say than “aliens are attacking”; its meaning can be derived much farther into what we are as an American society.
A Long and Lonely Road
Many different visions are created when thinking about the apocalypse. Everyone seems to have their own idea of what the apocalypse will look and feel like. Often overlooked, however, is what will happen after the apocalypse? In Cormac McCarthy’s Pulitzer Prize winning novel The Road, he offers the post-apocalyptic struggle rather than depicting what actually happened to make the world so dark and bleak. McCarthy leaves you assuming and questioning throughout the whole novel, but never actually tells how the world was left in ruins. The Road constantly refers to the world as dark, burnt and full of ash. The setting reveals the true grim nature of the novel and McCarthy’s description of the setting engulfs the reader into a world where compassion and trust are hard to come by. The Road features the struggle of two characters: the man and the boy, neither of which are ever named. McCarthy focuses the entire novel on the perilous journey the man and boy face to get to the coast where they hope they will find a human colony of survivors. The Road offers more significance than just a tale of a man and boy’s expedition. Deeper meanings can be derived from McCarthy’s post-apocalyptic story when explored in further detail.
Hope is a reoccurring theme throughout The Road. In a world filled with death and misery, hope is one of the main things that drive the man and boy to keep moving. Throughout the novel the man perseveres through hardships because he looks to the boy as a sense of good in the world. The man keeps going because he believes that the boy’s life represents hope which instills the man to never give up and to always have the will to survive. In this aspect the boy can be viewed as a messiah-like figure to the man because he is the reason the man strives to live. The world of The Road displays no presence of a divine figure, everything is dead and everyone is fighting for survival. The boy provides the divine figure for the man to hope and believe in. If the boy was not there the man would have given up a long time ago. The boy can also be viewed in the messiah facet because he always wants to help people. The boy expresses compassion to strangers on the road and he continually tries to feed and accompany strangers they come across. One example of this is when the man and boy meet up with the old man. The boy insists that they feed and clothe the old man despite all of the man’s rejections. The boy has hope that he will find journeymen along the road that are friendly, even though he has encountered many that have caused danger and harm. The boy has been in numerous dangerous situations such as; when the man and boy were searching for food in the cellar of a barn and they found suffering enslaved civilians who were being tortured inside, the boy still begged the man to stop and help any and every straggler along the road. McCarthy reveals a world in The Road where everything good appears lost, and death is only inevitable. Hope is a constant theme in The Road it is what drives the man to live and the boy to insist on helping those in need.
Another theme in The Road is the man and boy’s role as “the good guys”. The man justifies all his actions throughout the novel by stating that whatever he does is what the “good guys” do. Many of the man’s deeds would normally be viewed as unjust and unkind; for example, when the thief steals the cart from the beach, the man finds the thief and forces him to remove all his clothes and shoes and lay them in the cart, and then he tells the thief to flee. Although stealing is looked down upon, the thief was struggling to live and did whatever he could to survive. Is stealing in this situation wrong? McCarthy’s post-apocalyptic world is filled with terror so is it just to say making rash and inconsiderate decisions is fair? The division between good and evil is a fine line in The Road, and only the reader can decide who to side with. The boy constantly objected to the man’s way of dealing with situations, and the man’s only response to these objections is that he is doing what the “good guys would do”. Where the man only thought of his and the boy’s survival, the boy was compassionate to all along the road and constantly fought for the man to help others. The man knew of the evil that existed in the world of The Road, contrary to the boy who was much less educated, so this gave the man sufficient reasoning to only protect him and the boy. The argument can be made for either case, but the novel continues to bring up the contradiction of morality and survival. Whether the man represents good or evil, McCarthy wants The Road to be a gut wrenching tale asking the reader to decide right from wrong.
Dreams are a big aspect of The Road. The man is continually telling the boy that good dreams cause one to relax and lose the urge to survive; he adds on to say that good dreams entail death. Nightmares or dreams that depict the suffering and turmoil of what the man and boy are experiencing in real life, keep the man and boy striving to live. The man welcomes his many upsetting dreams that depict danger and loathes the return of dreams that display his old life and the world prior to the apocalypse. The boy’s dreams offer a different truth claim however; his dreams seem to expose future events that the man and boy will encounter. An example of this is when the boy dreams of the windup toys and then later in the novel the men walking across the field are described as walking in the form of windup toys. Another example is when the boy awakes from a dream where the boy was calling out for the man but he wouldn’t answer. This is foreshadowing for the end of the book, because when the man dies the boy is left holding the man’s dead body calling out his name but there is no answer. Once the boy realizes that his dreams tend to foreshadow the future, he decides to no longer recount his dreams to his papa. The man and boy’s dreams are both important factors in each ones survival. The man uses his nightmares as a motivation to stay alive, whereas the boy is afraid of his nightmares because they suggest evil and disastrous outcomes in his and the man’s future.
In The Road the only setting and conditions the boy knows is the current destroyed and desolate landscape. The man knows both the original world he lived in, and the new post-apocalyptic one. This makes it hard for the man to see his son grow up in this terrible world when he as boy got to live in a world where everything was colorful, food was plentiful, and life ran smoothly. The boy knows little of this world, only stories the man tells him and occasional objects that pop up long from the past. The boy is skeptical of the past world because all he knows about the past is the man’s accounts of what the world used to be like. There are some “artifacts” such as the coke the man found in the vending machine or past technology in stores of a formerly industrialized city that the boy can go off of too. For the most part, however, the boy knows nothing of the preexisting world. The man struggles to find the coast and regain the world he used to live freely in. Fish is a medium McCarthy uses to flashback and look at the past. In the last passage McCarthy makes a reference to fish and how they were one of the first creatures here. Throughout The Road fish are mentioned in conversation as extinct and with the last passage it can be inferred that everything in the post-apocalyptic world will die, because if fish, which outlasted most species, can’t survive than nothing can survive.
Although the last passage and the man’s death in The Road leave an unhopeful ending to the novel, the reference of “carrying the fire” throughout the novel almost negates the unhopeful ending leaving the reader to believe the boy will survive. While the man is dying he tells the boy that the boy will be fine because he always gets lucky. A few pages later a group of friendly road goers find the boy on the road and take him in as one of their own. “Carrying the fire” is a constant phrase used throughout The Road which is a term used to express the struggle to survive and continue on to find a better place. The man and boy travel along the road during the novel desperately trying to get to the coast and find a better life. When they get to the coast and realize there is nothing there they continue their journey always trying to find something better. They “carry the fire” because they are trying to continue human existence on earth. When the man dies he leaves it up to the boy to find other survivors who are trying to stay alive, and find a way to restore normality to the world. When the boy first sees the voyagers along the road after his papa dies he asks if they “carry the fire”. The boy determines that they are his best chance of survival and follows them only to continue on his journey to find a colony of survivors.
Cormac McCarthy’s The Road has many meanings that can be derived from it. Besides being a bleak and dark setting, The Road offers insight of a hope driven world where good and evil are hard to separate. The novel relies on dreams and a past life to guide the characters. McCarthy author’s a deep and meaningful book that depicts the struggle of a dad and his son just trying to live a normal and fear-free life. The Road ends on a somewhat hopeful note and it can only be debated what lies in store for the boy as he continues on his journey over the road.
Hope is a reoccurring theme throughout The Road. In a world filled with death and misery, hope is one of the main things that drive the man and boy to keep moving. Throughout the novel the man perseveres through hardships because he looks to the boy as a sense of good in the world. The man keeps going because he believes that the boy’s life represents hope which instills the man to never give up and to always have the will to survive. In this aspect the boy can be viewed as a messiah-like figure to the man because he is the reason the man strives to live. The world of The Road displays no presence of a divine figure, everything is dead and everyone is fighting for survival. The boy provides the divine figure for the man to hope and believe in. If the boy was not there the man would have given up a long time ago. The boy can also be viewed in the messiah facet because he always wants to help people. The boy expresses compassion to strangers on the road and he continually tries to feed and accompany strangers they come across. One example of this is when the man and boy meet up with the old man. The boy insists that they feed and clothe the old man despite all of the man’s rejections. The boy has hope that he will find journeymen along the road that are friendly, even though he has encountered many that have caused danger and harm. The boy has been in numerous dangerous situations such as; when the man and boy were searching for food in the cellar of a barn and they found suffering enslaved civilians who were being tortured inside, the boy still begged the man to stop and help any and every straggler along the road. McCarthy reveals a world in The Road where everything good appears lost, and death is only inevitable. Hope is a constant theme in The Road it is what drives the man to live and the boy to insist on helping those in need.
Another theme in The Road is the man and boy’s role as “the good guys”. The man justifies all his actions throughout the novel by stating that whatever he does is what the “good guys” do. Many of the man’s deeds would normally be viewed as unjust and unkind; for example, when the thief steals the cart from the beach, the man finds the thief and forces him to remove all his clothes and shoes and lay them in the cart, and then he tells the thief to flee. Although stealing is looked down upon, the thief was struggling to live and did whatever he could to survive. Is stealing in this situation wrong? McCarthy’s post-apocalyptic world is filled with terror so is it just to say making rash and inconsiderate decisions is fair? The division between good and evil is a fine line in The Road, and only the reader can decide who to side with. The boy constantly objected to the man’s way of dealing with situations, and the man’s only response to these objections is that he is doing what the “good guys would do”. Where the man only thought of his and the boy’s survival, the boy was compassionate to all along the road and constantly fought for the man to help others. The man knew of the evil that existed in the world of The Road, contrary to the boy who was much less educated, so this gave the man sufficient reasoning to only protect him and the boy. The argument can be made for either case, but the novel continues to bring up the contradiction of morality and survival. Whether the man represents good or evil, McCarthy wants The Road to be a gut wrenching tale asking the reader to decide right from wrong.
Dreams are a big aspect of The Road. The man is continually telling the boy that good dreams cause one to relax and lose the urge to survive; he adds on to say that good dreams entail death. Nightmares or dreams that depict the suffering and turmoil of what the man and boy are experiencing in real life, keep the man and boy striving to live. The man welcomes his many upsetting dreams that depict danger and loathes the return of dreams that display his old life and the world prior to the apocalypse. The boy’s dreams offer a different truth claim however; his dreams seem to expose future events that the man and boy will encounter. An example of this is when the boy dreams of the windup toys and then later in the novel the men walking across the field are described as walking in the form of windup toys. Another example is when the boy awakes from a dream where the boy was calling out for the man but he wouldn’t answer. This is foreshadowing for the end of the book, because when the man dies the boy is left holding the man’s dead body calling out his name but there is no answer. Once the boy realizes that his dreams tend to foreshadow the future, he decides to no longer recount his dreams to his papa. The man and boy’s dreams are both important factors in each ones survival. The man uses his nightmares as a motivation to stay alive, whereas the boy is afraid of his nightmares because they suggest evil and disastrous outcomes in his and the man’s future.
In The Road the only setting and conditions the boy knows is the current destroyed and desolate landscape. The man knows both the original world he lived in, and the new post-apocalyptic one. This makes it hard for the man to see his son grow up in this terrible world when he as boy got to live in a world where everything was colorful, food was plentiful, and life ran smoothly. The boy knows little of this world, only stories the man tells him and occasional objects that pop up long from the past. The boy is skeptical of the past world because all he knows about the past is the man’s accounts of what the world used to be like. There are some “artifacts” such as the coke the man found in the vending machine or past technology in stores of a formerly industrialized city that the boy can go off of too. For the most part, however, the boy knows nothing of the preexisting world. The man struggles to find the coast and regain the world he used to live freely in. Fish is a medium McCarthy uses to flashback and look at the past. In the last passage McCarthy makes a reference to fish and how they were one of the first creatures here. Throughout The Road fish are mentioned in conversation as extinct and with the last passage it can be inferred that everything in the post-apocalyptic world will die, because if fish, which outlasted most species, can’t survive than nothing can survive.
Although the last passage and the man’s death in The Road leave an unhopeful ending to the novel, the reference of “carrying the fire” throughout the novel almost negates the unhopeful ending leaving the reader to believe the boy will survive. While the man is dying he tells the boy that the boy will be fine because he always gets lucky. A few pages later a group of friendly road goers find the boy on the road and take him in as one of their own. “Carrying the fire” is a constant phrase used throughout The Road which is a term used to express the struggle to survive and continue on to find a better place. The man and boy travel along the road during the novel desperately trying to get to the coast and find a better life. When they get to the coast and realize there is nothing there they continue their journey always trying to find something better. They “carry the fire” because they are trying to continue human existence on earth. When the man dies he leaves it up to the boy to find other survivors who are trying to stay alive, and find a way to restore normality to the world. When the boy first sees the voyagers along the road after his papa dies he asks if they “carry the fire”. The boy determines that they are his best chance of survival and follows them only to continue on his journey to find a colony of survivors.
Cormac McCarthy’s The Road has many meanings that can be derived from it. Besides being a bleak and dark setting, The Road offers insight of a hope driven world where good and evil are hard to separate. The novel relies on dreams and a past life to guide the characters. McCarthy author’s a deep and meaningful book that depicts the struggle of a dad and his son just trying to live a normal and fear-free life. The Road ends on a somewhat hopeful note and it can only be debated what lies in store for the boy as he continues on his journey over the road.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)