ShmoopTube

Where Monty Python meets your 10th grade teacher.

Search Thousands of Shmoop Videos

Contemporary Literature 13 The Road 76 Views


Share It!


Description:

Welcome...to The Road. Hope everyone remembered to bring their cannibal repellent.

Language:
English Language

Transcript

00:00

Thank you We sneak in contemporary literature the road eyelash

00:09

shmoop the road is one of the most famous american

00:14

novels of the past fifteen years and it's a really

00:19

sparse story of a father and a son who are

00:23

walking along a road and we don't know why for

00:27

a very very long time so we know that they're

00:31

escaping something the world seems to have ended and there

00:34

also groups of people who they're trying to avoid What

00:37

we find out as the novel goes on is that

00:40

these groups of people are cannibals that the father and

00:43

son have lost everything and they're trying to get across

00:46

america they do make it to the coast but not

00:49

everything works out and it's a real reflection on how

00:56

do we choose to prioritize ourselves and how when do

01:00

we choose to prioritize others Who do we really love

01:04

And what does love mean The sun's mother is very

01:08

important in the flashbacks that you see throughout this novel

01:12

and it's basically just a vision of what america would

01:16

be if the extreme individualism that we have and this

01:20

desire toe look out for ourselves and protect each other

01:23

In small groups what if we still had that but

01:26

we didn't have schools and money and food What would

01:31

we do Mccarthy's answer is we would probably start killing

01:35

and eating each other What this new setting also gives

01:39

us is a chance to talk about what's good and

01:41

what's evil So the father and the son other protagonist

01:46

of this novel we are ready to sympathize with them

01:50

and we want what's best for them But at times

01:53

the father especially does some things that you would in

01:56

our society consider pretty bad pretty evil He killed some

02:00

people he steals and the real question is in this

02:05

alternate universe in this dystopian world do the concepts of

02:09

good and evil still apply What are they And then

02:13

what can that tell us Coming back into our own

02:15

world about what people do when they need to survive

02:21

In the road why air the father and son walking

02:24

along the road What is life like in the post 00:02:27.09 --> [endTime] apocalyptic world

Up Next

The Importance of Being Earnest Summary
123037 Views

They say that honesty is the best policy, but Jack lies about his identity and still gets the girl. Does that mean we should all lie to get what we...

Related Videos

The Giver Summary
105892 Views

Ever wish you could remember everything that you ever studied? How about everything that everyone has ever studied? Yeah, pretty sure our brains ju...

Invisible Man (Ellison)
1818 Views

Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man is an American classic. Hope you're not expecting any exciting shower scenes though. It's not that kind of book.

Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night
1255 Views

Do not go gentle into that good night. In fact, if it's past your curfew, don't go at all into that good night. You just stay in your good bed and...

Quotes: A fool's paradise
293 Views

Find out the meaning behind "a fool's paradise."