Walking down this barren path Cormac McCarthy has set before me, all I can picture is a gray scene littered with the rotting corpse of the earth. The “ashen scabland” personifies the earth as a being, its body covered in lesions representing the death surrounding the characters (16). The earth has just sustained an apocalyptic war so I believe its injuries are justified. Despite this horrific description of the earth, McCarthy continues to pound the effect of death through similes. Just something as simple as a piece of meat, McCarthy has to say “It looked like something fetched from a tomb, so dried and drawn” (17). One of my other favorite similes is, “Creedless shells of men tottering down the causeways like migrants in the feverland”(28). This presents a vivid image of the people in this society to me and also dehumanizes the people down to shells. They don’t have a faith so they are not real men and they are struggling to survive. McCarthy then somewhat contradicts himself by deflating the power of death by comparing the cart to a bobsled. The father was “guiding the cart on the curves with their bodies in the manner of bobsledders” (19). Everything has to be a comparison to McCarthy, strengthening my understanding of the text but also painting a picture of the horrendous landscape covered in the unforgiving ash.
This ash attributed to death and destruction is continued throughout the exposition of the novel with the color gray. Gray is brought up to describe “day break,”(11) snowflakes, snow, a lake, “a gray window in the gray light,”(28) and many others but you get the idea. McCarthy utilizes color, specifically gray, as a stylistic element to describe the landscape but to also represent death and the spread of destruction. Wherever they look something is covered in ash, or they see something dead. Even in the father’s old house they find “a small animal dismembered and placed in a pile”(26). There is no escape from their impending death that surrounds them and the son already wants to die! He says “I wish I was with my mom,” who has died previous to this moment. The boy is already desperate to escape this horrific environment! I’m sure however if I was in his shoes I would feel the same way. Living off minimal food and walking by hundreds of dead people everyday would definitely not suit me. Despite this dreary and death related color of gray, McCarthy contrasts gray with other colors to represent other feelings, emotions, and to describe environments.
These other colors are yellow, blue, and black, each having certain meanings, some similar to gray while some different. Yellow was used to describe “leaves”(13), teeth, “firebrick in the hearth”(26), and a truck. Although these are not easily relatable, yellow has a much happier connotation as a color than gray. As leave one might think of life and living, contrasting the death and lack of color landscape portrayed in the story. Also, the firebrick in the hearth was painted yellow so that it wasn’t black. Black usually represents death and is shown by “black and twisted brambles”(21), ice, and darkness. Black has a much more mean or scary connotation in contrast with yellow. Black works hand in hand with gray to set the scene with a lack of color but filled with death. Finally, the last color, and one that I find most interesting is blue. Blue is used to describe the “wall of the mountain”(20), and “the sky”(18). I find this most interesting because one of these references takes place in a dream while the other taking place in the past. This color represents nothing in the current environment but almost provides hope for readers and the characters. I would take a blue mountain over a black or gray mountain everyday because of the happier and more serene feeling I get.
I picture a vast, barren, gray and dreary environment, crafted through personification and simile with death everywhere. Despite this hopeless setting McCarthy provides hope through other colors and leaves readers with a sense that maybe they will survive, and not everything is terrible.
This looks like a great analysis of the colors used in the road! If both black and gray symbolize death and darkness, are there any nuances that gray has that makes it less severe or distinct from black? From the examples of yellow objects, it seems like yellow is hiding blackness and death behind it, but blue is more pure hope. Does yellow have a purifying effect, or a covering-up effect?
ReplyDeleteFirst of all, I really like the background for your blog. It made me think differently about color as I read what you wrote. Have you ever considered a world without color? Try noticing what color brings to your day - and then think about what it would lack if you were in McCarthy's world.
ReplyDeleteI love a kids' book of color poems called Hailstones and Halibut Bones by Mary O'Neil. Here is her poem about black. Do you have the same feeling about black after reading McCarthy's novel?
What Is Black?
Black is kind, it covers up
the run-down street, the broken cup.
Black is charcoal and patio grill,
the soot spots on the window sill.
Black is a feeling hard to explain
like suffering but without the pain.
Black is licorice and patent leather shoes
Black is the print in the news.
Black is beauty in its deepest form,
the darkest cloud in a thunderstorm.
Think of what starlight and lamplight would lack,
diamonds and fireflies, if they couldn't lean against Black...
Kayl, your in depth analysis of the colors and that they could become major motifs in your book as a whole is a great recognition early on. Do you think that there will be other colors that show up in your reading that contradict or change your views of some of the other color motifs? I like your attitude towards the way you have deciphered the colors, it lets the reader of your blog understand that you are insightful and are close reading.
ReplyDeleteDeath does seem to be a major theme of the story. I think that it is important to also see how each character thinks of death. At times through the reading the boy seems to wish for death, and many of their conversations involve what would happen if the boy were to die. I fully expect that death will continue to play a grand role.
ReplyDeleteNice opening, paragraph, Kayl, with good specific discussion of the similes and the effect of the color motif.
ReplyDeleteYou might provide a bit more background within the discussion for those not reading the book. For example, what is "the cart" that you mention? I know what it is from reading the book, but others might not. And why is the cart such an important item for the man and the boy?
Good start, though.
I'm trying to remember what I wrote in my comment that fell into oblivion last week, it went along the lines of this.
ReplyDeleteSo I agree with your analysis of the colors gray and black as representing death and dreariness, but one must consider how McCarthy uses the colors yellow and blue. In the dreams of Papa, "Death" is calling to him with the tempting images of blue skies and the yellow leaves, the allure of what was once a thriving world. Perhaps McCarthy is illustrating the bright, vivid colors that seem to portray happiness and positive emotions as a facade brought upon by Death? Is that hope, if you will, false hope? It will be interesting to see if the attraction to Death's facade brings our characters close to death itself. I look forward to reading your future posts!