Framing

This is a close up shot of squirrel that sits in my backyard waiting to be fed. He is very big and takes up the center of the shot which gives him our attention and focus. The sun is also shining on him, making him look like he is glowing. 

I liked this picture because of the uniformity of the tennis rackets. The contrast of white rackets on the dark wood makes the rackets stand out more. The lighting is brighter in the center and then fades around the edges. The lighting is also making many shadows on the walls making it look like the rackets are moving.

In the background of this picture, you can see that I was at the beach. At the beach, there are no people even though it is sunny. In the foreground, you can see snow and ice on the ground, giving a hint that it is winter time and that not many people will be at the beach. You also get a view of the car facing towards that beach, which shows how I got there. 

These are christmas cookies that we made. It is a high angle shot looking down onto the cookies. You also notice that there are four main colors: red, green, white, and blue, and that there are also four shapes: a glove, a tree, a star, and a gingerbread man. 

This is a picture of a dog running into the water. The dog is in the middle to bottom right hand corner of the shot. You are able to see the background, which is water. In the water, you are able to see a glare of sun which is also telling you the time of day, sunset. 

The Road pages 136-160

Parallel: the son is starting to pick up on new terms and sayings such as "warm at last" (147) and "what are our long term goals" (160). In both so these cases, the father asks the son where he heard the term and the son is never sure. I think this shows how mature and smart the son is without any form of an education. 

Contrats: In all descriptions of the bad guys, they have beards. The father also has a beard until page 152, when he shaves it off. This is just one of the physical apperence differences you see between the good guys and the bad guys.

Questions:

What is the creature the dad talks about on pages 153-154

Why do the son and father abandon the hiden shelter with the food, water and heat lamps and continue their walk in the cold weather? If I were them, I would have stayed in the shelter for as long as possible. 

The Road pages 119-135

Paralell: On pages 129 and 131, they talk about carrying the fire and mending a fire. Both the man and the son talk about the fire. On page 129, the son talks about carrying the fire. I think this relates to both  god and the son. Carrying and keeping in mind god wherever they as well as the life of the son. On page 131, the father talks about mending a fire and then goes into a memory of his wife. Just like keeping god on mind, the father may be mending the memories of his wife. 

Contrast: On page 131, the father is walking through town with his son holding one hand and his revolver in his other hand. I thought that this was an important contrast because you have the thing keeping him alive (son) as well as what could kill him (revolver). In the section before, the fathers thinks about killing his child and now he has the weapon and target in either hand. 

Questions:

How long have they been in a post apocylptoc world if they are still able to smell cows.

Why does the father always leave his son while he searches around? Wouldn't you be nervous that your son can be taken while you are not their? 

The road Pages 94-118

Parallel: On pages 110 and 111, the boy and man have just discovered a basement or crawlspace filled with men and women who were trapped and presumably being eaten by the men and women who live in the house. Starting at the bottom of page 110, when they just discover the people, until the end of the middle paragraph of 111, you see the man reference god six times. 

Contrast: On the top of page 114, you see the man consider killing his son. I thought that this was a very interesting point in the book because his son has talked about dying and being with his mom but the father wouldnt let him and tells him not to think like that. At this point, the father has thoughts rushing through his head asking himself if he should kill his son. He even says "curse god and die" showing that he has given up and seeking gods help for survival.

Questions:

Why is McCarthy always describing the setting? Whenever there is a descriptive setting, it is always the same cold, grey, ash filled desciption as before. 

In the middle paragraph on page 96, it says "He fought back the rage, Usless". What is he fighting back?

The Road Pages 73-93

Parallel: Beards have started to play a role in The Roads plot since I have seen it describe the evil people of the story. In the last passage, the father and son are found by one of the bad guys. In the description of the bad guy, it states " He wore a beard that had been cut square across the bottom with shears..." (63). Then, on page 91, the father and son encounter an army of the evil mean, with the coining them with the description "Bearded, their breath smoking through their masks". I thought this was a parallel because of how both descriptions of the evil men include beards.

Contrast: Good Vs. Evil is starting to become a major contrast in the story since we are starting to be introduced to people who we presume are evil. On page 74, the dad is washing dead brains out of his child's hair when he said "This is my child...That is my job". I thought this showed that the dads first priority was his son and not killing anybody, unlike the man they encountered in the who was willing to kill an innocent child. 

Questions: How is the dad able to keep the mentality that they have to survive by themselves and not take in the dog and little boy that his son wants to care for. If I were the father, I would have taken in the dog and boy because I feel bad for them. 

My creation of The Road

On the bottom of page 12 and on all of page 13, there is a flashback of when the father was at his uncles farm. I think this passage describes his life before the apocalypse. A day in a rowboat with his uncle. No talking, just silence. I think this scene needs to be like the setting of the Twilight series. In Twilight, the seen is very grey and cold looking, but because of the location being in Seattle and in a woodsy location, there was a calm, quietness to it. The scene needs to capture the passages quietness, and focus on the little details. I imagine extreme close ups of all little details. The straw hat, yellow leaves, trousers rolled to the knees. They would be in a collection of individual shots so you would be able to see exactly what made up this flashback and the memory. Though they talk about cold water and yellow leaves (suggesting autumn), I think the scene should be overcast but still very light. Because they are on a boat, I imagine fog surrounding them because I feel that also depicts a flashback, kind of like a foggy memory. Even though is sounds like a dull scene, it is one of his favorite memories from when he was younger and the setting doesn't always depict the outcome of events.  

Memory

Memory is an image being used frequently throughout the book because memory is all they have. After the apocalypse, nothing is the same. As far as the son and father know, they are a couple of the few people that survived out of millions. In all memories, they are told in detail. The setting is described in such detail that you are able to picture it exactly as described. The boy, on the other hand, does not have the memories like his father. He was born into the post apocalyptic world and his only memories are ones that you would like to forget. 

The world that McCarthy has made in The Road shows no evidence of the United States ever existing. In one passage, we do get a minor detail in location, Rock City, which is in Tennessee. Other than this location, their is no description of the setting. In every descriptive setting, everything is described to be covered in ash, cold and grey. "The City was mostly burned.No sign of life. Cars in the street caked with ash, everything covered with ash and dust. Fossil tracks in the dried sludge. A corpse in the doorway dried to leather" (12). I think this passage captures the scene most vividly because they now live in a world where this is the norm. if they saw a clean house or street, they may be worried to be there because that means somebody also struggling to survive is there. 

The dad grew up in a different world than his son. When his wife took her life, he easily could have taken his own. Instead, he created his own world revolving around his son. He is showing his son how to survive and never gives up and takes their lives.

The son grew up in a world of death, his mother took her own life and wants to be with her. Though the dad is trying to create a world of survival for them, all the son can think about is death.