The Road- Cormack Mcarthy

     The Road by Cormack Mcarthy is the story of an unnamed man and his son traveling through a post-apocalyptic world trying to survive as long asd they can. On their journey for survival the father tries to keep his son from losing hope in the "new world." On this journey the man and his son ecounter different peoples good and bad, along with different obsticles  such as the mans cough that worsens as thhe novel progresses. The young boy gets sick as well and the man prepares for the death of his son but he makes a full recovery. The same cannot be said for the man because at the end of the novel the man succums to his sickness and dies in front of his son. The son waits there for three days until he is taken in by a family, he lives on.

      The main theme of the book besides literally survival, would most likely be not to give up hope, or to keep ones humanity. The novel takes place on a post apocalyptic world, a "new"world. This would normally mean that all rules and ethics are gone because survival comes first. Thats usually the case, however, in this novel the man and his son fight to stay ethical and moral to be the good guys. For example there was a point in the story were their supplies were taken from them. The boy and his father catch up to the theif. Once they do the father makes the man removes his clothes and leaves him as he left them. The boy stops his father and reminds him that theyre basically killing him and that theyre supposed to be good guys.
    The protagonists i would think are pretty round and dynamic the main character, of the man and boy, the man would most likely be the main character. The man is trying to keep his son from losing hope whilst his son serves as his fathers moral compass. Its a post apocalyptic world that these two must live in and they have to adapt to it without losing their sense of humanity and find reasons to goon. The man has one goal throughout the novel and thats to keep hid don alive until hr himself, dies.
    One very significant symbol throughout the book is the dreams. In the book, bad dreams are considered to be a good thing. They meant that there was still something to drive them foreward.Good dreams however, were considered to be the oppposite they signified acceptance of death, that one was ready to move on. The dreams are a vital component of the book because it helps build a connection in the readers mind as the father has more and more pleasant dreams toward the ending of the novel and his life.
  I chose this book because i wanted to see what an apocalypse looked like from a  literary perspective.Most of us have experienced the movies and the video games. I had completley forgotten about the middleman so i decided to pick up the road. Thats when i was finally able to begin what i deemed,the trial of tears.
   In the interest of time I will skip the connections and move on to the idea that i except to remember for a long time is when the father tells his son that he shouldnt just give up when things are difficult because in the "new" world survival is everything and giving up means dying. Ichose this because its blatanty abucus, but it was beautifully integrated into the novel with a good guy/bad guy theme.