Tied with a bow?

Not so much. Actually, McCarthy makes us cry and shows us death just like the fate of every person living in this ashy world. Our main characters trek further and eventually find a beach. On this beach they find a boat with a ton of supplies which gives them further hope for survival. Nevertheless, winter is approaching and both characters end up getting sick. The boy is fine after a few days of rest while the father has a rough time. Without spoiling the rest of the book, McCarthy intended on ending on a more sorrow note which was consistent throughout the story. I could not see any other direction this story of death could go in other than death. Despite death, there is always hope as the boy has a further destiny or fate to fulfill surviving sickness, and the cold, barren, wasteland.

Now a book set down such a predictable road cannot be that complex right? Oh, so they walked this road, found some food, kept going, and boom, they die. The end. This is not the case. Cormac McCarthy paints a much more descriptive picture for readers, giving further insight to characters and their surroundings. Also, the consistent use of a metaphor or simile every two paragraphs was a pretty big indicator of AP Merit as well. These comparisons allowed me to picture something in the story and relate it to something maybe more realistic. For example, McCarthy describes the boy “standing with his suitcase like an orphan waiting for a bus” (275). This gives me a much clearer picture of how the boy looked, ready to move. This also gives a little bit of foreshadowing for what is to become of the father. Even these little similes and metaphors hold endless amounts of clues and description. McCarthy’s style of writing is like no others, creating a challenging environment to read but unique. His use of colors as mentioned in my first post shows his uses of motifs and other literary devices. Also, the integration of themes and overall ideas are even put into this seemingly basic novel, as I discussed in the previous post.

Themes and motifs are an important part for the AP test, as many of the free response questions require you to know and discuss a novel with some theme or motif. This novel provides a surplus of motifs but includes a father-son relationship, a possible question on an AP test. Also, how characters change over time is shown in this novel, another possibility for an AP prompt. However, a couple downfalls of this novel is that there are not a ton of characters and it lacks a central plot. There are definitely underlying meanings, some that I have missed, but having a serious, easy to follow plot would be best for a free response AP essay. I would probably not argue for this to be added to the AP curriculum just based on the fact that I can’t find many AP questions that ask about The Road’s themes and main points other than a father-son relationship.

Definitely not a page turning thriller, but still 300 pages of death and destruction described in a unique way. McCarthy’s style makes this book AP worthy but also makes you think further into the text by avoiding a ton of plot.