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Description
The Road is a post-apocalyptic novel by Cormac McCarthy - the tale of a journey taken by a father and his young son over a period of several months, across a landscape blasted by an unnamed cataclysm that destroyed all civilization and, apparently, most life on earth. The novel was awarded the... read more
Ridiculously Simplified Synopsis
Summary
The Road follows an unnamed father and son journeying together toward the sea for many months across a post-apocalyptic landscape, some years after a great, unexplained cataclysm. It is revealed via flashback that the boy's mother, pregnant at the time of the disaster, committed suicide after... read more (warning: may contain spoilers)
Cast of Characters/Important People
- The Man/Papa: The main protagonist who is traveling with his son toward the coast as they try to survive amidst starvation, the weather, and human predators.
- The Boy: An innocent boy born into the apocalyptic world who's only protection is his father, "Papa", with whom he travels.
- The Mother: The Boy's mother who is not actually living contemporary to the story but is only remembered in flashbacks.
Memorable Quotes
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“He thought if he lived long enough the world at last would be lost. Like the dying world the newly blind inhabit, all of it slowly fading from memory.”
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“He walked out into the road and stood. The silence. The salitter drying from the earth. The mudstained shapes of floating cities burned to the waterline. At a crossroads a ground set with dolmen stones where the spoken bones of oracles lay moldering. No sound but the wind. What will you say? A living man spoke these lines? He sharpened a quill with his small penknife to scribe these things in sloe or lampblack? At some reckonable and entabled moment? He is coming to steal my eyes. To seal my mouth with dirt.”
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“There is no God and we are his prophets.”
First Sentence
When he woke in the woods in the dark and the cold of the night he'd reach out to touch the child sleeping beside him.
Table of Contents
One of the unusual things about this book is there are no chapters. An additional space between paragraphs is all that signals moving on to another scene.
Authors & Contributors
- Cormac McCarthy (Author)
Awards
- Pulitzer Prize (2007: Fiction)
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