McCarthy Unabridged: The Road, Page 125
Heres a dream of the boys that could of been cut from the original version.
To be inserted on page 125 after “... stopped shaking and after a while he slept.” breaking the current paragraph into 2 and making a new one in the middle.
The boy and the man had just arrived. They were scouring the house looking for anything to scavenge. Just as they were about to exit they noticed a trap door on the floor. Before the boy could speak the man opened the door and jumped down. Cemented in place, the boy just stood watching. The man ran back up the stairs and slammed the door shut. He started screaming but the boy couldn’t make out his words. The man screamed and grabbed for the boy when the door slammed opened. Before the boy could blink the man was dead. Shot in temple right in front of him. The world around the boy began to ring and blur. The boy fell to his knees he began to scream but the ringing drowned out all sounds. The woman who shot the man grabbed the boy and covered his mouth. The boy struggled to break free but could not succeed. The man accompanying the woman walked over to the trap door and opened it. They threw the boy down the steps and into the pit of half eaten people. The boy tried to run but was instantly pinned down. The half eaten carnivores began to tear at the boy, limb by limb. Scratching and biting until their nails bled. The boy could hold on no longer, everything went dark.
This is a little piece to help you understand what I wrote and why it would fit into the book.
Giving the boy this nightmare about what previously happened is one of the best ways to show his development. Nightmares are our worst fears presented to us in the worst way possible. The boy having this nightmare but being virtually unfazed by it really shows how he is developing into more of a man. Not being scared and facing your fears is a huge personal development.
This scene plot and placement have a lot to do with each other. There is a lot of reflection going on with the boy because it's the first time these people come back up in his mind. The encounter they had doesn’t come back up until after the boy sleeps and wakes up for the second time. By placing this dream here it also shows foreshadowing as to why the boy brought up the conversation of good guys and bad guys directly after my scene. It is important to know that because that’s how my scene is connected to the theme, essential question, and motif. This scene addresses the theme of survival. Survival is the whole point of their journey and these carnivore people are the only ones who can stop the man and the boy from surviving. The man and the boy try their hardest to stay away from people like this, making them a sort of unknown variable. In this case unknowns lead to death and death means no survival.
My essential question and motif are pretty similar to each other. I wanted to tackle the question why be the “good guys?” and the motif of actual good guys and actual bad guys. When the man and the boy are in a situation where they have no food, they still refuse to eat people but it can be a little unclear why when the ultimate goal is to survive. There’s no one around to tell them they did something wrong so why bother worrying. This scene shows exactly why they choose to be good. They don’t want their worst nightmare to come true.
The motif really comes through when you consider what makes the carnivore people bad. Even though there isn’t someone to tell them right or wrong humans still have morality. Killing someone is completely against all morals and so is eating them. The true difference here between good and bad are the people who can stay true to their morals and that's what the man and boy do.
Lastly I feel like I wrote this as similar to McCarthy as possible. I used a sort of monotone while writing and used words like dark, scavenged, and carnivorous to mimic but not mirror his writing.
Comments
No comments have been posted yet.
Log in to post a comment.