The Road
by
Cormac McCarthy
Created by:
Book Club Classics
1
The Road – Fast Facts
Author – Cormac McCarthy
Pages – 287 (First Vintage International edition)
Date Published – September 26, 2006 (Knopf)
Setting – United States / unspecified time in the future
Point of view – Third person limited (father and son)
Genre – Fiction (novel)
Issues/Conflicts – Journey / Father and Son Relationship / Survival / Postapocalyptic Existence
Awards –
Pulitzer Prize
James Tait Black Memorial Prize
National Book Critics Circle Award finalist
2
The Road – Vocabulary Help:
page # / word / definition
3
11
24
48
61
63
64
90
91
92
117
granitic – a coarse-grained igneous rock made up of feldspar, mica, and at least 20
percent quartz; determination or toughness of character
gryke – cleft in limestone surface: a deep cleft in a bare limestone rock surface.
discalced – wearing sandals or going barefoot in accordance with the rules of some orders
of monks, friars, or nuns
mastic – a flexible cement. Use: filler, adhesive, sealant in woodwork, plaster, brickwork.
macadam – a smooth hard road surface made from small pieces of stone, usually mixed
with tar or asphalt, in compressed layers
rachitic – rickets
colliculus – a paired structure that is part of the brain's tectal area.
temporal gyrus – A longitudinal gyrus on the lateral surface of the temporal lobe between
the lateral (sylvian) fissure and the superior temporal sulcus.
woad – a blue dye obtained from the leaves of a European plant. Use: formerly, body paint.
phalanx – ancient troop formation: especially in ancient Greece, a group of soldiers that
attacked in close formation, protected by their overlapping shields and projecting spears
catamites – a boy kept by a man for sexual intercourse
chary – 1. cautiously reluctant to do something
2. reluctant to share, give, or use something
illucid – Something so beyond understanding that it defies classification.
136
183
204
222
261
274
gelid – exceedingly cold
piedmont – area at foot of mountains
verdigris – green deposit on copper
isocline – fold of rock strata
salitter – something unknown to us; we cannot conceive what it means.
dolmen – a prehistoric structure thought to have been used as a tomb that consists of a
large horizontal slab of stone supported by two or more vertical slabs
sloe – sour, blue-black fruit
hydroptic – insatiable thirst
Definitions courtesy of: MSN Encarta dictionary and Google
3
The Road -- Author Information
Charles McCarthy was born on July 20, 1933 in Rhode Island. He was one of six children
born to Charles Joseph and Gladys Christina McGrail McCarthy. His name was changed to
Cormac to honor an Irish king, the Gaelic equivalent of “son of Charles.”
At the age of four, Cormac moved to Knoxville, Tennessee with his family. Cormac
attended the University of Tennessee in 1951-52 before serving four years in the Air Force.
He then returned to the University of Tennessee in 1957 and published two stories: “A
Drowning Incident” and “Wake for Susan.” He left the university in 1959 and moved to
Chicago, working as an auto mechanic while finishing his first novel. A few years later, he
received a traveling fellowship from the American Academy of Arts and Letter and toured
Europe, eventually settling in Ibiza, Spain for a few years. In 1967 he returned to Tennessee,
where he lived until 1976 when he moved to El Paso, Texas. He now lives in Sante Fe, New
Mexico with his third wife and second son, to whom The Road is dedicated.
McCarthy has written ten novels, one screenplay, two plays, and a number of short stories.
His work has won numerous awards and accolades and many consider him to be among the
best American writers of his time. He has been compared to William Faulkner and Herman
Melville.
Information courtesy of:
The official website of Cormac McCarthy
Check out excerpts from interview with Oprah Winfrey
4
The Road – Menu Ideas and Setting the Mood
Since the characters are required to scavenge for whatever sustenance
they are able to find, consider these two ideas:
1. Ask each member of your book club to bring his/her favorite, most appreciated, yet
simple dish to share. At the meeting, tell why you brought the dish and what you
particularly enjoy about it. Tell why you are grateful it is easily accessible.
2. Provide simple, wholesome fare – for example, crusty bread and olive oil; good
cheese; fresh water (or wine!); fresh fruit. Serve food that is delicious and yet
provides sustenance.
Here are two ideas to set the mood and get the conversation started to
help you appreciate McCarthy’s masterpiece. Enjoy!
 Ask each member what they believe is a current conflict in the world
that could one day lead to a situation like the context of The Road.
 Ask each member what they are most grateful for in his/her life at the
moment. Then ask what each member would be willing to sacrifice
her/his life for.
5
The Road Discussion Questions
The following questions approach the novel from a number of different angles, i.e.,
how the novel functions as a work of art, how it reflects the time period, how it
addresses fundamental questions of humanity, and how it engages the reader.
A good discussion tends to start with our “heads” and end with our “hearts.” So,
you may want to save subjective opinions of taste until after you have discussed the
more objective elements of the work’s merits. It is tempting to begin with, “What
did everyone think?” But if a number of people really didn’t like the novel, their
opinions may derail a discussion of the novel’s merits.
On the other hand, I recommend starting with a few accessible questions, (like those
in the “setting the mood” section), asking every member to respond to ensure that
all voices are present and heard from the beginning. Just a few suggestions!
Enjoy…
1)Reread the first few sentences:
“When he woke in the woods in the dark and the cold of the night he’d reach out to
touch the child sleeping beside him. Nights dark beyond darkness and the days
more gray each one than what had gone before. Like the onset of some cold
glaucoma dimming away the world. His hand rose and fell softly with each precious
breath.” (1)
What were your first impressions of this novel? How did the imagery affect you at the
beginning? What images were most profound / affecting? What is the effect of McCarthy’s
use of sentence fragments?
2) In an interview with Oprah Winfrey, Cormac stated:
“The message readers might take away from The Road … is that one should ‘simply
care about things and people and be more appreciative…Life is pretty damn good,
even when it looks bad. We should be grateful,’ McCarthy said. Asked by Winfrey if
he had ‘worked the God thing out,’ he said: ‘It would depend on what day you ask
me. I don't think you have to have a great idea of who or what God is in order to pray
... you can be quite doubtful about the whole business.’”
Did you take away a message of gratitude after finishing the novel? How would you
describe the concept of God portrayed in the novel?
6
3) On page 5 the father thinks, “He knew only that the child was his warrant. He said: If he
is not the word of God God never spoke.” Some have interpreted the child to represent
Jesus. Did you feel Biblical overtones in the novel? If so, in what way?
4) The point of view shifts in a couple of places from the father’s perspective to the boy’s
point of view (page 10 / page 278 to end). What was the effect of this? Was it disorienting?
Since this shift of perspective only occurs in a few places, why do believe McCarthy does it
at all?
5) Notice how the setting is never specified and it is unclear where the protagonists are
heading. What is the effect of not knowing details that are usually clear and concrete in most
novels? What were your assumptions as you read the novel?
6) Reread this quote on page 54:
“No lists of things to be done. The day providential to itself. The hour. There is no
later. This is later. All things of grace and beauty such that one holds them to one’s heart
have a common provenance in pain. Their birth in grief and ashes. So, he whispered to
the sleeping boy. I have you.”
Respond to his belief that all beautiful things have a common provenance in pain. Why
does he believe this?
7) Early on, the father tells his son, “You forget what you want to remember and you
remember what you want to forget.” (12). Do you agree with this statement?
8) Throughout the novel, dreams emerge as a motif. Why do you believe McCarthy has his
characters dream? What significance did you notice in the dreams? (Dreams occur on the
following pages: 52, 137, 153, 280).
7
9) Stylistically, McCarthy does not use apostrophes in his contractions (wont instead of
won’t), nor quotation marks with his dialogue. Many of his sentences are fragments, as well.
Why do you believe he does this? What was the initial effect on you, the reader, before you
grew accustomed to it?
10) We learn very little about the boy’s mother, except that she kills herself and would’ve
killed her son if the father had allowed her to. However, the last image of the novel is of a
mother-figure embracing the boy. How would the novel have been different if the mother
had lived? Did her suicide seem realistic – why/not?
11) After a brush with the “bad guys,” the father tells his son, “My job is to take care of
you. I was appointed to do that by God. I will kill anyone who touches you. Do you
understand?” The boy replies, “Are we still the good guys?”
The father kills a man and leaves another to die. What distinguishes him from the bad guys?
Why does the boy ask this question? What seems to be the boy’s symbolic function in the
novel? Where should we draw the line with regard to our survival?
12) The plot and characterization is very simple, yet the themes are profound. What do
you believe is the primary message of this novel? After reading The Road, George Monbiot,
a British environmental campaigner, declared McCarthy to be one of the “50 people who
could save the world.” Why is this novel considered to be an environmental parable?
13) What was your reaction to the ending?
14) Would you read a sequel to this novel?
15) Would you recommend this novel to others?
16) What, if anything, would you have changed about this novel?
8
The Road -- Reviews
For full reviews of The Road, please click the links:
New York Times Sunday Book Review:
Cormac McCarthy’s subject in his new novel is as big as it gets: the end of the civilized world, the
dying of life on the planet and the spectacle of it all. He has written a visually stunning picture of how
it looks at the end to two pilgrims on the road to nowhere. Color in the world — except for fire and
blood — exists mainly in memory or dream. Fire and firestorms have consumed forests and cities,
and from the fall of ashes and soot everything is gray, the river water black. Hydrangeas and wild
orchids stand in the forest, sculptured by fire into “ashen effigies” of themselves, waiting for the
wind to blow them over into dust. Intense heat has melted and tipped a city’s buildings, and window
glass hangs frozen down their walls… McCarthy has said that death is the major issue in the world
and that writers who don’t address it are not serious. Death reaches very near totality in this novel.
The Village Voice
Have all of Cormac McCarthy's fictional odysseys been leading to this, a world blasted gray and
featureless by human folly and cosmic indifference, inhabited only by pitiless predators and
(arguably) lucky survivors? Or is The Road just further rumination from a man who, metaphorically or
otherwise, finds himself on unrecognizable terrain in the final years of his life?
Take your pick. The genius of McCarthy's work, whether you find it risible or profound, is in its
bold, seamless melding of private revelation, cultural insight, and unabashed philosophizing. Sci-fi
divination is new for him, though, and the freshness he brings to this end-of-the-world narrative is
quite stunning: It may be the saddest, most haunting book he's ever written, or that you'll ever read.
Guardian.co.uk
Shorn of history and context, Cormac McCarthy's other nine novels could be cast as rungs, with The
Road as a pinnacle. This is a very great novel, but one that needs a context in both the past and in socalled post-9/11 America.
We can divide the contemporary American novel into two traditions, or two social classes. The
Tough Guy tradition comes up from Fenimore Cooper, with a touch of Poe, through Melville,
Faulkner and Hemingway. The Savant tradition comes from Hawthorne, especially through Henry
James, Edith Wharton and Scott Fitzgerald. You could argue that the latter is liberal, east coast/New
York, while the Tough Guys are gothic, reactionary, nihilistic, openly religious, southern or
fundamentally rural.
9
The Washington Post
In Cormac McCarthy's new novel, The Road, the bloodbath is finally complete. The violence that
animated his great Western novels has been superseded by a flash of nuclear annihilation, which also
blasts away some of what we expect from the reclusive author's work. With this apocalyptic tale,
McCarthy has moved into the allegorical realm of Samuel Beckett and José Saramago -- and, weirdly,
George Romero.
More from the New York Times
In “The Road” a boy and his father lurch across the cold, wretched, wet, corpse-strewn, ashen
landscape of a post-apocalyptic world. The imagery is brutal even by Cormac McCarthy’s high
standards for despair. This parable is also trenchant and terrifying, written with stripped-down
urgency and fueled by the force of a universal nightmare. “The Road” would be pure misery if not
for its stunning, savage beauty.
Telegraph.co.uk.
Birds and beasts are extinct. A few enduring humans subsist on the flesh of starvelings lured into
their meat cellars. The earth is rendered down to the ash and perpetual gloom of a nuclear winter
where 'by day the banished sun circles the earth like a grieving mother with a lamp'. Those who still
have ammunition for their guns make women into chattels, men into catamites, and children into
lunch. The Road, Cormac McCarthy's harrowing, holy and haunting tenth novel, was never going to
be a comedy of manners.
Through McCarthy's fallen world a father and son 'set out along the blacktop in the gunmetal light,
shuffling through the ash, each the other's world entire', and the darkest imaginable American road
novel is underway. Devouring Lolita, barging On the Road off the road, McCarthy's novel finds an
unlikely fellow-traveller in Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath.
Many more reviews…
10
The Road – Literary Terms
Exposition – the introduction of the setting, characters, and conflict(s) at the beginning of a
novel. Our first impressions are greatly influenced by our enjoyment and impressions of the
first chapter, so after finishing a novel, consider skimming the first chapter again to see how
the author shaped and influenced your first impressions. Notice how quickly and
profoundly McCarthy creates the mood and atmosphere of his setting.
Diction – word choice. Notice McCarthy’s word choice and how that influences your
reading speed as well as enjoyment level. Notice how he uses many words unique to
geology.
Syntax – style of sentence structure. Notice how the author’s crafting of syntax affects your
engagement as a reader. Complexity of syntax does not determine literary merit – the
pairing of syntax to meaning does. McCarthy uses fragments throughout – consider why he
chooses to do this and what the effect is.
Tone – author’s attitude toward subject. Think “tone of voice.” Tone is created through
diction and can be very subtle, but is extremely important. If you misinterpret the tone, you
most likely misinterpret the meaning or theme of the narrative.
Mood – emotional atmosphere of novel. Mood is considered an aspect of the setting (time,
place, atmosphere). When we read a novel, we “read ourselves,” so think about what type of
mood your favorite novels tend to have and how different moods may influence your
enjoyment level. The mood of The Road is consistently bleak until the last few pages.
Theme – main idea that runs throughout and unifies novel. Theme should be stated as a
complete thought and not one word, which would instead be a topic of the novel: instead of
“death” or “family” consider what the author is saying about the nature of death or family.
In complex literature, themes are frequently not “morals” of the novel; they may or may not
represent the ideal.
11
Irony – the opposite of what is expected. Dramatic irony is when the reader has more
information than the character does, providing the reader with an all-knowing perspective.
Situational irony is when a situation turns out differently than expected. Verbal irony is
when the speaker means the opposite of what is said, so correctly interpreting tone becomes
crucial to the reader’s understanding of the events and particularly of the themes.
Symbolism – when an element of the story (object, character, color, etc.) is both literally
present in the novel and has significance or represents something beyond itself. Many
people believe the son symbolizes Jesus.
Foil – when two characters contrast each other. The characters do not need to be enemies
– or even be aware of one another. Notice the dichotomy of the “good guys” and the “bad
guys.”
Allusion – a reference to something outside the story – usually another story – that the
reader is expected to be familiar with. If the son is supposed to represent a Christ-figure,
readers would be expected to be familiar with the Bible.
Imagery – the use of language that appeals to the senses. McCarthy opens the novel with
an image of death:
“With the first gray light he rose and left the boy sleeping and walked out to the road
and squatted and studied the country to the south. Barren, silent, godless.” (4)
Once an image symbolizes a deeper meaning, it becomes a metaphor or simile. For
example:
“The gray shape of the city vanished in the night’s onset like an apparition and he lit
the little lamp and set it back out of the wind.” (9)
Juxtaposition – the placing of two or more discordant images together. The presence of
the young boy’s innocence is powerfully juxtaposed with the bleak setting.
12
The Road – The Film
The Road is set to be released fall 2008. Your group could watch this movie together and
discuss your impressions, or group members could watch it before the meeting and then
discuss impressions as a group. Here are a few possible movie questions:
 While viewing the movie, which characters were most unlike how you pictured
them while reading the novel?
 Which characters seemed “right on” in their portrayal?
 What plot elements were left out or changed in the movie?
 How was your enjoyment affected by what was left out/changed?
 How well was the setting represented?
 If you were to remake this movie, who would you cast as the father, mother and
boy? Both Guy Pearce and Viggo Mortenson were up for the role of the father.
Who would you have preferred?
 How well did the filmmakers recreate McCarthy’s unique sense of place and
mood?
More information on the film:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0898367/
13
The Road – Further reading!
According to Gnooks.com, other authors you may
enjoy…
William Faulkner (Try: The Sound and the Fury)
Denis Johnson (Try: Tree of Smoke)
Russell Banks (Try: The Sweet Hereafter)
Richard Russo (Try: Bridge of Sighs)
Flannery O’Connor (Try: “A Good Man is Hard to
Find”)
14