1. Today’s Goal: Make inferences about setting, style, characters, and details to give your brain a killer pump..

2. Setting What do we know about the setting? What part of the country?
“…everything depended on reaching the coast…”
What time of year?
What does the landscape look like?
What do you think happened to the earth?
McCarthy never tells us specifically what happened. What is the effect of his “not telling” on the theme and tone of the novel?

3. Style
What are the most distinctive features of Cormac McCarthy’s writing style?
no chapters
short vignettes
punctuation (no contractions, semi-colons, colons, few commas)
sparse dialogue (w/o quotation marks)
Think carefully about why McCarthy chose to write the novel in this manner.
How do the above stylistic features relate to the plot, setting, and even theme(s) of the novel?
Day to day; hour to hour; min to min survival
Minimalistic existence; bare basics
Cormac McCarthy's Style

4. Character Analysis
How would you describe the relationship between the man and the boy?
Why do you think McCarthy does not name his characters?
What effect does this have on our view of the characters?
“…like pilgrims in a fable…”
Pilgrim: traveler to a holy place
Fable: similar to a parable; teaches moral lesson
Universal quality

5. Inferences
Background: An inference is a new idea that happens when a reader thinks about something that is probably true about a story. Understand that many of the most intriguing questions posed by a book are not answered explicitly in the text, but are left to the reader's interpretation.
Directions: Read the following passages from the novel and make logical inferences based on what is present in the text, and perhaps what you have experienced in your life.

6. You & Class
“Clamped to the handle of the cart was a chrome motorcycle mirror that he used to watch the road behind them” (6).
Infer what made the father think of clamping this mirror to the grocery cart.
Do w/ whole class w/ no writing.

7. You & Partner
“He thought the bloodcults must have all consumed one another. No one traveled this road. No road-agents, no marauders” (16).
What inference can you make about the groups of people that populate this world?
Do w/ partner w/ no writing.

8. On Your Own
“Later he woke in the dark and he thought that he’d heard bulldrums beating somewhere in the low dark hills” (17).
Make an inference about who is beating the drums in the forest.
Also, what can you infer about these people’s society?
Do individually w/ writing.

9. You and the Class
“In the livingroom the bones of a small animal dismembered and placed in a pile. Possibly a cat. A glass tumbler by the door” (26). [A tumbler is a drinking glass with a thick, flat bottom]
Infer what events led this animal to its present state. What happened to kitty?!
Do as a whole class w/ no writing.

10. You & Partner
“He watched the boy sleeping. Can you do it? When the time comes? Can you?” (29).
What is the man referring to?
Do you think he is capable of following through?
Do w/ partner w/ no writing.

11. On Your Own
“Already it was hard going and he stopped often to rest. Slogging to the edge of the road with his back to the child where he stood bent with his hands on his knees, coughing. He raised up and stood with weeping eyes. On the gray snow a fine mist of blood” (30).
Infer what is happening to the father’s health. What is the most likely cause?
Do individually w/ writing.

12. Accountability Time!
Choose one of the below items and answer in a two-part response.
Part I
Briefly describe the context(s) of when this item appears.
Part II
Infer and/or analyze the item’s significance. Consider what it reveals about a character(s), the novel’s setting, and/or its symbolic value.

13. Synthesis
Based on the book’s first 33 pages, discuss how Cormac McCarthy would answer one of our Essential Questions. Consider setting, style, characters, and inferences you have made. Cite at least two lines from the novel that were not covered in today‘s lesson.
Possibly skip this slide. Or do last.