The Road Study Guide - Floyd E. Kellam High

THE ROAD STUDY GUIDE

Term 1 2012

"By day the banished sun circles the
earth like a grieving mother with a lamp."

Described as the “American The Road is a against the lawless bands
master”, Cormac McCarthy frightening, that stalk the road, the
is one of the world’s greatest profound tale that clothes they are wearing, a
living novelists. His style is drags us into places cart of scavenged food--and
characterised by his we don't want to go, each other.”
philosophical pessimism, forces us to think
thin plots, reductive about questions we The Road is the profoundly
sentences and restrained don't want to ask. moving story of a journey. It
vocabulary. boldly imagines a future in
Ron Charles, which no hope remains, but
“Cormac McCarthy’s tenth The Washington Post in which the father and his
novel, The Road, is his most son, "each the other's world
harrowing yet deeply “A father and his son walk entire," are sustained
personal work. Some alone through burned by love. Awesome in the
unnamed catastrophe has America. Nothing moves in totality of its vision, it is an
scourged the world to a the ravaged landscape save unflinching meditation on the
burnt-out cinder, inhabited by the ash on the wind. It is cold worst and the best that we
the last remnants of enough to crack stones, and are capable of: ultimate
humankind. The sky is when the snow falls it is destructiveness, desperate
perpetually shrouded by dust gray. The sky is dark. Their tenacity, and the tenderness
and toxic particulates; the destination is the coast, that keeps two people alive in
seasons are merely varied although they don't know the face of total devastation.
intensities of cold and what, if anything, awaits them The novel was awarded the
dampness. Bands of there. They have nothing; just 2007 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction
cannibals roam the roads a pistol to defend themselves and the James Tait Black
and inhabit what few Memorial Prize for Fiction in
dwellings remain intact in the 2006. Sources:
woods.”
http://www.cormacmccarthy.com/works/
theroad.htm, http://www.randomhouse.com/
kvpa/cormacmccarthy/

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THE ROAD Study Guide Tips to them in the narrative. “Cormac
2) Where are the man and

The following questions are the boy going? Why? McCarthy's
intended to help you develop 3) “Heʼd pulled away his The Road, a
mask in the night...” (5) What

a detailed and critical kind of mask is he referring meditation on
death, both of
understanding of this text. You to? Suggest reasons why
they may travel with masks
need to consider how
on their faces. individuals and
McCarthy crafts the setting, 4) How is the sense of humanity, is by
characters and how he uses constant danger turns bleak and
language to take us into the communicated to the reader?
world of the text.
5) What does the father do
Make sure that your answers with the phone in the exhilarating”.

are thorough: Each answer abandoned gas station?
Why?
must be started with an Adam Mars-Jones

effective and detailed topic 6) Think about the literary
sentence (unless otherwise style of the book - there are
no quotation marks to 2) “...[T]he blackened shapes
indicated). This sentence
must indicate the main points differentiate speech from the of rock standing up out of the
of the answer you are going to rest of the text, and shoals of ash and

provide. sometimes punctuation is billows of ash blowing

In addition, it must introduce omitted. How does this style downcountry through the
the answer in such a way as reflect the atmosphere and waste.” (14) Why do you think
to make the question obvious themes of the book? McCarthy uses the imagery of

- without simply restating the 7) McCarthy has said in an the ocean to describe the
interview that his four-year-old landscape?
question. 3) There are words being
• Make specific references to son John practically
co-wrote the book: “I suppose used in this novel which are
the story for each answer, it is a love story to my son.” new to our language -

providing quotations as Why do you think he said “scabland” (16),

evidence. this? Predict the direction of “bloodcults” (16) are some

the plot. examples. What do

Section 1 Pages 1-7 Section 2 Pages 8-17 these terms mean? Why is
McCarthy combining words in
Vocabulary: Vocabulary: this way?
glaucoma, flowstone, pilgrims, gully, enshroud, mote, 4) What are the manʼs main
flues, translucent, alabaster, temporal, gryke, transom, concerns, other than avoiding
decanting, dregs shoals, cauterized, autistic, other people? Why?

Questions: vestibular, chronicle, Section 3 Page 18-33
1) This novel is classified as declination, matrix,
part of the post-apocalyptic rotunda Vocabulary:
genre. Why? Refer to some of pipeclayed, peril, sconces,
the clues in the first section Questions: keel, frescoes, breakfront,
which indicate that a terrible 1) What does the father mean effigies,
event has occurred. As you when he says, “You forget bogfolk, discalced, firedrake,
read, keep track of those what you want to remember, sectarian, deranged

clues - record the descriptions and you remember what you Questions:
of the original event, or the want to forget?” (12) Suggest 1) What is the significance of
consequences of the event, memories he is trying to keep, dreams in this novel?
each time the man refers and sights or experiences he

wishes he could forget about.

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THE ROAD Study Guide 2) Why does the man say that 2) How old do you think the Can I ask you
he doesnʼt trust good boy is? How do you know? something?
dreams? Provide examples from the Yes. Of course you
3) What do we learn about the text to suggest his age. can.
manʼs past in this section? 3) What do they do at the What would you do if I
4) Identify the ʻtreatʼ the boy waterfall? Do you think this is died?
has in the ruins of the a wise or foolish act? Why? If you died I would
supermarket, and why it is 4) Explain the purpose of the want to die too.
significant. fatherʼs flashbacks. Why do So you could be with
5) Why do they go to the they happen so frequently? me?
fatherʼs childhood home? Yes. So I could be with
6) What frightens the boy Section 5 you.
about the house? Okay.
7) How has the meaning of Page 49-60
time changed for the boy and 8) How long do you think they
the man, because of Vocabulary: survived together after the
the disaster? skeins, coagulate, disaster? Or, how long
8) “Can you do it? When the provenance, penitent, did the manʼs wife survive
time comes? Can you?” (29) cheroot, obsidian, before making her final
To what is the father meconium decision? What are the
referring? Why? clues in the text?
9) “That the boy was all that Questions: 9) Why is the memory of the
stood between him and 1) What do the boy and the boyʼs birth as important to the
death?” (29) What does this man decide to do when they man as his wifeʼs suicide?
mean? first see the other man
10) Why doesnʼt McCarthy on the road? Why? Section 6 Page 60-79
directly state the protagonistsʼ 2) Why did the boy want to
location? help the burned man? Why Vocabulary:
11) “Not all dying words are didnʼt the father offer help? bracken, emaciation,
true and this blessing is no 3) Explain the significance of lacquered, stropping, rachitic,
less real for being shorn the wallet, and what the man lepers, ambush, anointing,
of its ground.” (31) To which does with it. evoke, quoits, changeling,
dying words to you think he is 4) Why does the man allow commune
referring? Who or what is the his son to hope and have Questions:
blessing? How do you know? fantasies about life in the 1) Do you think it is realistic
12) Define “godspoke men”. south? that a truck would still be
(32) 5) No names are given for functional, and that fuel
any of the characters. would be obtainable for it, as
Section 4 Page 34-38 Suggest reasons why indicated in the book?
McCarthy made this choice 2) “[H]e had a tattoo of a bird
Vocabulary: for the story. on his neck done by someone
basalt, gorge, bluffs, 6) Describe the argument that with an illformed
pipsissewa, piedmont, the man had had with his wife notion of their
madacam, mastic - explain the differences in appearance.” (63) What does
their points of view on this indicate about the survival
Questions whether to live or choose to of animal life since the
1) “You promised not to do die. disaster? Provide at least one
that, the boy said.” (34) What 7) Why didnʼt the woman say other example from the
do you think his father text.
promised not to do? Why? good-bye to her son?
Does it matter? Explain.

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THE ROAD Study Guide 3) Is or was the man a fragile than he would have "Mr. McCarthy’s final
doctor? What evidence thought. How much was gone gesture here [is] an
suggests this possibility? already? The sacred idiom embrace of faith in the
4) Why do you think the night shorn of its referents and so face of no hope
is so completely dark in the of its reality.” (89) whatsoever. Coming
environment of the book? What does this mean? as it does after such
5) Explain the significance of intense moments of
the single bullet left in the Section 8 Page despondency, this
revolver. faith is even more of a
6) What happened to the man 90-105 leap than it might be
with the knife, after the father Vocabulary: in a more forgiving
and son got away? woad, runic, motifs, story."
7) According to the man, what truncheoned, stile, phalanx,
is his job, as a father? forge, New York Times
8) How long had it been since catamites, horde, sedge
the father had spoken with Questions: Section 9
another human being, 1) When they stop by the
other than his son? orchard, what does the man Page 105-113
9) List the differences see that he has seen Vocabulary:
between ʻthe bad guys,ʼ and before? Why is it significant? port cochere, privet, chattel
ʻthe good guys.ʼ 2) Suggest reasons for the 1) Explain how McCarthy
physical appearance of the uses suspense and creates
Section 7 armed group of men and foreboding on page 105-106,
women. What is the purpose with regard to the mansion.
Page 79-89 of the red scarves? 2) Do you think the detailed
Vocabulary: 3) If the bad guys are on the descriptions of physical
sappers, viaduct, move, why is it not a good setting are necessary for this
embankment, parsible, sign for the man and the story? Why?
entities, idiom boy? 3) Why is the boy afraid of
Questions: 4) Why is it important for the empty houses?
1) Why do they agree not to father that his son keep 4) “All these things he saw
kill the dog? talking? What is wrong with and did not see.” (109) What
2) Explain the meaning of the not talking? Explain what it does this mean?
phrase, “[W]eʼre carrying the means about the boyʼs 5) Why doesnʼt the man help
fire.” (83) character. the people in the cellar?
3) Do you think the son 5) When the father and son
actually saw another boy, or have conversations, the boy Section 10
did he imagine it? Why? frequently ends their
4) Why doesnʼt the father go talk by saying “Okay.” Does Page 114-130
back to search for the other that mean that he believes Vocabulary:
boy? what his father tells formica, cistern, hydraulic,
5) “Heʼd had this feeling him? What else might it mendicant, palimpsest,
before, beyond the numbness mean? intestate
and the dull despair. The 6) Does the boy believe that Questions:
world shrinking down about a they will live? How do you 1) “Is there such a being
raw core of parsible entities. know? within you of which you know
The names of things slowly 7) Describe the fatherʼs nothing?” (114) Explain
following those things into strategy after he believes they the meaning of this quote.
oblivion. Colors. The names might be followed. 2) How do they escape?
of birds. Things to eat. Finally 8) Why is this important?
the names of things one
believed to be true. More

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THE ROAD Study Guide 3) What happens at night in 8) “Heʼd been ready to die "This stands as a
the house? and now he wasnt (sic) going radical achievement...
4) How does the man keep to and he had to think A novel of horrific
them going when the boy about that...This was not beauty... The
cannot walk anymore? hiding in the woods. This was relationship between
5) What was the fatherʼs the last thing from that.” (144) father and son has a
mistake in approaching the What does the man mean by sweetness that
house? this? represents all that's
6) Describe what they do after 9) How realistic is this section good in a universe
getting away. Suggest at least - do you think a find like this where conventional
one reason for the lack of would really be possible? notions of good and
action. Is this part anti- Why? For what reason does evil have been
climactic? Why? McCarthy include this extinguished."
7) How is the next house solution to their starvation?
different? Why is there no 9) McCarthy compares the
menace or foreboding with Section 12 open hatchway to a grave -
the abandoned farm? what might be his
8) Why is the man concerned - pages 145-156 reasons for doing this? What
about his coughing? Vocabulary: might it - the shelter -
9) Explain the boyʼs reaction footlocker, laved, sumputous, represent?
to the truth about the people bonded whiskey 10) Why donʼt they stay in the
in the cellar. Questions: shelter?
10) “Borrowed time and 1) Why does the father have
borrowed world and borrowed to explain what to do with the Section 13 - pages
eyes with which to sorrow butter and the biscuits?
it.” (130) What does this 2) What does the boy do 156-167
mean? before eating? Why? To what Vocabulary:
other, traditional act is balustrade, pall, decoy,
Section 11 this similar? rucksack
3) Explain the reasons for Questions:
pages 131-144 bathing and cutting oneʼs hair 1) What has happened to, or
Vocabulary: - why does it matter in a where are, the crows? What
begonia, hasp, serrated, post-apocalyptic world? does their disappearance
corroded, krugerrands 4) When the father reassures suggest?
Questions: his son - “They wont (sic) find 2) Why do you think they
1) Why does the boy wish that us.” (148) - why does he say have not yet seen the sun?
the other little boy was with this? Is he telling the truth? 3) What does the boy say he
them? 5) What kind of global threw away? Why do you
2) How does the father know disaster would require the think he did that?
that the town has been empty mass removal and burning of 4) When the father cautions
for a long time? bodies? his son, “Well, letʼs not get too
3) Why does the man take the 6) Explain the manʼs reasons smart.” (160), what does he
flower seeds? for only taking one grocery mean?
4) According to the father, cart. 5) Why does the boy ask
what do the good guys do? 7) Why does the father tell his about their long term goals, at
Why does he say this? son, “...sometimes I might this point in the story?
5) What do they find buried in forget to be on the 6) What are the boy and the
the yard? lookout?” (151) manʼs “new world
6) Why do you think the 8) Explain the meaning of the
original owners did not use it? manʼs dream, on page
7) List the supplies that they 154-155.
find. Why do you think there is
no gun?

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THE ROAD Study Guide standards” (161) for 8) Why does McCarthy "Hypnotic and
cleanliness? continue to avoid specifying haunting,
7) When the old man asks where the protagonists are? relentlessly dark,
what the man and the boy 9) “If they saw different this is a novel to
are, explain the reason why worlds what they knew was read in late-night
they cannot answer. the same.” (180) Compare solitude. Though the
8) For what reason do they how the man sees the world focus never leaves
stop for the night with the old with how the boy sees it. the two travelers,
man? What might it be like to they carry our
9) What does the father want never know about the world humanity, and we
the old man to tell him? Why? as it is now - to grow up in can't help but feel
10) Do you think the old man ruins and ash? the world hangs in
is as old as he says? Explain the balance of their
your response. Section 15 - pages hopeless quest. A
11) What is the significance of masterpiece." —Booklist
the old Man’s name? 180-195
Vocabulary: 7) The father tries to prevent
Section 14- pages cairn, patterans, sundries, the boy from seeing the dead
notions, dessicated, culvert, in the highway, but it
168-180 fey, predicated, caustic, appears not to bother him. Do
Vocabulary: quadrants, mattock, bolus you think this is true? Why?
bivouacked, threadbare, Questions: 8) Explain why the man
buddha, secular, gullied, 1) What do the stone cairns watches the boy eat, and why
middens, kudzu, transit represent? Why do you think the boy says for him to
Questions: they start appearing in the stop.
1) “People were always south? 9) How did the father know
getting ready for tomorrow. I 2) Locate two examples of they were being followed?
didnt (sic) believe in that. foreshadowing in this section.
Tomorrow wasnʼt getting Predict the next Section 16 - pages
ready for them. It didnʼt even developments in the plot.
know they were 3) In the manʼs flashback, he 195-204
there.” (168) What is Ely recalls a time when they had Vocabulary:
talking about? slept in an abandoned corrugate, harrowtrough,
2) Explain what this idiom pharmacy, and that the ledgerbook, magnolia, spire,
means: “Beggars cant (sic) be expensive electronic provisions, enroute, jerry jug,
choosers.” (169) equipment had not been slough, serpentine, verdigris
3) What does Ely mean when touched on the shelves. Why Questions:
he says, “There is no God do you think it had not been 1) “Do you think that your
and we are his prophets.” ? taken by people? What does fathers are watching? That
(170) that suggest about the they weigh you in their
4) Why doesnʼt the old man catastrophe that ended the ledgerbook? Against what?
tell them his real name? world? There is no book and your
5) The father has already 4) Why did the three men on fathers are dead in the
made reference to his son the highway leave the man ground.” (196) Who says this?
being a god. What does he and the boy alone? What does it mean? Why
mean by that? 5) What do you think the does he say it?
6) Why do you think the boy dream of the snakes
gives some food to Ely, represents?
though Ely admits he would 6) Suggest reasons for the
not do the same? new distance the father
7) What do you think the boy senses between himself and
represents? his son.

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THE ROAD Study Guide 2) What do you think killed the and they will not come "Trenchant and

trees? back.” (210) To whom is the

3) What do you think might man referring? Why do terrifying...fuelled by
happen if the man tried to fire you think that? What could be a universal
the revolver, and a wooden a thing that death cannot nightmare...
bullet was in the chamber? undo?

4) Why did the people leave 3) Predict what will happen illuminated by
their food cooking? after they leave the house. extraordinary
5) What happens when they 4) Predict what they will find tenderness...
realize what the people had if/when they arrive at their
McCarthy gives
been eating? destination. Do you think

6) What has the father noticed they will make it? Why? voice to the
unspeakable... His
about the boyʼs emotional use of language is as

growth from the previous Section 18 - pages
year? Explain the boyʼs

behaviour when presented 213-223 exultant as his
with things left by the road. Vocabulary: imaginings are
7) Where do you think the disinterred, cholera, hellish...This is art
people in the forest got the desolation, careened, slag,
that both frightens
baby? Why doesnʼt the vigilant, okra,

father tell his son what he iodine, tidewrack, isocline, and inspires."
thinks? sepulchre

8) Why does the son Questions: —Janet Maslin, New York Times

apologize for what he had 1) Why does the boy stare at

said about the dead in the the deerhead for a long time?
Section 199) How do you think the father the boy is feeling hopeful
road? 2) What evidence is there that

feels, watching his son run in about their journey? - pages 223-240

oversized shoes toward the 3) Describe what they find Vocabulary:

creek? when they arrive at the beach. sheer-rail, transom, davits,
10) Predict what they will find 4) What do they do when they turnbuckles, souwester,
in the next house they humidor,
arrive? Why?
explore. 5) Why does the father let the sextant, baize, windfall
Questions:
son play in the surf?
Section 17 6) Why do you think the boy 1) What does the fatherʼs
- pages cries afterward? knowledge of sailboat

205-213 7) Do you think the disaster vocabulary suggest?
was truly worldwide, or might 2) What useful things does he
Vocabulary: find on the boat?

palladian, lintel, myraid it have been confined 3) How does the sextant affect

Questions: to just the one continent?
Why? What evidence is there the man, and why?
1) “We both have to 4) “It occurred to him that he

say.” (207) Why does the that everything has took this windfall in a fashion

father include his son in been destroyed?
8) Explain why the wind off dangerously close to
decision making. the water does not smell like matter of fact but still he said

Does he do it all the time? what he had said before. That

Explain. the sea.
9) Predict what will happen good luck might be no such
2) “I think maybe they are
watching, he said. They are when the father swims out to thing.” (229-230) Explain what
the father means.
watching for a thing that the boat.
5) Why do you think the father
even death cannot undo and if
keeps going, when the easiest
they do not see it they will turn
thing would be to give up?
away from us
6)The boy forgets the pistol

on the beach, but the father

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THE ROAD Study Guide doesnʼt get angry. Why is Questions: "Wrenchingly
that? 1) How do they find the thief elegiac... Single
7) Why was going back for the and their supplies? plot twists chill the
pistol a problem? 2) Why do you think the thief blood."
8) How does the father get was an outcast? Suggest
them back to camp? reasons why his fingers —The Economist
9) “The slow surf crawled and had been cut away.
seethed in the dark and he 3) Why do you think the thief 3) Why does the man say that
thought about his life responds to the boy by his son reminds him of an
but there was no life to think surrendering? orphan waiting for a
about and after a while he 4) Explain the manʼs bus?
walked back.” (237) punishment of the thief. Do 4) “Look around you, he said.
What does this mean? What you think he did the right There is no prophet in the
is the man realizing here? thing? earthʼs long chronicle
10) Of what use might the 5) How does the boy feel whoʼs not honoured here
flarepistol be? about his fatherʼs action? today. Whatever form you
6) “Youʼre not the one who spoke of you were
Section 20- pages has to worry about right.” (277) What is the father
everything...[The boy] looked talking about?
240-253 up, his wet and grimy face. 5) Why canʼt the father kill his
Vocabulary: Yes I am, he said. I am the son?
tendrils, magnesium, one.” (259) What does 6) What is the ʻgoodnessʼ to
conjuring, travois, pruned, he mean by this? which the father refers?
Questions: 7) Where do you think the 7) How long does the boy stay
1) Was it a good idea for the thief went? with his father? Why?
man to shoot the flare? Why? 8) Why do think the man with 8) What does the boy do
2) What is the father afraid of the bow tried to kill them? when he sees someone
when the boy is sick? 9) Why doesnʼt the boy want coming? Why?
3) “He walked out on the to hear his fatherʼs stories 9) Why does the man in the
beach to the edge of the light anymore? parka pause before answering
and stood with his 10) Predict what will happen the boyʼs question, about
clenched fists on top of his when they leave the town. whether he is a good guy?
skull and fell to his knees 10) How long do you think he
sobbing with rage.” (250) Section 21 - pages was following or watching the
Explain the emotions the man boy and the man?
is feeling, and the reasons 270-end 11) Why does the man in the
why. Vocabulary: parka say that the boy needs
4) Predict what will happen lee, askew, armatures, to keep out of the road?
when they catch up to the sloughed, incinerate, crozzled 12) Do you think the man in
thief / thieves. ensepulchred, tabernacle, the parka is a good guy?
hagmoss, counterspectacle, Why?
Section 21- pages hydroptic, hydrangeas, 13) Why is the woman glad to
isthmus, prophet, loess, see the boy?
253-270 bandolier, skirmishes, stoven, 14) What does the woman
Vocabulary: wimpled, torsional, ermiculate represent?
communes, sheaves, Questions: 15) What do the brook trout
cognate, impoderable, 1) What does the father say is represent?
dolmen, oracles, the bravest thing he ever did? Source: www.tinyurl.com/
moldering, sloe, lampblack, Why?
entabled, rickets, congealing, 2) How has the manʼs vwenglish
bollards, gantry cane, suture perspective about the boy
changed? Why?

8