So, just to start out with, I don't know if any of you are Beatles fan but the title of this post is taken from their song and the G/As that follow is what is immediately played after those lyrics, so yeah, just making sure everyone knew what I was doing with that.
It has been a very long time that I have read a book that I could not put down. Most books I have read since about mid high school have been required for class and many of them, if not all of them, felt like chores rather than something I would enjoy doing. I went all day without eating when I was reading this book for two reasons: I couldn't force myself to stop reading, it was just too perfect of an experience and I was so caught up in the father and son's plight that I felt it was only right to join them in their starvation.
Anyway, I could honestly go on hours and hours about exactly how much I loved this novel but I do not feel like that is the point of these posts. So to get down to it.
To begin with, the way that McCarthy paints the picture of the post apocalyptic world made the novel the most believable post apocalyptic story I have ever read or seen. So how is it exactly that he is able to pull this off so well. From what I can tell, it has to do with two key writing elements. The first obviously being just his ability to describe everything so eloquently and poetically. His language is remarkable, beautiful, and I dont think that anyone could really contest that. Anyway, the other thing that he does that is so blatant, is that he tells you only what the main characters know and sometimes not even that much. He gives none of the characters names. He doesnt tell how the world got to be in the state that it is in, though he alludes to it when the man is remembering the day that it all happened as well as in the end when the bearded man with the shotgun was described as a veteran. Overall though, you are given no knowledge of anything, except what the boy and the man run across on their journey. The main point of the journey is not even revealed. The man keeps on talking about the boy carrying the fire, and the man seems to think that the child is heaven sent as a prophet or something of this manner. McCarthy never tells you though. WHERE they are is never revealed. It could be argued that they are in America and are traveling down the Eastern Coast, but where on the Eastern Coast, and where is this South? Is it the American South or is the man talking more Mexico/Central America?
All of this ambiguity bugged me for the longest time. I kept reading hoping that something would be revealed. Eventually I realized that it wasnt going to happen and it drove me crazy. Why did McCarthy do this? In my personal opinion, after I thought back on it, this book is not about the end of the world, nor is it about the specifics of the journey of the two characters, nor is it about the race of man. This book is a story about the love between a father and his son. Nothing else in the world matter to those two characters so why should McCarthy spend anytime describing anything else? The environment, and their basic needs were the only things that were described in detail other than their general emotions. The environment and their basic needs played a huge roll in their lives so McCarthy called attention to this.
Brilliant.
This novel is a testimony to the human condition. I believe that McCarthy is saying with this novel that no matter what man is put through, no matter what he should endure, and no matter how much evil walks amongst him, there will always be some good, some hope. McCarthy paints a picture of the absolute worst environment imaginable. He paints a picture of a burnt and decaying world populated by cannibals and monsters that would just as soon rape and eat children. He tells a story of a world that has lost all that is good, and yet a child that is wholy good is born of this horror. A child that grows up never experiencing anything other than brutality and the basest of the human condition, can still see the light in the world. The sun is blocked by the ash of man's doing and the child can still see the light in the world. It is an amazing book.
The entire time I was expecting a No Country for Old Men ending throughout the entire length of the novel. When I finally got there I was relieved. McCarthy wrote the most beautiful ending to any book I have ever read. The fire that the boy was carrying was not extinguished, and his father's pilgrimage across the land was not in vain.
I really don't know what else to say right now. There are far too many things circulating around in my head to pin anything else down. I am very interested in what everybody else will have to say about this.
"Maps and mazes. Of a thing which could not be put back. Not be made right again. In the deep glens where they lived all things were older than man and they hummed of mystery."
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Luke brings up a really good point about the believability of the apocalyptic world. I agree with him that the reason it is most effective is the absence of detail surrounding the events that built up to this point. McCarthy does not give the reader the ability to doubt the situation because there is no event to judge. It does not come down to whether or not the reader believes in aliens or is afraid of nuclear holocaust, the situation just is and there is nothing to question.
ReplyDeleteI disagree with Luke's optimistic point of view about the entire story. I certainly agree that there is an element of optimism surrounding family relationships, particularly father and son, but I feel there is still a fairly negative message layered beneath that. McCarthy paints a picture of a grim future, and as we brought up in class, points out that it is an image that will stay in everybody's head. The ambiguity of what happened makes the situation even more disturbing. Maybe there was no huge event but this was just the culmination of continue destruction of the environment and following course with the path humanity is already taking. Maybe there were no drastic changes or serious events and this is something we have to worry about. By providing no explanation as to what happened, these are very serious questions that the reader faces. As McCarthy suggests, these images are permanently ingrained in the reader's mind, forcing a constant evaluation of actions.
I also liked the manner in which Cormac McCarthy presented the post-apocalyptic world. The realism seems to come from a mixture of elaborate description, as well as repetition. McCarthy went into great detail when describing the daily tasks that the man and the boy had to go through in order to survive, and this gave the story a truthful feel; the reader gets a sense of how difficult it is just to survive in this post-apocalyptic world.
ReplyDeleteThe novel is almost framed around a repetitive narrative because the landscape remains in a gray and decayed state throughout the entire novel. A lot of the time, there is no clarification on how much time has passed between passages or how long they have been traveling. Each day centers around the same quest, and every day remains as hopeless and dark as the last. While there is much repetition, McCarthy does not leave the reader bored. He ignites each passage with aesthetically magnificent language which funnels daily sights and tasks through the lens of the barren world.