OK...a few of my thoughts....
While I enjoyed reading the book, it bugged me too. The cannibalism was just dumb. If the father and boy could find tinned food...well, so could anyone. The abhorrence of cannibalism is too ingrained in North Americans (as are the survivors in the story) to allow for the seemingly widespread practice in the novel. After all, even with the starving Donor party, only a few opted for eating human meat. Desperate people are scary enough without tossing that in.
Putting that aside, I liked the spare writing. I didn't get the sense that either was retarded, just exhausted. I thought it was interesting that "the boy" was never called by name. He called his father "Papa", and I wondered what the father called out when he was looking for his son. Did he call "Boy", "Hey You", or "Son"? It seems odd as the father takes pains to tell his son the name of so many things yet doesn't have a name for his son. I suppose it was a device to show us how stripped down life has become.
The love the two shared really touched me. Much is written about a mother's tender love for her child, but not so much for a father's tenderness. I felt the father wasn't just teaching his son how to survive, but how to be human. He appreciated his boy's caring and responded to it.
I responded to the mention of toys. That the boy once collected and played with toys he found speaks to the idea that the soul need more than food to feed it. That the boy no longer picks up things to play with addresses the passage from child to adult. That the father brings his son to the safe harbor of a woman who teaches him about God and memories completes the passage.
I liked how the novel left room for the reader to fill in the blanks. What went on during the early years?
I've been thinking about what car they would have. First I thought some kind SUV (big, and a place to sleep). But then I realized that the computer systems of new cars would render them useless. Next, I figured a tractor. It could transverse all terrine and could be used as a kind of weapon. I finally settled on an old pickup truck. It could hold all their 'stuff', they could sleep in the cab, it's big enough to transverse the road, has simple mechanics, and could mow down unsavory types.
Could it happen now? Yes. Can we prevent it? Maybe. I agree with Aidan...it's in the hands of those that have enough PR to change the Western mindset.
OK...my question...
How would the story change if it was a father/daughter... or a mother/son?
posted 1 year ago. ( reply )