1. At the heart of most people exists hope and love. I would do anything, including murder, to protect the ones I love. If the world as we know it was destroyed, and I was still alive, I would do my best to survive. Apocalyptic writing focuses on the end of days.

2. Presented by Ms. Durland

3.  Author Background  Novel’s Plot  Setting  Characters  Conflict  Resolution  Symbolism  Writing Style  Theme  Recommendations & Final Thoughts

4.  July 20, 1933  eldest son of six  changed name, after an Irish king  1937, Knoxville, Tennessee  University of Tennessee  Left, 1953, to join the U.S. Air Force  UT in 1957  Writing Career  student literary magazine.  Ingram-Merrill Award for creative writing  early 1960s, Chicago, first novel  Married a student, had one son  Married twice more 

5. Pulitzer Prize for Fiction 2007 The Road MacArthur Fellowship 1981 Fiction National Book Award for Fiction 1992 All the Pretty Horses Guggenheim Fellowship for Creative Arts, US & Canada 1969 National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction 1992 All the Pretty Horses Tähtivaeltaja Award 2009 The Road Quill Award for General fiction 2007 The Road

6.  Contemporary novelist (10), playwright, screen wright  Southern Gothic, Western, Post-apocalyptic

7.  2006  Contemporary Fiction  Drama  Post-apocolytic  some call it Science Fiction

8.  violence  love  morality  spirituality  isolation  good vs. evil  memory & the past  strength & skill  versions of reality  compassion & forgiveness First Thing’s First…..

12.  The cannibals  The woman  Man struck by lightening  The bad man from the truck  Roadagents, the guys  Ely  Thief  The man, the woman, the little boy

13. "You wanted to know what the bad guys looked like. Now you know. It may happen again. My job is to take care of you. I was appointed to do that by God. I will kill anyone who touches you. Do you understand? Yes. He sat there cowled in the blanket. After a while he looked up. Are we still the good guys? he said. Yes. We're still the good guys.“ (65)  Man vs. man  Man vs. self  “Listen to me, he said, when your dreams are of some world that never was or some world that never will be, and you're happy again, then you'll have given up. Do you understand? And you can't give up, I won't let you.” ―

14.  “You have to carry the fire." I don't know how to." Yes, you do." Is the fire real? The fire?" Yes it is." Where is it? I don't know where it is." Yes you do. It's inside you. It always was there. I can see it.” (234)  "He slept close to his father that night and held him but when he woke in the morning his father was cold and stuff. He sat there a long time weeping..." (236).

15.  the primary setting  highlights theme of transcendent  simplicity reflects McCarthy’s sparse writing style

17.  Similar writing style to Ernest Hemingway  minimalist  straight forward descriptions of events  very little punctuation, etc.  focuses on what is literally happening instead of how it's written  fragments show startling fact of event.  Post- modernism: almost like modernism  Elements of chaos, futility, pessimism, instability, loss of faith, collapse of morality, and lost sense of self -- with a futuristic twist. Reflects stripped down nature of a post apocalyptic world where everyone left is an animal.  No names, no grammar rules = reflection of story  Nihilism, i.e the complete annihilation of society.  the degeneration of his language alludes to the degeneration of society.  language becomes obsolete in the novel, people forget colors, names of birds etc.

18. The clocks stopped at 1:17. A long shear of light and then a series of low concussions. He got up and went to the window. What was it? she said. He didn’t answer. He went into the bathroom and threw the lightswitch but the power was already gone. A dull rose glow in the windowglass. He dropped to one knee and raised the lever to stop the tub and then turned on both taps as far as they would go. She was standing in the doorway in her nightwear, clutching the jamb, cradling her belly in one hand. What is it? she said. What is happening? I don’t know. Why are you taking a bath? I’m not. The clocks stopped at 1:17. There was a long shear of light and then a series of low concussions. He got up and went to the window. “What was it?” she said. He didn’t answer. He went into the bathroom and threw the light switch, but the power was already gone. A dull rose glow appeared in the window glass. He dropped to one knee and raised the lever to stop the tub and then turned on both taps as far as they would go. She was standing in the doorway in her nightwear, clutching the jamb, cradling her belly in one hand. “What is it?” she said. “What is happening?” “I don’t know.” “Why are you taking a bath?” “I’m not.”

19. Why do they have to do that? I dont know. Are they going to eat them? I dont know. They’re going to eat them, arent they? Yes. And we couldnt help them because then they’d eat us too. Yes. And that’s why we couldnt help them. Yes. Okay.

21.  Cormac McCarthy’s novel The Road speak to us about our human nature--the fire of human compassion can be all too easily extinguished when we encounter adversity.

22.  The Store by Thomas S. Stribling  The Town by Conrad Richter  The Edge of Sadness by Edwin O'Connor  Elbow Room by James Alan McPherson  Now in November by Josephine Winslow Johnson  Early Autumn: A Story of a Lady by Louis Bromfield  Guard of Honor by James Gould Cozzens  The Postman by David Brin

24. Let’s hope the fire of human compassion is never extinguished. While