Preparing for the Test

 

1. Why is the boy both an "alien" and an "angel"? What larger symbolic role may he play in this novel? Use evidence and quotes to support your conclusions.

 

ANGEL: He was born in the new world, so this makes him different and he doesn't have as much of a sense of loss as the father. He also wants to help and talk to other people, unlike the father, who strays away from strangers. Optimism vs. pessimism: the boy was more optimism. He also feels like it is his responsibilty to make sure people are ok and to find other survivors. He also makes sure that the people are dead before he takes their provisions, so that they aren't stealing or taking from them. A strong sense of morals can derive from faith and the boy seems to have a greater sense of morals and faith than others. Ely (the old man) recognizing the boy as an angel and the prophet Elijah and Jesus: parallel? Nature vs. nurture, is the boy doing all of this good because it is natural or because he was taught?

ALIEN: He is a child, not heard of in this new post-apocalyptic world. This also crosses over into being an angel, being different than most: giving the food to the old man, talking to other people etc. Even though the man and the boy have different priorities: the man wants to survive more than help others but he doesn't NOT care for them, the boy has a strong sense of wanting to care for other people. The angelness makes him an alien.

SYMBOLIC ROLE:

"Dear people, thank you for all this food and stuff. We know that you saved it for yourself and if you were here we woulnd't eat it no matter how hungry we were and we're sorry that you didnt ge tto eat it and we hope that you're safe in heaven with God." (146)

When the man calls him an alien: "Maybe he understand for the first time that to the boy he was himself an alien." (153)

When the old man thinks the boy is an angel: "When I saw the boy I thought that I had died." "You thought he was an angel?" "I didn't know what he was. I never thought to see a child again. I didn't know that would happen." (172)

"Will it hurt his feelings?" " No. That's not why he did it." " Why did he do it?" "He looked over at the boy and he looked at the old man. You wouldn't understand, he said. I'm not sure I do." (173)

 

2. List five other important topics that you have discussed as a group throughout your study of this novel.

2. What are the most significant quotes that you have discussed while studying this novel? List at least five and for each explain its significance in terms of character development, setting, or theme.

 

- "Do you think that your fathers are watching? That they weigh you in their ledgerbook? Against what? There is no book and  your fathers are dead in the ground." (197)

----- Cormac McCarthy suggest that our deeds are being watched by the unknown (GOD).God is a big part of the book in of itself but... everybody wants to have more good deeds than bad, so in times of desperation watch you do. You don’t want to have eating humans, or killing your self in your book. But also he suggests that people don’t make decisions because of people watching them, its something else.

 

- "He tried to remember the dream but he could not. All that was left was the feeling of it. He thought perhaps they'd come to warn him. Of what? That he could not enkindle in the heart of the child what was ashes in his own. Even now some part of him wished they'd never found this refuge. Some part of him always wished it to be over." (154)

-----This relates to our discussion about the point of desperation, about whether to choose cannibalism, suicide etc or morals and what variables contribute to each person's decisions. Is it personality?, The fact that the man and son are living for each other?, hope?

 

- “He held the boy so close to him. So thin. My heart, he said, my heart. But he knew that if he were a good father still it might be as she had said. That the boy was all that stood between him and death.” Page 29.

----- This symbolizes the boy and father's relationship, how the rely on each other to get through the day and that they are each other's WORLD. The mom knew this and was perhaps why she spared her son when she killed herself early in the apocalyptic world.

 

- “When your dreams are of some world that never was or of some world that never will be and you are happy again then you will have given up. Do you understand? And you cant give up. I wont let you.” (189)

----- This relates back to the point of desperation, when do you give up?

 

"They ate well but they were still a long way from the coast. He knew that he was placing hopes where he'd no reason to. He hoped it would be brighter where for all he knew the world grew darker daily." (213)

----- This shows the determination of the man to get to the coast. Even though he suspects that there may even be nothing there, he still wants to go on. Mostly for the boy, to show the boy that they can and will go on. Also to show him that you shouldn't give up hope. 

 

 

3. List fifteen vocabulary words that your group discovered and could use again in your own writing.

Elizabeth's notes:

 

 

 

 

Façade-pg. 106: any side of a building facing a public way or space and finished accordingly.The Road

<!--[if !supportLists]-->·         <!--[endif]-->Describe the boy and his father’s relationship. Do you think it will/did change?

Father watches out and takes care of boy. The Man may have changed, mourning loss of material items, strange dreams, etc.. The man has lost sight of love?

<!--[if !supportLists]-->·         <!--[endif]-->Where are the others? How long has it been?

Others possibly dead from the explosion.  Years since the explosion occurred e.g. weathered bodies, gas masks, refugees.

<!--[if !supportLists]-->·         <!--[endif]-->What qualities do the son and father have that have helped them survive?

Boy is cooperative, mans toughness, lack of emotion.

<!--[if !supportLists]-->·         <!--[endif]-->What do you think are the boy and father’s biggest obstacles to overcome?

They may have to overcome the want to give up, or lose home. The will to live, (Boy is only thing keeping father alive.)

<!--[if !supportLists]-->·         <!--[endif]-->What is it that are the son and father afraid of?

Gangs, due to lack of government. Robbers, uncivilized people.

<!--[if !supportLists]-->·         <!--[endif]-->“Can you do it when the time comes, can you?” what does this mean?

 

Austen's Notes:

 

Favorite Parts

-          MAYA: Finally figuring out who the woman who is dreaming about is

-          AUSTEN and CORY: Learning about the men in the biohazard suits with the pipes= excitement, suspense

-          SERGIO: The boy changes his relationship with the father by wanting to help the man dying in the road and the father just wants to keep going

Connections

-          Like the book Night and the father/ son relationship in both

-          They are dealing with a lot of the same emotions that people deal with in everyday life (upset about the man with radiation poisoning, the father missing his wife)

-          The part when the man asks his son “So when are you going to talk to me again?” and the boy answers “I’m talking now” reminds me of conversations that I have with my parents. I am sure we have all had those moments when we get angry at our mom or dad and try to freeze them out by being short, not talking, pretending not to hear or care what they are saying etc.

-          Also, “who is anybody?” reminds me of “what is in a name” in Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. This “who are you” theme seems prominent in literature.

-          The book just reminds us of Z for Zachariah and Farenheight 451, “I am Legend” movie

-          Devastation after Hurricane Katrina

o   People scattered around

Vocabulary

-          Choice of vocabulary

o   Pg. 48 “stands of heathen candles”

o   Describing the burnt man with radiation poisoning

o   “bye and bye” pg. 49

§  Connection to Huckleberry Finn

§  Regional?

§  Cory: hears this phrase in England

Boy and Father Relationship

-          Boy and father are close because they only have each other

-          Father needs the boy to survive

Challenging

-          Format of the dialogue

-         Lack of names

-          The book doesn’t follow “the rules”

 

Austen's Notes:

 

 

9/11/09

-          Boy lost his innocence (36)—wouldn’t have shot himself as the father instructed, throughout the book he has been the good guy, relies on his dad and isn’t strong enough to leave his dad (37)

-          They can never let their guard down, can’t trust anyone, it is like watching a scary movie, start imagining things, routine to fear others

-          Themes: death, human bodies, along with heartbeat and warmth>> sentence fragments

-          Pg 47, “warm at last”, security and safety, actually being WARM

-          More risks: breaking into the house, “we wouldn’t ever eat anybody would we?”

o   Maybe, boy goes along with dad, they are compromising more (boy is chiming in more) (125)

o   Good guy vs. bad guy, are they willing to cross the line?

o   Cannibalism? Does it happen no matter what or do personality and morals come into play?

§  CORY: personality plays a part in how long you go before you eat someone, but eventually everyone will, it is indefinite

§  ELIZABETH: not everyone, the chance factor

§  Lord of the Flies, and they were children

o   Lengths for survival: Two boys stranded in water, fingers started to look appetizing, Oregon Trail, it is amazing what people will do for food, eating tree bark

o   Could you kill yourself?

§  Personality plays a factor

-          Running out of the house= accurate representation of fear

-          Odd Beauty: happy to see him sleep and at ease

-          Lope: to move or run with bounding steps, long easy stride (if a person)

-          Macadam: a macadamized road or pavement, there is a special tool/ rock that is used to make the road

-          Cowled: part of a garment that resembles a hood

-          Predictions

      CORY NOTES

Summary of reading

-          Came across the people in the truck, one guy saw them and attacked the kid, man killed him with the gun.

-          Came across dog and child (questionably real)

-          Running out of food

-          Page 68: “you will not face the truth. You will not.”

-          With only one bullet, being a metaphor for security, they feel much less safe.

-          Pg: 101 boys loose faith.

-          66 “the boy was lying in his lap with no expression on his face at all.” Boy is in shock from seeing a man die.

Vocab

-          Quoits = game similar to horse shoes

-          Siwash= camp without supplies

-          Rachitic = adj. for disease

-          Macadam = small stones on packed dirt.

-          Palisade = defensive fence. 

Connecter

-          Relates to complicated relationship with own father. Sergio.

-          Relates to being cold. Cory.

Predictions for the future

-will take more risks with food

 

 Maya's Notes

Notes for 9-16-09

 

• Summary of night’s reading
  • Old Man
    • The old man that shows up. Has a name, which is weird because no one else has a name in the story, but this random old man has one. Page (171) there was a good quote for him.
    • Why do they need to know his name? Why did he feel uncomfortable about them asking his name?
    • May represent a turning point.
    • The boy runs the whole interaction between the old man.
    • More talk about God on pages 170, 172. Believing in God, choosing or not.
    • Suggests prophets and religionàElijah of the Old Testament.
    • Maybe the boy is savior of mankind. He is the one that hasn’t given up. More worried about moral issues rather than physical survival. Boy has innocence that the man wants to preserve. Something different the man is seeing about the boy that makes him an alien.
  • Skewered Baby
    • Maybe the family walking killed the babyàthem actually walking was foreshadowing them killing and eating the baby.
• The man’s dream
  • Possibly people actually sleeping and eating his food then leaving?
  • The boy and the man’s relationship is changing.

 

 

 

 

 

14. Lope-pg.  105: to move or run with bounding steps, as a quadruped, or with a long, easy stride, as a person.

  15. Macadam-pg. 105: a macadamized road or pavement.

 

 

 

1. Barren: unproductive; unfruitful: barren land
2. cannonading (pg. 47)
   1. Intense and continuous artillery fire. From the context of which the word was used in the book, the author was talking about the storm sounding like artillery fire.
3. heathen (pg. 48)
   1. One who is regarded as irreligious, uncivilized, or unenlightened. From the story it may be meant to sound like the candles like looked bad?
4. mastic (pg. 48)
   1. a pasty cement used as an adhesive or filler

5. Palisade: defensive fence

6. Siwash: to camp without supplies

7. Rachitic: an adjective version of “a disease of childhood, characterized by softening of the bones as a result of inadequate intake of vitamin D and insufficient exposure to sunlight, also associated with impaired calcium and phosphorus metabolism”: the disease is called rickets

8. shrouded (pg. 51)
   1. Concealed or hidden from sight. I thought this was a nice descriptive word to describe how the mountains went out of sight.
9. skeins (pg. 51)
   1. Coils of worsted yarn. Good way to describe how much of the ash there was on the bridge
10. coagulate (pg. 52)
    1. change from a liquid to a thickened or solid state
11. providential (pg. 54)
    1. Fortunate as if occurring as a gift from a deity. Thought this was a good way to describe how non important, the days were now that there was absolutely nothing to do. Most if it was a normal society, would think of spending their lives as such.
12. penitent (pg. 54)
    1. a person who repents for wrongdoing
13. cheroot (pg. 56)
    1. small, cigarette-sized cigars