The Fire Inside You

It's been a long ride. These two have done everything they can to stay alive. But apparently, that just wasn't enough. At this point in living, the man and the son don't really have anything. Aside from a little food, they don't really have anything to loose. But they keep going. Why? They haven't eaten in days and all odds of long term survival al completely gone. So why do they keep going?

Everything in life is done to achieve something. In a world like this, there is little more that they can achieve. And even if they are able to survive through something, there will be something else waiting for them to hold them back. So why keep going? I answer this with one

phrase: It's all about the mentality. In just about any world, there will be obstacles to overcome as well as struggles. Their mentality consists of doing the same thing in this world that they would in any other: keep going because they have nothing to loose.

However, these are especially hard times that they have to go through. They need a new set of ideas to move forward. They need something a little more inspirational to keep going. They need to remind themselves that being human means to prevail and endure even if they know there really is no light at the end of the tunnel. So the really answer to why they keep moving is to demonstrate that they are human and when you have truly nothing to loose, then just keep carrying the "fire inside you (116P.).

What they can't afford

I am obviously not talking about trading like you would in the real world. I'm talking about things that can't happen if they are to survive. I'm talking about thinks like a thief coming to your camp and stealing all you have. Or an injury......

This is around the end of the book when the boy has his leg broken. This is the beginning of the end of the journey. To make things worse, their current camp sight is collapsing and it's raining all the time. This is no time to travel. But they do it anyway. But this is the world of scenarios. They have to face staying put and starving to death, or die on the road in search of food to live a little longer. Either way, they will die.

If I ever was faced with this situation, where I would have nothing to loose, injured, hungry and dying, I would stand up and keep moving forward. The idea is if I stay, I will guarantee my death after very little time. But is i decide to get up, at least I will die trying and "spitting blood" (112P.).

There is a good side to their tale however. If they would have survived, then they would have endured just about every possible situation. And if not, then they would have left a legacy for others to follow. That's the beauty of the human race: You make sure to leave something behind after you die so that others can learn from you and help for the future.

We all make mistakes.........

It's true that we all have the right to make a mistake. But that doesn't mean that it won't come with a big price. In this case, the handgun is the thing that will almost guarantee the survival of the boy and the son. Even though they may only have one bullet left, it is the best use of defense that they have against whatever might want to come at them. And the boy just so happens to make the vital mistake of leaving it back at the shore of the sea while the father was in the water. Even though it brought no serious consequences, this is the sort of mistake that could have meant the end for the two of them.

Another thing that cost them was going out at night. In any situation, this is the worst time to travel. This is the time where you're tired, probably hungry, and in need for rest. This is the time where you have to settle down to regain strength. But they simply keep on pushing. Their mistake was to abandon the shelter at the shore where they would be sure to keep save even if it had been checked very recently.

Truth be told, these two are a one and a half man wolf pack. Though small, one cannot live without the other. And though they have to endure to get through things, I find them to be too soft to survive for long. That is a mistake I found the father to have made. He has let the kid be too soft. Though he loves him and would never do anything to put him in harm's way, it look like he has let the kid remain soft. I understand his mistake since they are both new to this world. But I don't see the kid surviving long without the father even if he does live to obtain a greater age.

Black Horizon

Whenever you look at the sky, or even the horizon, it might be a neat color. It is the color of the earth. It is the color of a healthy earth that lives and supports life without much problem. But the very mentioning of a black horizon is enough to send a chill down your neck. It is the idea of death falling upon the planet and those who live in it. This is in page 91 of the word version of the story when they are at the shore camping. The sight of the sea is enough to bring happiness to a mind. But not here. This is a sad sight. No gulls, and no sign of life anywhere. A dead planet.

As we saw the idea of global dimming in class, I came up with a theory. The greenhouse gases

don't allow the rays from the son to go back into space but at the same time, they block it out

from reaching the surface of the earth. It is the same thing that is happening in The Road except

that it is far more exaggerated and simply kills off the life on the planet. In this story, there is only

the empty shell of what once was the green earth. "There is no sea smell" to the ocean and I find

no reason for them to be praying to god. He left that place a very long time ago.

Without a Plot

When an author doesn't spend time planning out how the book is going to be writtenbeforehand, you can tell. Like Slaughterhouse 5, this book is all over the place. There is a train of thought, but you can tell that the author didn't really plan out what would happen next and instead just went out and wrote whatever came to mind.

If there is one thing that this book has taught me so far is that you must enjoy life while you can. They mentioned in the last interview that people take the idea of an apocalypse far

more seriously than they did about 20 years ago. It is now a far more real possibility. That is part of the reason why this book was so successful; it has become more of a theory of what

might happen instead of some little bedtime story. People like looking at serious things that might happen. It's not so they can prepare for it so that it can happen, but to just have a little taste of what it will be like if it came.

You need a certain passion in order to stay alive. If you become rich in the process, then great. This is the sort of thing that McCarthy said during the third part of the interview with Oprah. And it applies in just about every type of world that will every excist. The man in The Road needs his son in order to give him motivation. McCarthy needs his own son to do the same. And whether it's another human that keeps you moving or the fact that you're doing what you love, it will always help.

Note: I had no plot for this blog

Canary in the Coal mine

I say canary in the coal mine because it is an old method of sending down a canary to a mine and then bringing it back up. It it comes back dead, it means there is too much CO2 and they workers can't go down. It is a form of early warning system. The same thing is true about finding a headless child in the road as you walk by. This serves as an early warning system them simply means "you're a long way from the coast so you might want to hurry".

This just so happens to be the sharpest, most graphic scene so far and it isn't even put into so much detail. It's like reading A child called "it" where there is very little detail in terms of the setting and the events but it is not hard to picture what is going on.

Another early warning system I noticed earlier was the falling ash. Even though they did not make very much of it, it may have been the most dangerous piece in the story. If this turns out to be radioactive material, then they will not live very long at all. The only warnings that these tow are actually taking into account are those that affect them inmediately. Like a seeing a group of people walking in the distance or that dead kid on the floor. They want to avoid human contact as much as possible and with good reason. But that doesn't meant it's the only thing they should avoid.

Continued faith

If I was ever in this sort of situation where the world was simply......dead, I would simply tell myself that god self it a long time ago and loose faith completely. However, the boy and the son still show signs that they remain persevering, and actually faithful to god. And i have no idea why.

This idea had been developing along with the story but I never really noticed it until around page 61 in the word document version. They had just found plenty of food and the father made the kid say a thanks to the people who had provided such feast for the two of them. What caught my attention was the last line of the prayer from the boy that said "we

hope that you're safe in heaven with god" (61p.). Due to the lack of detail and feel in the book, I don't really know well how the man reacted to this last quote. But by the looks of it, they were indeed blessed with what was yet to come. The boy was able to take a bath with warm water at last and they washed their clothes as well. They were almost living like an ordinary family in the house. Does faith and hard work to get the things you want really get you things like these in the worst of situations? Apparently yes in this case.

Looks life fortune really does favor favor the bold. I say this because I don't really think there are too many people like these in the world they are living in now. They are probably the only father and son within 10000 miles. Even an old man says "I never thought to see a child

again (71 p.). If this man old man is saying something like that, then there hasn't been achild anywhere near for quite a long time. So looks like they really are a very bold pair. They act as one instead of two individuals who depend on each other. They make sure the other one is Ok before moving on. They get their act together to mover forward. But most importantly, the love each other.