This is a quick book summary and analysis of The Road by Cormac McCarthy.
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This is a story about a man and his son who are travelling along a road in the aftermath of a disaster that has destroyed most of the world. The man is harboring a bad cough, but tries to make the best of it since he’s all his son has left.
They travel light, carrying just what they need to survive, and are extremely cautious of the few people that they do come across. Supplies are limited since most of civilization has been destroyed.
They carry a map and are heading towards the coast, hoping for better weather. During their journey, they encounter various individuals, including an armed group of militia, a lonely little boy, a basement full of prisoners to be eaten, and a blind old man.
Along their journey, they find supplies of food and blankets, but the man insists that they keep moving.
They eventually get to the coast and the man sees a distant boat off the shore. He swims to the boat and discovers that it’s abandoned and contains useful supplies, like a flare gun.
After raiding the boat of all of its supplies, the man and boy continue moving on. However, someone takes their cart and supplies, so they go after the thief.
After retrieving their supplies and cart, they enter a quiet town, but are suddenly attacked by a man with a bow and arrow. The man is wounded by an arrow and his son can only watch as he tries to bandage his wound.
The man is dying and tells his son that he must continue travelling on the road.
In the end, after the man dies, a man and woman find the boy and invite him to travel with them.
As always a lot can be said about this story, but what draws my interest and attention is the idea of our perception of ourselves and others as a “good guy” or a “bad guy”.
Throughout their journey, the man tells his son that they are good guys and that they are searching for other good guys. However, what makes things difficult, the father says, is that the good guys are mixed in among the bad guys.
Whether there really exists good guys or bad guys in the world within the story doesn’t really matter. This simplified view on life that categorizes people into two broad categories - either good or bad - seems childish, but it may have been necessary to teach the boy how their world, a desolate world, works. In the end, it all could have been made up by the man as a way to keep his son safe and wary of strangers.
Yet this simplified outlook on others is used by people in our less-grayed world of today. Oftentimes, it’s only natural that we place ourselves as the good guys, the individual who does no wrong and has the proper justification for our attitude and behavior.
However, this also means that others are placed in the role of the bad guy, or at the very least, extras, or background characters, in our life.
This can be dangerous because it sometimes can imply that we, as the good guy, are always right and that all injustices in our life are caused by others as the bad guys.
Through Minute Book Reports, hopefully you can get the plot and a few relevant discussion points in just a couple of minutes.
Music: "Afterglow" by Josh Woodward - [ Ссылка ]
