The Road by Cormac McCarthy’s

The Road by Cormac McCarthy’s

Dystopia

Dystopia is an imaginative state of a society where there is great suffering or injustice and commonly following a totalitarian leadership or post-apocalyptic occurrence., M.H. Abrams defines dystopia as the ‘bad place’. According to Mouda, Asra Sultana, the term has come to be applied in many works of fiction representing a very unpleasant imaginary world whereby dangerous tendencies of humankind get projected in a disastrous future culmination (218). Rendering to this explanation by MH Abraham, the “ominous tendencies” of our present world have been projected in Cormac McCarthy apocalyptic world. The Road by Cormac McCarthy’s narrates a post-apocalyptic tale of a father and son who journeys in the harsh desert following the aftermath of the world’s collapse. Additionally, the language and style of The Road vividly reflect on the ominous world created by the author in the novel.

Despite an exciting plot, McCarthy fails to illustrate the events that lend to the apocalypse where the boy and the father are the sole survivors. He narrates to us very little on what brought about the end of the world.  “The clocks stopped at 1:17 pm — a long shear of light and a series of low concussions” (45). With no proper explanation of the origin of the event, the novel fits to be a fictional apocalyptic story with ‘ominous tendencies’. The book is part of the escalating field of climate fiction where the environmental anxiety manifests not only through the vision of a future earth that has been devastated, but also a more symbolic and metaphorical level.

McCarthy depicts The Road as a place of no survival and entirely dystopian. He describes it with desolate terms such as “cauterized terrain,” “dull sun,” and “ashen scabland” (12, 13). The earth is barren and covered with ashes, the sky is dark, and everything is dry denoting sign of no life.  The man and the boy navigate through the remnants, of wrecked houses,  deserted streets,  and dried-out streams between barren woodlands. This clearly shows a catastrophic event that happened to lead to what MH describes as ominous tendencies. Only two bullets remained in the father’s gun to guard their lives throughout their ferocious voyage denoting death was inevitable, if not welcomed. Fathers health continued deteriorating and finally breathed his last, leaving the boy to survive alone in pangs of the hopeless world.

McCarthy symbolizes the world the characters are living in with dull and discouraging symbols. The title itself is the end of The Road is symbolic meaning dead end and symbolizing the end of the world. The road does not only make most of the setting in the novel but also symbolizes the dangers of the dystopic word. They meet cannibals along the road among other obstacles where they barely survive. The characters have a goal to move south through the road, but reaching the southern coast, they realized their target was an empty one. The characters remain unnamed symbolizing them fewer humans and more of animal, zombies or mutants trying to survive in the jungle.  McCarthy uses groom and dull tone, which is also symbolic of depicting the world he is describing. “He’d carved the boy a flute. A formless music for the age to come or perhaps the last music on earth called up from out of the ashes of its ruin” (81). Whatever the father observes is gloomy, unhopeful and stand no chance of prevailing.

From the very beginning pages of the book to the last, McCarthy’s distinct writing style reflects on the kind of the world he describes. The plot is sparse, so is the whole story which is told in dialogue. The man and boy discourse in short sentences and some dialogues run into exposition as well. “His face in the small light streaked with black from the rain like some old world thespian. Can I ask you something? he said” (9).  Punctuations are hardly used, and there are no quotations to differentiate a speech from the rest of the text. This style reflects on the dystopic ambience and theme of the book. The limited use of punctuations marks is used to denote the barrenness of the landscape, and the relentless consistency helps in maintaining the ominous of story.

In conclusion, The Road by Cormac McCarthy’s vividly narrates post-apocalyptic tale where the language and style used perfectly reflects on the dark world created by the author in the novel. Inline to what learnt in Module 4-Week class notes dystopian fiction such as McCarty The road explore a nightmare version of the world in near completion. Most artists have tried to imagine what the world would look like in the end time and McCarthy describes it all. Through the symbolism, style of writing and tone, McCarthy succeeds in creating a post-apocalyptic world where the human race is near extinction and the end of the world. Whatever it is that destroyed the earth created havoc and destruction that eliminated nearly every life on the planet.