Interesting Passages from section 1
In the dream from which he’d wakened he had wandered in a cave where the child led him by the hand.
Their light playing over the wet flowstone walls. Like pilgrims in a fable swallowed up and lost among the
inward parts of some granitic beast. Deep stone flues where the water dripped and sang. Tolling in the
silence the minutes of the earth and the hours and the days of it and the years without cease. Until they
stood in a great stone room where lay a black and ancient lake. And on the far shore a creature that
raised its dripping mouth from the rimstone pool and stared into the light with eyes dead white and
sightless as the eggs of spiders. It swung its head low over the water as if to take the scent of what it
could not see. Crouching there pale and naked and translucent, its alabaster bones cast up in shadow
on the rocks behind it. Its bowels, its beating heart. The brain that pulsed in a dull glass bell. It swung its
head from side to side and then gave out a low moan and turned and lurched away and loped
soundlessly into the dark.
Barren, silent, godless. He thought the month was October but he wasnt sure. He hadnt kept a calendar
for years.
He said: If [the boy] is not the word of God God never spoke.
He watched the [still asleep] boy and he looked out through the trees toward the road. This was not a
safe place. They could be seen from the road now it was day. The boy turned in the blankets. Then he
opened his eyes. Hi, Papa, he said.
I’m right here.
I know.
Then they set out along the blacktop in the gun-metal light, shuffling through the ash, each the other’s
world entire.
A standing metal toolbox against one wall. He went through the drawers but there was nothing there that
he could use. Good half-inch drive sockets. A ratchet.
Discussion for sections 1-3
Pages 3-4 and overall
1.
The plot moves between real life, dreams, and memories. Give one example of each, and
explain why the author includes it.
Pages 4-7 and overall
2.
Characterize the man. Characterize the boy. How would you describe their relationship? What
moments help you define their relationship? Be specific and pull quotes to support your analysis.
3.
How does the man attempt to maintain aspects of civility and civilization for the boy?
Pages 7-11 and overall
4.
What are the most immediate threats to the man and the boy?
5.
Describe the setting of the novel; what is the overall mood created by this setting? Include three
specific details (each from a different section), and include textual evidence in your response.
Page 14 and overall
6.
Consider the following quote: “...[T]he blackened shapes of rock standing up out of the shoals of
ash and billows of ash blowing down country through the waste” (14). Why do you think
McCarthy uses the imagery of the ocean to describe the landscape?
7.
Religion is a motif throughout this novel. We know that one reference is on p5. Find and explain
at least two other references to religion in these sections. This may be an explicit reference (like
using the word God or it may be an indirect reference to prayer or even a word with religious
connotations like penitent.)
Page 16 and 28-29
8.
There are words being used in this novel which are new to our language - “scabland” (16),
“bloodcults” (16) are some examples. What do these terms mean? Why is McCarthy combining
words in this way?
9.
What judgments can you make about the man’s situation from the following quotation: “He sat by
a gray window in the gray light in an abandoned house in the late afternoon and read old
newspapers while the boy slept. The curious news. The quaint concerns. At eight the primrose
closes. He watched the boy sleeping. Can you do it? When the time comes? Can you?”
(McCarthy 28‐ 29).
Page 31 and overall
10.
“By day the banished sun circles the earth like a grieving mother with a lamp” (31). Discuss the
meaning of this quote.
11.
Cormac McCarthy is known for his unique writing style, which is especially on display in The
Road. Discuss why McCarthy may have chosen to ignore each rule, how it affects the story so
far, and how it affects our perceptions of what is happening. In this response, make a unified
answer (e.g. it’s all done to show alienation, it’s all done to make a positive mood, etc).
i. Does not always use punctuation marks 
ii. Does not use quotation marks 
iii. Does not give his characters names 
iv. There is no clearly identified location 