Hanzel and Gretel (slightly altered in terms of plot) in the style of The Road

The man looked down at his emaciated body. The looming hunger was finally starting to take it's toll and his eyes were heavy with weary, and famine. They eat too much, said the woman. Her face was disfigured with hate for his children and her grey skin was pulled tight over her visible cheekbones. We won't survive if they carry on as they are. We need to take them away. For our own good. He turned away, unable to make eye contact with her lifeless eyes.

The boy turned to the girl, a single tear streaming down her face. The man and the woman hadn't noticed them peering through the gaps in the banister. We have to do something, she whispered. He nodded slightly. Okay.

After a breakfast of mouldy oats swimming in a grey hazed water, they prepared to leave. The man grabbed his coat and his shoes and his axe and sat down at the table, his skinny hands grabbing at his thinning hair. She entered the room soon after the boy and the girl. Her eyes looked up and down the boy and the girl, hating every pound of weight which she was never given. Let's go, the man said mournfully. The woman left first, followed slowly by the man and the girl and then finally the boy, who played with the small white pebbles in his tattered coat pocket.

They walked into the forest, each tree identical to the last. No matter how far they travelled, the scenery seemed to stay the same. Every other step they took, the boy dropped one of the pebbles onto the ground. The woman smiled to herself for the first time in weeks. Okay, she turned to the boy and the girl. You two wait here whilst me and your dad look for wood to burn and food to eat. We're running low. They nodded slowly. The man went over to the boy and the girl and hugged them both. He kissed each of their cold cheeks and turned quickly, following the woman into the expanse of trees. The boy and the girl sat and waited. The forest was silent. Soon, the light began to fade on the forest and the boy and the girl started to look for the pebbles. In the dark, the whiteness of the pebbles should be quite easy to see, he said to his sister. She said nothing. They searched and they walked and they began to grow cold.

He saw a light through a clearing in the woods. She turned to him, asking questions yet still remaining silent. They advanced slowly together. It was a cottage. Brightly coloured and made of something different to their own home. He touched the walls of the cottage with his hands. It's made of food, he said to the girl. She picked a bit of the red window ledge and placed it in her mouth. It was sweet. They began to take whole bites from the building. The taste of it made them feel warm, and at ease. After filling themselves until they felt sick, they stopped. The girl turned to the right, and saw the door swing open. A small, old woman appeared. She smiled at them. There's food inside and beds, if you please, she croaked. They took no caution, and followed her inside.

The next morning, after they'd slept safely, the old woman walked into their room.
Are you okay?
Yes, thank you.
Sleep well?
Yes, thank you.
Good.

She looked them up and down. Her eyes fell on the boy.

Follow me, she smiled. He stood, legs aching from the deep sleep and the food he'd eaten yesterday. He followed her downstairs and into the garden. The old woman seemed different. She stood taller. Her shoulders back. Her back was straight. He began to speak, when he saw a cage just before them. He went to turn, but she grabbed him. There was no point fighting. Even though he'd eaten well compared to his parents, he was still weak with famine. He fell. She looked at him, shutting the cage door. Then, she turned and went into the house.

Several sun rises later, the girl was in the kitchen. She was being forced to scrub the floor. Her knuckles were bleeding. The floor was looking as dirty as it did when dawn broke and now she could see the darkness creeping over the horizon. She glanced up. The old woman was still towering over her.

Where is he?
Does it matter?
Yes.
No it doesn't.

The old woman turned, and left through the door. As she walked into the garden, she took the loaf of bread out of her bag. Her almost-blind-eyes could make out the shape of the boy. He looked slightly larger than yesterday. Like a pig. She tossed the bread between the iron bars. Holding on to the bars, she leant in and pinched the boy. He still felt underweight. Not at all like the dinner she was hoping for that evening. Annoyed, she went back into the house. The boy dropped the bone he'd been holding. He let out a sigh of relief, glad that his quick thinking had saved him for at least one more day.

With the coming of the dawn, the old woman was lighting the furnace in her cottage. She grabbed her aching back. Get here. The girl ran to the old woman, silently.

What's wrong, she murmured.
Help me light the fire. There's logs over there. Hurry.

The girl turned around and grabbed some logs, placing them in the fire. She could feel the warmth on her cheeks. The old woman demanded more logs. The girl took a deep breath. She lifted a log slowly. She placed it into the furnace before quickly grabbing the old woman by the scruff of her neck and placing her in the fire, just like the logs. She closed the furnace and ran into the garden. She found the boy in the iron cage, and together they ran into the forest. Never once turning back.

Key Episodes (Part 1)

Coming across the man who has been struck by lightening (page 50-53)

When the man and the boy come across the tracks that had "suddenly appeared", it made me question who or what had made the tracks. Throughout the book leading up to this moment, the man and boy hadn't really encountered anything living and tension is created due to the sudden arrival of signs of life. However, as the man and the boy had camped on the "actual road" and whoever it was would have to have passed straight past them. They had not been bothered by them so they can't be that dangerous or they can't hurt them. When the boy asks who the person could be, the man responds by saying "who is anybody?" showing his acceptance of the loss of identity of people. Who needs a personality, or personal traits when all you need to do is survive.
The boy's empathetic nature is prominent throughout the episode. When they come across the man, the boy immediately asks what they should do, inferring that he wants to help. The man just tells him that they are going to follow and watch, a consistent characteristic of his, distancing himself from everything that isn't key to survival. McCarthy's contrast of the characters is prevalent through The Road and is made even more evident in episodes like this. When the man and the boy leave the injured man, the boy was "crying. He kept looking back". This reinforces the boy's loving nature and also his naivety. The man knows that if they helped the injured man, they will die. The boy cannot accept this.
  We gain an insight to the man's feelings during this episode. McCarthy flashes back to an incident where the man leaves his wallet, including evidences of the pre-apocalyptic world, on the road. McCarthy cleverly places this flash back during this episode, as they mirror each other. The man leaves behind "His driver's license. A picture of his wife." as they won't help him along his journey, and are an emotional burden. They will only remind him of his past which won't help him survive. The same is true of leaving the injured man, as he would be a physical burden to the pair, not helping them survive; survival is key throughout the novel.

Shooting the 'road rat' (page 62-69)

This episode is different in pace and tension to a lot of the episodes in the book. McCarthy draws us into a false sense of security to begin with on page 62. The boy is playing with his truck and making truck noises (reminding the reader of his young age) and they fall asleep in the leaves on a day that "seemed almost warm.". The man falls asleep, showing that he feels safe, as he usually does not sleep. He just watches the boy. When the man is woken, it is by men with a truck. This is ironic as the boy had been 'happy' whilst he was playing with his toy truck. McCarthy shortens the length of the sentences on page 63 ("We have to run. Dont look back. Come on." This increases the tension, due to the quick pace of which you have to read.
We gain a sense of the desperation of people in this episode. McCarthy describes one of the men as being like "an animal inside a skull looking out the eyeholes". The humans left have regressed to animals, and as the same man says, they eat "Whatever we can find." This seems to infer cannibalism.
We gain an insight into what the father's career/life was like before the apocalypse in this episode. He talks to one of the men about the brain in detail ("A frontall lobe and things with names like colliculus and temporal gyrus") He is very well educated, and may have been a doctor. By infering that he was a doctor, McCarthy may be saying that it didn't matter who/what you were before the apocalypse; everyone lost everything.
Also, the man "dove and grabbed the boy and rolled [...] and fired from a two-handed position on both knees at a distance of six feet." The man has clearly done something similar to this due to his precision and accuracy of aim.
Images of horror are present on page 68/9. After the man shoots the roadrat, he lay "with blood bubbling from the hole in his forehead" The image is quite gory and scary. The boy ends up "covered in gore", which is horrible as he is only young. Even then, the boy seems to be empathetic as he was "clutching his forehead". He can't believe what has just happened.
I believe that this episode highlights the dangerous world in which the pair live in. McCarthy is showing us that regardless of how safe they feel, the man and the boy will always be under threat of danger.

Lesson notes (12th November)

Deux ex machina = God is in the machine.

The Latin phrase 'Deux ex machina' means 'God is in the machine'. This is the idea that in novels, stories, narratives etc, a problem/situation is resolved through a sudden 'magic' solution. Applying this to The Road, when the boy's father dies on page 300-302, he encounters a family that seem to be the 'good guys' and promise to look after him now his father has gone. Personally, I believe that this act of luck applies to the saying 'deux ex machina' as we are given few details about this family, and for all we know, could be cannibals planning to eat the boy. However due to the change in narrative viewpoint, from the father to the son after the man's death, the family appear to be safe. This mirrors the boy's naive and relentless hope throughout the novel. The family could also be representative of the 'nuclear' family of 2.4 that is representative of the ideology of a perfect society, that isn't even present in our pre-apocalyptic 21st century world.

Structure and the Handling of Time

References and quotes (passing of time)

• "Spent the afternoon sitting" Aftenoon shows passing of the day. (Page 131)
• "They stood in the door watching the light draw down over the world to the west" Sunset shows end of the day. (Page 131)
• "Long a night" (Page 132)
•  "The dawn was a long time coming" (Page 133)
• "In the morning when he woke the rain had stopped" (Page 195)
• "Long days" (Page 229)
• "Went up the road calling out in the empty dusk" Empty dusk = sunset/evening. (Page 278)
• "In the long cold evening with the darkness dropping" (Page 69)
• "It was colder" Passing of seasons. (Page 31)
• "With dark they built a fire" (Page 233)
• "It's getting colder everyday" Passing of seasons. (Page 42)

Throughout the road, McCarthy uses the daylight, and weather to mark the passing of time. This could symbolise the decay of civilisation, as time is simply a human conception to organise and structure our lives. In a post-apocalyptic word, 'civilised' organisation is no longer needed; the people remaining only need know day and night and the weather. For example, the main gaol for the boy and the man (with survival being put aside) is to move south and reach the sea. By moving south, the man is trying to keep alive for longer, as the weather is warmer thus easier to survive in. They do not need to know exact times during the day, because they aren't living each day by a schedule or time table. However, the man seems to want the day to remain slightly structured as he and the boy have breakfast and dinner in the morning and evening respectively.

Lesson Notes (9th November)

Lack of Mothers/females in The Road

There is a lack of a maternal figure for the boy throughout The Road. The boy's mother killed herself when she believed that there was no hope left. (Death is not a lover. Oh yes he is.) She believed that "They will rape me. They'll rape him. They are going to rape us and kill us and eat us." By killing herself, she symbolises the death of the world. Females are hardly seen or mentioned throughout the book, which practically, means no more reproduction to birth a new generation. It also symbolises the death of 'Mother' Earth. Without females, the world has no hope for a future.

5+5=1 (9th November lesson)

5 Sentences

1) McCarthy uses increased punctuation to build tension
2) The 'Road' mirrors American need to move west
3) Breakfast and dinner used to keep structure, routine and normality.
4) Simple language could be seen as being used to keep distance from reader (the man's characteristic)
5) Detailed descriptions are used to expand time or when food is mentioned, ie filtering the water.

5 Words

1) Punctuation
2) West
3) Normality
4) Distance
5) Description

1 Word

1) Necessity

5+5=1

5 sentences:

1. I learnt that The Road is a road story. A road story is a story of a journey and the people met along the way.
2. I learnt that The Road is a post-modern novel. A post modern novel defies the conventions of normal books and narratives.
3. I learnt that The Road is set post-apocalyptic. Post-Apocalyptic is after the end of civilisation and the world as we know it.
4. I learnt that a 'Deathscape' is a world of death, which applies to The Road,
5. I learnt that throughout the novel, McCarthy references low-culture horror films. Low-culture books, films etc are disposable, or 'trashy'.

5 words:

1. Journey
2. Post-modern
3. Post-Apocalyptic
4. Deathscape
5. References

1 word:

1. Responsibility