BA#7 Atonement

I believe the main secret in the book is Briony's secret from everyone. She is a pretentious, immature, selfish little girl who began holding secrets from everyone for her own self interest. When most kids are little they like to pretend they are soldiers or like to go on secret missions, well Briony's secret missions were to spy on others and through her imagination take situations out of context in order to keep herself entertained. In turn she ruined her life, her families life, and her older sister Cecilia's life. Not to mention what she put Robby through. Through her immature antics of personal private investigating she drove Robby into a downward spiral. 

The only good thing that turned from her immature games was that Cecilia and Robby grew deeper in love and their relationship became stronger. "'I'll wait for you. Come back.' She meant it. TIme would show she really meant it. After that they pushed him into the car, and she spoke hurriedly, before the crying began that she could no longer hold back, and she said that what had happened between them was theirs, only theirs. She meant the library, of coarse. It was theirs. No one could take it away. ' It's our secret,' she called out, in front of them all, just before the slam of the door." This simple quote led me to believe the intensity of their love and differed my thoughts about comparing this situation to other stories we have read. Most of the stories we have read have been about questionable love and awkward relationships. This story to me was about true love and its courses. Although Briony kept secrets that eventually set off negative repercussions throughout the rest of the story, it ended the way it should. In the end if people are meant to be together things have there way of working out. 

BA# 7 Atonement

I think that the secret of the seriousness of Turner and Cecilia's relationship was validated on page 249 - "Ill wait for you was elemental. It was the reason he had survived." This shows how important C was to Turner and reflects the intense control she had over his will.
This confirmation reveals the secret whose strength was questioned and undermined all along, especially by Briony. This secret is that the love between Turner and Cecilia is real, it is no longer concieved as a childish thing or an illicit relationship.
This secret reflects the relationship in the story of Blackbird concerning Ray and Una. The reader is meant to question throughout the play the context of their relationship as well. They are kept guessing how genuine Ray was about Una - did he have real love for her or was he a pedifile?? These secrets have different ending points in the readers mind though. In Atonement we are given the answer that dignifies Turner and Cecilias relationship is mutual and heartfelt, whereas Blackbird never explains Ray's motives for having sex with Una or if he really loved(s) her.

BA #6 Atonement

In McEwan's Atonement there were a ton of secrets. The secret's that Briony first start to see, with Cecillia and Robbie, first near the fountain, then in the library, are really what starts everything. Briony, instead of asking questions, or trying to get to the bottom of things, she makes her own assumptions about what seems to be happening, and clearly they are wrong. But the whole point to Briony was that she wanted to have secrets to keep and hold on to. Briony is a lonely child, she's the baby. The youngest of families usually get all the attention, they want it, they need it. And with Briony, it's like she's a generation behind everything. She's not just the youngest there is quite a large age gap between her and Cecilia and an even larger gap between her and Leon. So she's kind of the odd man out. Her dads always out of town and working, and her mom gets migraines quite often. And she was this huge house that she lives in and there seems to be no one around to give her that attention. I think that Briony, having secrets is like having someone give her attention, it's similar to that feeling. Not only that, she can make the secret worse and more ellaborate than it actually is. With her mind, she can create and make what ever she wants of it. And that's where she went wrong. I relaly think Briony knew that what was happening between Cecilia and Robbie was innocent and nothing to bring attention too. But i think that was boring to her, it wasn't the secret she wanted it to be, so she elaborated, and look what happened.
All in all this whole book seems to be packed full of secrets.

BA # 6 McEwan's Atonement

A secret in Atonement was the secrets Briony kept from everyone. Briony had a "passion" for secrets, and this was another secret she kept from everyone.
"Another was a passion for secrets: in a prized varnished cabinet, a secret drawer was opened by pushing against the grain of a cleverly turned dovetail joint, and here she kept a diary locked by a clasp, and a notebook written in a cold of her own invention. In a toy safe opened by six secret numbers she stored letters and postcards." Page 5

Another secret in Atonement was also the secret that Briony was spying on her sister, Cecilia and the household cleaner's son, Robbie. She was looking down from the upstairs window, hidden and unseen by the two.
"Unseen, from two stories up, with the benefit of unambiguous sunlight, she had privileged access across the years to adult behavior, to rite and conventions she knew nothing about, as yet." Page 37


The secrets are significant because it shows that Briony is a very secretive person, and keeps alot of "secrets" to herself.

BA #6 Atonement

Atonement is full of secrets. The novel itself is built on the secret and the consequences they have. Briony starts of the novel by misinturpreting the encounters between robbie and Cee, number one by the fountain, number two the letter, and number three when she walks in on their moment in the library. I think Briony's jelous of how Robbie wants Cee and not her, in her small mind she cannot see past the crush she has on him. Ultimatly she destroys her family. Briony's distain for Robbie is aparent on page 119 when Robbie goes to ask the twins a question and Briony advises them not to answer. In her childish mind she is trying to protect them , but she really has no clue. It is all to aparent she has already condemed Robbie. Later when the rape is confirmed she is all too quick to swear she saw Robbie, when in reality it is quite obvious it wasnt him. Again, class plays a part in this situation when the Robbie is accused and convicted on the word of a hartbroken, cold, child. Briony condems Cee and Robbie, new love birds to a life apart. With a book built on nothing but emothion, I felt nothing but disdain for the spoiled, babied, child who tore her world apart in seconds. Even in part two where she goes and tries to apologize and make ammends with her sister, I feel is she is doing it for her own selfish reasons. The true test of strenght comes in the end, the last page of novel, where all comes together and is revealed. Attonement is Briony's gift, her apology to Robbie, Cee, her parents, her cousin, and ultimatly to herself. "When I am dead, and the Marshalls are dead, and the novel is finally published, we will only exist as my inventions... The problem these fifty nine years has been this: How can a novelist acheive attonement..." She gave Robbie and Cee the time they so desperatly yearned for and deserved, the years they never had together. Inher selfishness she gave them the one thing she yearned for, the chance to take it back. All in all, i admire the courage Briony had to expose the true story, even after fifty nine years of living a lie...

BA #6 Atonement

One secret in Atonement is what Jack Tallis is doing while he is on business trips. The narrator says that Emily is aware of some dort of foul play and that Jack knows and she knows that Jack knows, yet she is unable to ask him. It is also said that Emily does not want to know, because she does not want to mess up the life they have. She assumes that "ignorance is bliss."
Another secret in Atonement is the secret that Cecilia and Robbie are not keeping only from Emily, but also from everyone else in the novel. It is about their "encounter" in the library where Briony walked in on them, thinking that Robbie was attacking Cecilia. Both secrets are being kept because the holders of the secrets do not wish to disturb the flow of life in the tallis household.
These secrets are significant to the narrative because there is an air of mystery about Jack Tallis, from his secret and the fact that halfway through the book, we have yet to actually meet him. We have only heard stories. The secret that Cecilia and Robbie share could change the lives of Robbie and the Tallis family if it was known to everybody what went on in the Tallis' librabry right before the big family dinner.

BA# 6 The Jack Randa Hotel

This story has a couple of different secrets that involve a few different characters. The relationship between the old and young man and how Gail originally planed on getting Will back. I think the most interesting secret was how did Will feel about Gail by the end of the story pg 181.
I think that Wills insecurities he shares with Mrs. Thornaby about the feeling of not belonging are very similar to Gails insecurities that motivated her to sell her store and move away. Will writes to Mrs. Thornaby in one of his letters talking about his wife and her friends “I cannot be one of them. I must say they saw this before I did.”. Both characters seem to have a hole in their lives since they broke up. Will is just now learning that Sandy might not be the right person for him while Gail has had an empty feeling ever since Will left. While Gail clearly still has feelings for Will; I believe though it is never clearly stated that Will also has feelings for Gail.
I think that Wills feelings for Gail are shown in the letters he writes to Mrs. Thornaby. Though the argument could be made that the letters were written out of loneliness like Will said, I think that a part of him liked Mrs. Thornabys personality and that’s what possessed him to go meet her in person. Even after he found out she was dead he still wanted to meet the person he was really writing to. That says to me that he did in fact have at least some interest in this person who turned out to be Gail.

BA #5 Jack Randa Hotel

The main secret throughout this whole story is the fact that Will and Gail both truly love each other but both of them don't want to admit it. When Will goes off to Australia with Sandy it killed Gail inside and she wanted to do whatever possible she could do to find him again. Another secret was that she told everyone she was going on some trip to Europe when she was really just going out to find Will in Australia(168-169).
I think a secret that Will is keeping from everybody else is that he really doesn't want to be with Sandy. He likes that she is younger than him so that is a plus, but when he goes to Australia it seems like all he is trying to do is find someone out there other than her to become friends with and acquainted with. This can be seen in the letters between him and Ms. Thornaby. They weren't even related and he was just trying to find someone else to talk to and build a friendship with because he was unhappy.
To go along with the main secret of them both truly loving each other it comes to proof when Will starts sending Gail(Ms. Massie) letters telling her that he basically still loves her(188).

BA # 6: The Jack Randa Hotel

This story is filled with many secrets. Some are secrets that are just never answered at all--left completely up to the readers, and some are hinted at, but never fully answered outright. Alice Munro seems to do that with most of the stories in the Open Secrets collection. I said in a previous comment on The Albanian Virgin, that the short stories in this book remind me of those "Choose your own ending/ what happens next" books that were back in the day.
The main questions I had in this book were the following: Why is Gail so desperate and in such obsession with Will? What is the actual relationship between the old man and young man and where does the young man go? The ending is also a secret of "What will happen between Will and Gail?"
Gail seems to have an obvious obsession with Will--it definetely seems lustous. She shows quite the apparent jealousy of Sandy, as is seen on pg 173 where she is reading Will's letter to Ms. Thornaby:

"Wife. He is trying to be respectable in the eyes of the possible cousin."

Perhaps it is just the way I read it but I definetely sensed an air of jealousy.
The whole story as a whole is evidence for her obsession. She leaves her life completely, goes under disguise, and moves to Australia to see what Will is up to. She then pretends to be a deceased old woman to keep in contact with Will without him knowing it is her.

I was quite surprised when Munro writes that the old man and young man were lovers. I too, due to the described age gap, assumed they were father and son, grandfather and son or maybe even family friends. On page 184 is when Munro hints at the lovers:

"Lovers. Gail thinks. She is suddenly sure of it. She feels a shiver of sympathy, an odd gratification. Lovers."

Although it is never truley said outright by either the elder or the young man, we assume through Gail's assumption that they were indeed lovers.
It is also never answered what happens to the young boy. There is a scene where the old man is yelling and the young boy is standing outside the apartment--perhaps a fight is what set them apart? Or maybe it's a simpler explanation that the young man was away--on a buisness trip, for example.

Lastly, I found the end to be the biggest secret of all, meaning, the one as a reader that I would like answered. Gail recieves a note, presumed to be from Will saying that he knows it's her.
The very last sentence on page 189 says:

"Now it's up to you to follow me."

The reader never knows, doesn't even get a hint or assumption, of what will happen. Will Will be happy and return to Gail? Will he be upset and ignore her, or upset and go after her? Will Gail be unable to leave the decision up to Will and feel the need to go back? These are the questions that the reader is left with and really that true "secret" of the story.

BA# 5
The Albanian Virgin
When I first read the story I did not really assume any connection between Lottar and Charlotte to begin with, however to think that women so sick in the hospital could come up with such a story seems hard to believe unless of course it is a story of herself. I also feel that the way they did not reveal Lottar's real name when in Maltsia e madhe, makes it seem more likely that her real name could have been Charlotte. The names Charlotte and Lottar even look alike, and for someone speaking a different language who cannot pronounce Charlotte, may shorten it to Lotte or Lottar. I feel that whether or not the two are connected is a secret and one that is quite relevant to the story.
I also was questioning where Charlotte and Gjurdhi may have gone after Charlotte was checked out of the hospital. Maybe it is possible that, if Charlotte is Lottar, they disappeared back to Maltsia e Madhe because Charlotte felt that going back might be helpful in her illness or at least comforting for her. I also thought it could be possible that Gjurdhi is really the Priest in the sorty and that is how they met. On the last page of the story Lottar is calling out for the Priest as she is being taken away by the British consul. I feel that while in Maltsia e Madhe, maybe Lottar and the Priest started a relationship more than the reader is aware of and they continued it after Lottar was rescued and going back there after Charlotte is checked out of the hospital may be in order to bring Charlotte back to a time of her life that was meaningful during her illness. Where they dissapeared off too is another secret that makes reading this story more interesting as well.
This story really has alot of layers that make the reader question what is happening and why. Who are Charlotte and Lottar, are they the same person? Where did Charlotte and Gjurdhi go? All of these secrets make the story much more interesting to read, and trying to peice them together after reading it can help the reader make a more meaningful connection than if all the answers were just laid out for them through-out the story.

BA#5 The Albanian Virgin

The Albanian Virgin is a story which appears to be full of secrets. I felt as if many of these secrets involved Charlotte and Gjurdhi. The largest secret being kept from the reader is whether or not there is more of a connection between Charlotte and the story she is telling. What the reader knows is that it is an idea for a movie she has come up with while recovering in a hospital, however we are never entirely sure what the connection (if any) is between Charlotte and Lottar.

Charlotte and Gjurdi are made out to be somewhat mysterious people, living in a town where they are not really accepted, being seen as scavengers and thieves. They are often seen wandering town with a wagon, usually filled with books that Gjurdi is often trying to sell to Claire, however to no avail. Their apartment is a mess, filled with books and clutter. Charlotte becomes ill (another secret because we do not know what ails her) and while in the hospital "comes up" with a lavish story about an Albanian virgin.

The story Charlotte tells is about Lottar, a woman who is traveling with a small group of people. Lottar goes out with a guide one morning while the others are sleeping where the guide is shot and killed and she is left injured. She is taken back to the tribe, nursed to health, and lives among the tribes people as one of the women (and later one of the men). After the tribe tries to sell her as a wife, the priest tells her only option is to become a virgin and when this no longer seems as a safety net for her, he tells her she must leave; he takes her to the bishop, and she eventually leaves entirely.

I believe that Lottar is more than just a person in Charlotte's story. The two names are somewhat similar, especially when you take into consideration the differences in languages spoken between Lottar and the tribes people. The following passage may be a hint at the similarity in the two names, "she must have tried to tell them her name, and "Lottar" was what they made of it" (pg. 81). For me, the story left me believing that the priest was Gjurdhi. At the very end of the story, after Lottar left, the last line reads, "She called him and called him, and when the boat came into the harbor at Trieste he was waiting on the dock" (pg.128). This leads me to believe that he came to meet her because as the story proceeded it seemed as if they had bottled up feelings for each other. But since it never is revealed, it remains a secret to the readers.

BA#5

'The Albanian Virgin' in Open Secrets, kind of takes the reader around in a circle. It is about a woman, Claire, who owns a bookstore and how she meets all sorts of different people along the way. She talks about and describes how she brings in new ways of thinking to the towns people by not buying the books on the lists, by selling poetry and "good" literature. Along with Claire's story, there is Charlotte's story about Lottar. Lottar travels with her guide and when he guide gets killed she needs to be nursed back to health. After she is, she is adopted into the "tribe" and is up to be sold to a Muslim. The Franciscan priest finds out about this and stops it just as soon as it happened and turns her into a propetual virgin. Basically she is allowed the same status in society as men. The priest takes her with him to go see the bishop and after she goes to the consulate and leaves. Charlottes story is also comprised of her being an "ex-scavenger" with her husband Gjurdhi. She ends up in the hospital and eventually is checked out by Claire and they both disappear.



Within ALL of the stories, there are secrets. One major one that sticks out to me, is, Is Charlotte really Lottar with a changed name? Is she really proposing this idea for a movie script and telling it in third person when in reality it happened to her? This secret is kept from the reader. I feel as though Claire knows the answer to this secret. When the description is given of Lottar becoming a virgin with all the Crucifixes around her, it is connected in a sense to when Gjurdhi comes into Claire's bookstore (pg. 95) and by the end is describing and trying to sell her his crucifix (pg. 97). This made me believe that if Charlotte really WAS Lottar, then possibly Gjurdhi was involved with her becoming a virgin as well, or wore the Crucifix in memory of her while she was in the hospital. Also I feel as though the script would not be so indepth with details that seem so real if it was not based off of real life experiences.



"The kula was a great, rough stone house with a stable below and the living quarters above. A veranada ran all the way around, and there would always be an old woman sitting there, with a bobbin contraption that flew like a bird from one hand to the other and left a trail of shiny black braid, mile after mile of black braid, which was the adornment of all the men's trousers..." (pg. 87 continuing until the top of pg. 88). With a woman of Charlotte's age (or the age that the author makes us believe Charlotte is) I have a hard time believing that descriptions like those can come right off the top of her head, without anything in front of her reminding her of what she wanted to propose as a movie script.



I believe that the major secret in this story is whether or not Charlotte or even Gjurdhi were a part of the story of Lottar. I think that it is not a vital piece of information for the reader in order to understand the story, I believe that it would help out though seeing things seem to just run themselves into a circle sentence after sentence.

BA #3 Harrower's Blackbird

Blackbird is a play set in England about A conversation between a man and a younger woman in the lunch room of the man's company. It becomes very clear that the two know each other from a previous enounter, it is also clear that the man does not want the woman to be there. We do not find out untill page 18 why he is so uncomfortable, or why he moved and changed his name, that he had a relationship with the girl. The story is very secretive and you learn that the man went to prison and served time, and has started a new life far away from where this all took place. The story almost makes him out to be the victim, noting how everyone around the girl told her that he never truely cared about her, but he tries to explain to her that that is not the case. It even makes it seem like she wanted it more than he did, on starting on page 41 where she would write him notes and do things like meet him at the park. The book takes a suprising turn at the end, because one minute they are yelling at each other, she even throws a chair at him, and the next they are kissing each other only to be interupted by a voice at the door. The play ends on a cliff hanger because you don't know what happens after the man walks out the door.

BA#3 Harrower Blackbird

When you first start reading the play, the reader is being kept from a major secret between the two characters. The reader doesn't find out who these people are, how they know each other, and why they are meeting. The reader even finds out that Ray isn't the name this man goes by now. Instead he goes by the name of Peter to hide his identity. The reader is thrown into this story and as the play progresses you find out the secrets of these two characters. The reader finds out on page 18 how these two characters are connected. "How many other twelve-year-old girls have you had sex with?" From that line on, the reader is informed of the other situation that happened years ago. The reader isn't the only one that is kept from this secret. Ray has kept the secret of his past from this co-workers. "You don't have the right to my my my humiliation. Where I work. Where people are. My colleagues. Work colleagues." (page 14). He doesn't want them to know about his past. Ray admits that he has told his wife about his past and is honest to her about it.
I think that this secret that is kept from the reader is related to "The Road". The author keeps the catastrophe that occured in "The Road" a secret from the reader. I do think that McCarthy and Harrower had different reasons to keep a secret from the reader. I think that McCarthy kept what actually happened in "The Road" a secret so that the reader wouldn't dwell on what actually happened but on how the father and son survived and lived after it. I think that Harrower kept a secret from the reader in the beginning of the play so that there would be a suspenseful effect when the reader found out who these people were and how they knew each other.
I think that keeping who these characters are at the beginning of the play, makes for a suspenseful story line and gets the reader intrigued. Not knowing right away makes the reader want to know and continue to read to find out the secret. I know when I started reading it I couldn't stop because I wanted to know why these people were meeting and how they knew each other. I would imagine that seeing this play live for the first time without knowing anything would keep the audience's attention and would have them wanting to know more.

BA#3 black bird

Blackbird was a difficult play to comprehend because it makes the viewer second guess their morals. The story has a man who is 40 years old having a sexual relationship with a 12 year old girl. At first many would think that it is wrong and disgusting but as the story progresses you begin to feel bad for him and at some points you feel like it was questionable.  At some points though it got to the point to where you think she deserved it.  She acted like she still wanted it, she wanted to forgive him, wanted to go back to what they had. The part that actually makes you feel bad for him is that he was trying to escape her, trying to get away and start his life over. Ray pleaded for her to leave and tell her to forget him, but she refuses to leave and harasses him into at last kiss her and touch her again.  Whether she was young or old she wanted to be with him, whether it was because "something up stairs wasn't working right" or because she truly was in love with him. The question that is frequently asked during the play is "Is what he did right or wrong?" Did he truly have feelings for her or was he a pedophile with an obsession? This question is hard to respond to because morally we believe that a man who is 40 having sex with a girl who is 12 is a pedophile like description. But when you think about how he treated her and how they reacted towards each other you begin to believe he was truly in love with her. The whole story is that of which it makes you question yourself and makes you think about what is question your thoughts about what age love could or could not be able to be developed or understood.  she thought she loved him and he thought he loved her but there idea may not be the one which would oversee the consequences of a mature sexual relationship.

Blackbird is a short play about a man named Ray and a woman named Una meeting for the first time in many, many years. Their illegal relationship from the past was revealed throughout the whole play, leaving out mysterious bits and pieces for the audience to wonder about. The author holds the secret of what happened 8 years earlier, and the secret is slowly being let lose through the two character’s dialogue. After the secret is let out, the tension between the two tightens until one of them breaks loose from it and escapes the tragedy.

"The
who
afterwards
to write you a letter
letters
telling you what I thought of you.
What i felt.
Wanted to say to you.
To not let it
let you have
win.
Authority.
And it was." (Page 11)
This quotation reveals that theres a secret because what happened in the past, and that it had an affect on Una.

This secret is similar to a secret from McCarthy's The Road because in The Road, the secret was also kept to the author from the audience because at the beginning, it wasn’t clear what happened to America. This is similar because the audience wasn’t told what had happened to Una and Ray. The two authors kept the secrets for similar reasons. The secret the author kept from the audience of The Road was in a similar way to how the author of Blackbird kept a secret from his audience. The authors wouldn’t give away what happened in the story to their audience, so they left a trail of clues and hints so that the audience could illustrate his or her own picture of what happened.

"Dark and black and trackless where it crossed the open country. The winds has swept the ash and dust from the surface. Rich lands at one time. No sign of life anywhere. It was no country that he knew." (Page 202)
The author illustrates a picture for the audience so they can assume that since theres ashes and it's a cold black world, the environment the boy and the man were in was burned and that there was no life left around them.
"Ray:I didn't want us to get caught.
I've never
loved Never desired anyone that age again.
Ever.

Una: Just me.

Ray: Yes" (page49)
This small segment of dialogue reveals that something happened between these two. Something happened that they didnt want to get caught for, and the author leaves different pieces of the puzzle so that the audience can figure out the event that happened.

Understanding the chosen secret is significant to the understanding the narrative because it's the narrator that's keeping the secret from us. In order to solve the secret, we must understand the narrative to understand the secret.

The play Blackbird is about a woman who gets raped when she is 12 years old, and years later, her finally confronting the man who did it. Throughout the play we as readers learn more and more about their relationship and what happened, especially in court. One secret is the fact of Una actually going to Ray (a.k.a. Peter) and talking to him about this incident. It is not very clear. The main secret I believe is in the way that the play is written. David Harrower leaves sentences unfinished. It's like the characters are in mid-sentence and he just cuts into a different topic completely.

"Ray: The people who
who helped you.
Your
Una: I stopped seeing them years ago.
Theey're not there for ever." (pg. 13)

At times, Harrower also has the characters speaking, but at certian points, he just cuts it off and starts a new topic, sometimes finishing the thought the next time the character speaks, and sometimes just leaving it the way that it was.

"Una: But, Jesus.
Trevelyan.
Did you
God, no
That's
To
To the manor born.
The silver spoon.
It's
from a phone book at random?
Were yyou delirious?
Did
delusions of of granduer?......" (pg. 13)

Passages such as the one above do not particularly make sense because the thoughts are cut off and they don't relate to eachother either. There are never really too many explinations about what is going on either. Just the conversations between Una and Ray which leaves the reader in the blue. I feel as though Harrower left sentences and passages kind of choppy if you would, to let the reader interpret it in their own way. He gives leeway on what is going on and what the situation revolves around but never too many exact details. I feel this secret is kept from the reader so that they can almost interpret it in their own way, or even to leave some suspicion to the story. As it is, the lawyers and family and friends all don't know exactly what happened either. Una and Ray are the only ones who know every last detail. I'm not really sure this secret is the most important one, but I definately think it would have helped along the way to give more guidence and understanding to the play.

BA #3 Blackbird

The play Blackbird is essentially an opening up of the secrets which Ray and Una have been holding off all the years between the affair and their reunion at Ray's workplace. They may have had to have been required to share some aspects of their secrets. Ray was forced to be exposed; he was arrested and sentenced. Una's family did not help with her in keeping her secret. She said,
"I had suspicious
suspiciously adult yearnings.
When my mother told me that I didn't know what she meant
And we never moved house.
They
To, shame me.
To punish me.
So I'd be pointed at." She had wanted to keep what happened a secret at this point, but she had no choice.

In meeting together again, where the play is set, Ray and Una keep secrets from each other about their lives. For instance, Ray says that he told his wife,
"That when I was forty I had
I had an illegal relationship.
I had sex with a minor," but Una works out of him later that he had never actually told her about the affair, or if he did, he didn't tell her it involved a twelve year old girl for a period of three months.

One other important secret which is mentioned is that Una never tells her current boyfriend about Ray. She says,
"No.
I didn't tell him.
I've never told him.
I didn't want to.
I liked him too much." This secret shows that Una has some shame in what happened. While this shame is pretty normal for a rape victim, The way which Una comes on to Ray in the end makes it seem as if maybe she was keeping this secret from her current boyfriend because she felt like it was a real relationship outside of theirs which he should not know about. It, in a kind of way, evidences that maybe Una really did have feelings for Ray. It is not particularly strong evidence, but at least it's a thought.

BA#3 Secrets in Harrower's Black Bird

I found this play to be similiar to The Road in the way that the information you need to know about the characters was slowly given to the reader. The Main characters are cloudy in the beginning just as in The Road where the man and son are just characters with only a purpose with no meaning. Ray and Una are just characters, you as a reader don't have a clue as to where they came from their relationships with others or eachother and their purpose too is unclear. When we read a story we typically look for the , who, what, when , where, and whys to keep us interested. As human beings we all want to figure things out, its a basic need to know things, and when you are given a story you want answers to these predisposed questions. We crave these answers even more so in a play because you are reading or watching something which we expect to have that peak of interest in it somewhere and then a dramatic monumental (devastating or heightening) conclusion, therefor in the duration of the play we look for clues to give us some kind of notion of what will happen next and then we put the peices together so we can try to figure out the ending then compare what we thought to what actually happened. In this play you are given the clues so slowly and so vaguely that when it comes time for the end you are left wondering and frustrated. The whole play is based on secrets really, and when the end finally comes you are still left with questions, that cannot be answered.

BA #3 Harrower's Blackbird

In the beginning of Harrower’s Blackbird there are a lot of secrets. In the beginning you were given the description of the characters Una and Ray, but nothing else. You don’t know how they know each other or if they even do know each other or even where they are. It’s all very mysterious. I think the main secret is being kept from the audience and it’s the past relationship between Una and Ray. The secret is already known by the two characters and the play consists of their secret and the way it unravels before our eyes and slowly lets us in on the details.
The way the secret was being held in and slowly released reminded me of Carried Away and the secret relationship between Louisa and Jack and how you slowly learn more and more about who each one of them are and their relationship seems to be slowly unfolding in front of the readers eyes. I mean they do differ in many ways, Louisa and Jack never knew each other before the story started. And while the story continues on Louisa is learning everything as we learn everything. This is very different from Blackbird, in how the audience doesn’t know what the two characters know. But the two stories remind me of one another because of the relationships remind me of one another. They’re very secretive and nobody else knows much about either of their relationships.
I think that knowing the secret in Blackbird is imperative to the story, the secret is the plot of the play. The slow revealing of the secret and details is what the story consists of and is what keeps your attention. So I do think that the secret plays a huge part and is very important to the play. I don't think the [;ay would be much without it.

McCarthy's The Road: the boys morals and hope

This story follows a boy and his father and there journey through the now demised world around them. The boy was unfortunate to be born into this post-apocalyptic landscape, and the world around him has been completely destroyed and life everywhere has been wiped out. The people around them who are left consist of either cannibals or refugee scavengers. The boy must learn about life, survival, and morals in a world in which life is depleted and the people around him are killing each other or are starving to death. The boys morals are strongly built however and after his mothers death, you can tell that the father has taken a stronger position on raising his son to be morally and ethically strong.  One of the major themes that Cormac McCarthy emphasized on was the importance of parenthood and the roles of parents in their child's life. 

Even though the father and his son were faced with limited food and were threatened by multiple enemies, the boy was able to see the situation for what it was and he cared about others and tried to feed the others. On page 129 the boy exclaimed "we are the good guys right?" The innocence of his youth is surprising to the reader since the situation that they are living through is life or death.  The boy and his father are able to keep faith in there survival and they continue to "carry the fire". I think that the reason the boy is able to keep his faith and stay strong to his morals is because of the love and devotion that his father holds to him. 

BA#2 The Mystery of Heather Bell

When reading this short story I was instantly red flagged by Marian Hubbert and her husband, The dissapearance of Heather Bell is deffinatly one of the big secrets but even more the reader wants to know who was involved and how it happened. I know that all drama series on TV are fictional but there is a correlation between them and real life. You always know who the culprit is when they start defending themselves before they have been accused. Think back to when you were younger and you had done something wrong. your parents had the ability to just look at you or listen to your comments and they would know if you were guilty or not. Whenever my mom suspected something I would immediatly make up the most rediculose story ever defending myself, because deep down I knew I would eventually get in trouble. Marian Hubbert and her Husband go to the police and to the Lawyer before anyone even pointed the finger at them or accused them of anything, that to me automatically suggests that they have done something wrong. This story mirrors the real human nature that we can see in anyone today. People want to make sure that they are deemed clean before the secrets of what they have done are uncovered and then they have to come clean and tell the truth.

BA 2 Open Secrets

1. The Secret that's being kept from the reader in open Secrets is the disappearance of Heather Bell. On page 136 Miss Johnstone makes a comment that "One's taken it into her head to go missing" That shows that she didn't even care the girl was missing. Also on page 140 the comment is made "that a girl was seen getting into car or hitchhiking." You Have to wonder was is Heather Bell? And was it plan?
2. I think another secret that's being kept from the reader is the secret behind Marian Hubbert and her husband coming to visit Lawyer Stephens. I fell like they might have been involve in the disappearance of Heather Bell. I think the reason why they came to him first instead of going to the police is they probably felt scared. On page 152 the husband when asked by Lawyer Stephens if you notice his hand start to pull on the cloth like he is hiding something. It makes you want to take a second look at them both.
3. Both the secrets relate to Heather Bell disappearance and to Maureen. The reason why the two are related is because the story revolves around Maureen she being told the story by Frances. And she's also involve when Marian Hubbert and husband come to visit Lawyer Stephens. I think the reason Maureen involve because she might be able figure out what happen to Heather. She might hold the key to the secret that is taken over the town.

BA #2 "Carried Away" - Open Secrets

1 - The secret at the core of this story is that Jack Agnew a soldier who randomly writes a letter to a librarian who previously caught his attention before going to war, is married to a young woman from the same town, Carstairs. This secret Jack holds is important because in his letters to the librarian he expresses desire and interest in her, yet he never mentions that he is involved at all with another woman. This is kept from the librarian as well as the reader. We find out as soon as she does in reading the newspaper announcement of their wedding - as she has been keeping up with the news hoping to hear anything of this man.
-On a hot afternoon she was arranging fresh newspapers on the racks and his name jumped out at her like something in her feverish dreams. She read a short notice of his marriage to a Miss Grace Horne. Not a girl she knew. Not a Library user....there was no picture. Brown and creme piping. Such was the end, and had to be to her romance. (pg 18-19)-
2- This secret is like the first one I mentioned - by the same man - Jack and again, from Louisa the librarian.
- she finds a scrap of paper on her desk reading: 'I was engaged before i went overseas.'
He had been in the library that very evening. It had been a busy time, she had often left the desk to find a book for somebody or to straighten up the papers or to put some books on the shelves. He had been in the same room with her, watched her, and taken his chance. But never made himself known. (pg 18)-
After he gets home from the war he doesnt tell Louisa hes back(another secret) he comes and checks out the books she recommended to him without her knowing(another secret) and THEN he sees her in the library but she doesnt see him. This secret is a secret of himself. He keeps secret his presence..i believe the reason being that if he were to see her in person it would get him into alot of trouble and he would have alot of explaining to do and would have to act on his prior declarations of his feelings for her and come clean about the first secret of being married. Not to mention he would then need to decide what to do about keeping with his word of his feelings for Louisa (he claimed he loved her and was happy she didnt have a sweetheart(pg 11) yet he was married. This is like lieing to cover a previous lie - its a secret on a secret in order to not hurt Louisa, himself, or his wife and kids, leaving no room for regret. In both of these secrets he is keeping his presence and the reality of his life a secret. He has fabricated - well more like omitted truth from Louisa in order to build some fantasy/delusional relationship with her and in both cases is hesitant to actually put himself in the reality of the situation. I felt bothered and offended for Louisa when i read that he had been in the library but was sneaky and avioded her. Louisa's feeling of having a thirst for somthing/someone and having them be in control of your access to it and denying it to you is confusing and hurtful. So i see this in both of his secrets, as well as his reasons for keeping himself from her as being done in order to not hurt Louisa's feelings.
3- If he were truthful about either of these secrets; and seen by Louisa in person it would be like a tease for her and tells me as a reader what kind of man this confusing Jack Agnew is. He is a man unwilling to comprimise his morals and values of a husband and father on a whim because of his feelings for another woman - basically a stranger. You must understand why he continued to keep these secrets, and himself from Louisa to understand the narrative of the story. I think it is reflective of the underlying message in this story that there is reality and there is the realities you create for yourself, the possibilities we all open or close when making choices. Who knows what would have happened - how life would have changed for these two characters if Jack and Louisa took a chance on each other. Thats the mystery of life though, and makes a good example of the point that the author is trying to make in this story - what if...?

BA#2 McCarthy's The Road: The Boy's Morals and Hope

The boy knows nothing else. Endless grey days and ash covered roads. Hunger, biting coldness, and fear are everyday emotions for this child. There was never sunshine and play, the carefree ways of inncoent children. The boy was born and his innocence ripped away immediatly. He was not given a chance to flourish under normal circumastances, in a normal stable environment. He spent his entire young life, and more than likley, adult life, wandering from ruin to ruin. Seeking out the good in a desolate waste of land. However, dull and bleak his exterior we see from ealry on that he is not a dull child. He is extremley bright, warm, and loving. He is giving and compassionate. He knows what it is like to have nothing and is more than willing to share his meager allowences with those who need it. In several instances thruoghout the novel, the boy is willing to give uo his share to either his father, or those who he deems need it more than he. Like the old crippled man he gives peaches to. Durring the narrative the boy and father frequently argue about giving away precious stock to strangers. The boy is always in favor, the father always not. It is hard to share what one has when one has nothing. But I think the boy is more apt to share because he is used to having nothing. The man knows what it is like to live with luxeries, thus the little they have he hoards. The boy is ultimatly the small voice of reason to his father. I think he keeps him sane. The boy gives him hope, he is the future. Ultimatly the boy represents the good in humanity, the hope that even though all is lost and evil is abundant there is someone, somthing out there to bring hope, to bring caring, and to ultimatly keep the faith. The father raised the boy to beleive that there was good, even when all was going bad. I dont think the man ment to be harsh and greedy, he was acting out of desperation. A good passage showing how the boy represents hope in the novel is on page 60. "In the morning they came out of the ravine and took to the road again. He'd carved the boy a flute from a piece of roadside cane and took it from his coat and gave it to him. The boy took it wordlessly. After a while the man could here him playing. A formless music for the age to come. Or perhaps the last music on earth called up called up from out of the ashes of its ruin. The man turned and looked back at him. He was lost i concentration. The man thaught he seemed some sad and solitary changling announcing the arrival of a traveling specticle in shire and village who does not know that behind him the players have all been carried off by wolves." The boy keeps going, like nothing happened. He sees the goodness in people, places, and experiences. He is the voice of reason to the man, and to thier world. He gives hope to the man that there will be somthing better... there has to be somthing better. Ultimatly it is the child who keeps them going.

BA #2 "Open Secrets"

1. One of the secrets kept in the short story "Open Secrets" is the secret of what happens to young Heather Bell. She dissapears on a camping trip and is never to be seen again, no one has any leads, and even after some time her body is never found either. On page 159, it is said that even in her school picture her tight-lipped smile may seem to have a connection to her dissapearence, as in, she was planning it or wanted to escape from something unknown to the reader, but no one will ever really know what happened.
2. Another secret, which is much less clear but I believe still exists, is Maureen's unknown secret. On the last page of the short story, page 160, the narrator talks about the things that happen to Maureen like the death of her husband, remarriage, ect., and then says, "she'll watch the soft skin form on the back of a wooden spoon and her memory will twitch, but it will not quite reveal to her this moment when she seems to be looking into an open secret, something not startling until you think of trying to tell it." It is clear that here Maureen has some sort of secret she is keeping, weither it be just from her new husband or others, or from the reader only I am unsure, but it definitly seems to me that she is keeping something. Possibly she knows something of the death of Heather Bell?
3. Both of these secrets are being kept from the reader and are both related to the main character, Maureen. I don't see any other reason for her to be the main character of a story being told about what happened to a young girl on a hike than it having to do with her in some way other than what we are told. She is the wife of the town lawyer and all, but it seems to me that there must be some other connection as well for her to be the main character even though that connection may be an unclear secret to the reader. Both of these secrets, are important to the narrative and generate questions within the mind of the reader, trying to figure out what happened to the young girl and what sort of connection Maureen has in the whole story of events besides just hearing about it and discussing it with her cousin Frances.

BA#2 McCarthy's The Road: The Boy's Morals

In class we had a discussion about where the boy's morals come from considering his upbringing in a devastated world. McCarthy keeps this a "secret" from the reader. As readers, we are never quite sure how the boy has such morals and hope.

This concept really brings up the whole nature vs. nurtue debate. I am a person who believes that children become the adults they are through both the "nuture" in life (environment,parents, etc.) as well as "nature" (genes, biological, etc.)"The Road" demonstrates this combination through the morality and compassion of the boy.The father does in a sense teach the child to be the "good" guy. He teaches him to be carrying the fire. The concept of carrying the fire can relate to optimism and hope--which can lead to morals over utter desperation.This is seen on page 83:

"We're going to be okay, aren't we Papa?/ Yes. We are./ And nothing bad is going to happen to us./ That's right./Because we're carrying the fire. Yes. Because we're carrying the fire."

This shows a little lesson to the boy kind of saying "do unto others as you would like done to you". Since they are so hopeful and optimistic about life, they hope other people will be the same and not do "anything bad" to them.

The boy is the only thing the father really cares about. He always comments on how the boy is just skin and bones.

Page 38:"The boy so thin it stoppped his heart."

The father also always wants to shield the boy from the desperation and constant death surrounding them--though it is not always possible.

Pg 236:"In the shallows beyond the breakwater an ancient corpse rising and falling amonng the driftwood. He wished he could hide it but the boy was right. What was there to hide?"

At other times it seems like the boy has so much more hope than the father, and far more caring for others. Since the child has grown up in devastation through a scavanger lifestyle learning to trust no one--it's surprising that the boy is so compassionate towards the people he encounters.

I think this is where the nature kicks in. It's almost like the biological innoncence of being a child. Children are always very trusting of others and very concerned when others feelings are hurt or they are physically hurt. (I work in a daycare and see it all the time) I think the boy really carries out this innoncence which as he ages and learns lessons from his father becomes compassion for others. When then man on the beach steals their cart, it's the boy begging the father to spare this man and just leave him be. The father is angry and ready to kill him but the boy, for some natural, innate reason, feels sorry for the man.The boy realls seems to understand what others are going through because it is just like what him and his papa are going through.

The boy's moral sense keeps the father going many a time. Some of these moral lessons he learned from his father directly, others the father inadvertenly taught him and others he just had in him to begin with.

The Essay I created based from "The Road."

Doomsday is Coming?


Let me give you a little back round about me. I am very picky when it comes to reading books. Some people might frown down on me because I don’t read a certain number of books in a given year. I don’t like reading books that have small print. I hate the new fantasy books, like the ever so popular Harry Potter’s, or The Lord of the Rings. I prefer factual books, and I now love to read books about the end of times. Why, you might ask. That’s just who I am. I could remember my father trying to force me to read when I was in grade school. I believed that reading was boring and should only done for getting good grades. But recently after reading a certain book, that all changed.

Just recently the Spring 2008 semester was about to started. I picked my classes and bought my books. One book amongst the vast majority, was a medium size all black book. The title was “The Road”. At first glance I didn’t think that much of the book. I originally thought it would be just another book someone else thought was interesting and thought it should be apart of the curriculum. Then one day I came home from work. I was fried from working on the computer all night, and the last thing I thought of doing was reading for fun.

I went down to my basement, where I live in my parents house, and glanced at my

pile of school books. I felt a sudden chill of dread. The dread of the up coming semester and the reality that I would have to read all those books. For some reason that night I went to investigate my dread. The first, and only, book I picked up was called “The Road” by Cormac MacCarthy. At that very moment is when it started. I opened the first page and started to read. That night I experienced something that has never happened to me in all my twenty six years; the book grabbed me and did not let go.

I began to read “The Road” and I could not put it down. For three days, every chance I had, my eyes were fixed to this book. I was fascinated by the subject matter and the plot. It was mainly about two people trying to survive after a great cataclysmic event. The two people were, a little boy and his father. They never mention their names, or say what happened to the earth. Their only will and purpose to survive; is the belief that if they travel south to the sea everything will be okay. Along the way they scrounge for basic sustenance, and try to escape the cannibalistic gangs that roam the very road they are traveling. In a world completely covered in ash, they are at times the only living souls.

After reading this book, I wondered why this happened to me. I never got so attached to a book in my life. I later came to realize that it was not a renewed love of reading that captivated me. It’s the idea of the end of mankind or society as we know it. I am not a sick person, at least I think I’m not. I wonder, like anyone, if in my lifetime I will experience something as fantastic as the end of times. Since the day we are old

enough to remember, we are always reminded that everything living has an end. Television programs always remind us that someday we could be in the bulls eye of a giant meteor or asteroid that could end life on earth as we know it. I mean look at the Dinosaurs. They flourished for millions of years and one day a large rock from outer space decided to knock on their door and made them extinct. This could happen to us.


I also started rent movies with such titles as, “The Day After Tomorrow,” “28 Days Later,” then “28 Weeks Later,” “I Am Legend,” “Armageddon,” and “Independence Day.” All these movies dealt with the end of mankind in one way or another. I regard these movies now, as some of my favorites. These movies strike my fancy because I am curious. It makes me think of what I would do if I ever faced a situation like that. I find myself asking, would I just give up or would I fight to survive like the two people in “The Road?”

The book also made me think back to September 11th 2001, when the World Trade Center towers were attacked. I remember thinking the end of the world has begun. I remember going online and buying gas masks for me and my family and stock pilling food and water in my basement, just in case. I also looked back on the year 2000 and the Y2K bug. I remembered people stock pilling gas, and all other products to help them survive the end. Now after reading “The Road” I now believe that you can not prepare for the end. The characters in the book didn’t. They were just lucky. They lived off the frightened peoples stock piles of food that were long dead.

The Road made me addicted to watching a programs on the History Channel about the second coming and the Mayan calendar, and Nostradamus. I found it fascinating that the Mayan calendar stops at December 21st 2012. They say our galaxy will be in a certain alignment with the sun. They say this shift will broaden our view of the galaxy with two astronomic events that will only happen every 26,000 years. Experts and theorists say this is when the end of times will be among us. Like The Road, I was again captivated by the program and the subject matter. I started to think is this a sign. I finish reading a book about the end of man, and now I have a date to go along with it.

I am starting to believe that The Road has started to make me a little paranoid. I went years with out really thinking of the end of times, and now after reading “The Road”, I can’t get it out of my head. I started having dreams about the book. Dreams about me being the older man from the book trying to survive and get south to the sea. I also had a dream of Hitler in WWII, beating America and getting their hands on the Atomic Bomb. After that dream I realized this book has made me obsessed on the subject of the end of time. Now I read and watch anything about the end of mankind.

This book affected me so many ways. This books opened my eyes to other books and made me realize that not all books, the professors pick, are boring and educational. I now look for any book that deals with the end of times. I watch any program I can find about the subject. I find myself no longer paranoid, but almost anxious and kind of excited to see what happens in 2012. Will it be like the Y2K, when the time comes

nothing happens or will it be the real deal? Who knows, but after reading “The Road” I now feel like if it happens there’s nothing we can do about it. To this day it still makes me wonder if Doomsday is coming.

By: Adam Underwood

The Road Reviewed By Adam Underwood

I just wanted to let everyone know this is my first blog of all time. I have never blogged before. My first blog I will talk a little about the best book I have ever read called "THE ROAD". I loved this book. When I picked it up I never put it down. I even wrote an essay about it. I will attach it to the blog if I can. Today in class we talked about the little boy and father and how the little boy got his morals and the ability to know whats right and wrong. this is hard to say because to me this little boy, from his first known memories are of death, violence, and decay. Not many little boys are exposed to this kind of thing at a young age. So then you ask where did he get the know how to know whats right and wrong. I totally like it came inadvertently from his father. I believe the father realized that this little boys life started horrible and might end the same way. So as I read the book I noticed passages that support a loving and caring father. One one thing, the father never let the boy fell bad for anything he did wrong or messed up. I loved this because it made me realize if your raising a son in this atmosphere you can't make him feel worse than he already must feel. Comfort him in with his downfalls and mistakes, and make him feel okay. Don't scold him, because the earth has done that enough to him. I think the boy realized though this that his father was a kind hearted man and this is why he should act the same way. It's amazing all the little things adults miss; which little kids always notice and take to heart. This young boy had to assimilate to his situation and to the person that he was around the most. Yes he has seen his father in the act of savagery, but he has seen his father give compassion much more. In my opinion this is how the boy learned his moral and this is how he will spend the rest of his days. Some might say he didn't raise his child to defend himself properly in these times of despair. But I believe he did. He raised him to defend when necessary and love all the rest.

BA#1 McCarthy The Road

I believe one of the biggest secrets kept in this novel is the one from the author to the reader. The author never emits the fact of what exactly happened to have the world be in such a dispaired state. The reader can only make the assumption that it was something catastrophic such as a nuclear war, but evidence was never written for the reader to understand.

Another secret that is kept in the novel is the one as to what exactly the world was like before. The main character "Papa" tries to keep the information from his son, but the author is also keeping the information from the reader. There is no evidence that the world was a better place before this time. For all the reader knows, it could have been a time of mass violence and continuous war and even though there's hardly any food left or shelter, maybe it is a better time. There is evidence on page 92 of "bad people" in society.

"Are they gone, Papa?"
"Yes they're gone."
"Did you see them?"
"Yes"
"Were they the bad guys?"
"Yes they were the bad guys."

How does the reader or the son for that matter know that the world wasn't filled with these "bad guys" before all of this happened. Maybe the world is in this state because of the bad guys and what they did to demolish the lands.


Another secret that is kept in this novel is the one that the father hides from his son about his impending illness. Throughout the novel the father will be sick, or cough up blood, and will get up from his son and go do it away so the son doesn't have to hear him. This is evident on page 175

"He knelt in the dry leaves and ask with the blanket wrapped about his shoulders and after a while the coughing began to subside. ... He hoped the boy had gone back to sleep. He knelt there wheezing softly, his hands on his knees."

The third secret kept from the son by the father is the idea that they are inevitably dying. The son continuously asks the father if they're dying and the father keeps responding with "no". But in actuality, the father has no faith that they are not dying, which is evident on page 129.

"He was beginning to think that death was finally upon them and that they should find some place to hide where they would not be found."

Another evidence of dying is when the father admits to the reader that he is dying, on page 175.

"I am going to die, he said. Tell me how I am to do that."

BA#1 McCarthy's The Road

One of the many, although minor, secrets that are attempted to be kept in "The Road" is one that the father keeps from the son. On page 34, he attemps to hide the fact that he's giving the son the rest of the hot chocolate, while only allowing himself water. In the end though, the son finds out and gently scolds him. It's apparant that this is not the first time something like this has happened when the son says "You promised not to do that" and "I have to watch you all the time." I think the father is trying to give his son the best of what they have because he's already had a full life and the son wasn't born with the same opportunity.

Another secret that is kept from the son is the fact that the father is sick. Although these secrets are different, I think they're being kept for somewhat the same reasons. The father is trying to keep his son optomistic so that he won't give up during the journey like his mother did. The father being sick doesn't help that cause at all. With him dead what hope does his son have for the future?

Alone, these secrets have little significance to the story; combined though, they show how great the relationship is between the son and father. Although some may think that keeping secrets is wrong, in this situation they just show how far a father is willing to go to protect his son and give him some hope for the future.

BA#1 McCarthy's The Road

I think that the biggest secret that is being kept from someone would be the secret that the father is keeping from his son, because the son asks his father at one point what the world was like before and the father doesnt want to tell him. I think that the father doesnt want to tell him because the world before the disaster was so much easier and hopeful that he doesnt want his son to be able to compare the world before to the world he knows now. There are several instances in the book where the boy asks questions that would normally in a conversation lead to a story from the past being told or comments about the past but in these situations the father always cuts his son off and ends the conversation. He wants to protect his son from knowledge basically because in the situation that they are in all they have to hold on to is hope and knowing what life could have been like and knowing what they have and how vastly those two lives are would ruin any hope that they do have. On Pg. 27 where the father and son are visiting the father childhood house the son says "We should go, Papa. Can we go?" instead of inquiring about his fathers childhood he is frightened which is odd behavior for a child. His father follows by saying "It's all right. We shouldn't have come."- This is strange because in normal conversation we would expect a father to tell his child a story of his childhood or recall a memory he had to comfort him, but he doesn't.
This secret that his father keeps from him is similar to the secret that the author chooses to keep from us as readers. This book is strange in that many things are left unknow, but that itself keep us reading because we have a hope that at some point our questions will be answered. The same goes for the child and his father, within their journey south and their unanswered questions and thoughts lies a hope. The fact that there are so many questions for both the readers and the characters keeps both us reading and them surviving.
I believe that this secret is imperative to the story because as I said the secrets and unanswered questions are what inspire the father and child to keep going in hopes that maybe there is something better out there to be found. Maybe not all is lost for them. Even though I truely believe that deep in the fathers heart he knows that there is really no hope that they will survive but that is really all he has to give to his son. He has nothing material to give him and he really can't even give him protection from against natural elements. He can just inspire him to keep going and protect him from the knowledge of how great his life could have been if this disaster had never happened. I almost think that it would be better to never know what it could have been like than to know what you had and lost and then to see what you have and be dissapointed.

BA#1 McCarthy's The Road

One secret that is being kept in the novel "The Road", is a secret the father is keeping from his son. The son was born after this catastrophe has occurred and therefore doesn't know what the world was like before. The son asks his father what it was like and wants to know but the father refuses to tell him. "Sometimes the child would ask him questions about the world that for him was not even a memory. He thought hard how to answer. There is no past. What would you like? But he stopped making things up because those things were not true either and the telling made him feel bad" (page 53). Another secret that is similiar to this secret is the secret that the author is keeping from the reader. This secret being what exactly the catastrophe was and what caused it. "A long shear of light and then a series of low concussions" (page 52). The author doesn't clarify what this statement means so far in the novel. The two secrets compare because it's something that can't be dwelled on and isn't the most important aspect of the story. The author doesn't think what caused this situation is as important as the journey and survival. The father doesn't want his son to dwell on the past and what it used to be like because the past no longer exists and most likely will never be the same again. I think the secret is important to understanding the narrative because the father is keeping the past a secret to protect his son. The father wants to keep his son's hope of survival and not give him more facts to dwell on that would make him lose hope, especially since the son has already said he wishes he was dead like his mother. The father just wants to protect his son.

BA#1

Although there are many secrets held throughout "The Road", one of the major ones is the secret of anybody's name. None of the characters that appear, be it the man, the boy, or the people they meet along the road, have names. We know that the main character is called "Papa" by the boy, but that is it.

"The boy turned in the blankets. Then he opened his eyes. Hi, Papa, he said.
I'm right here.
I know." (p. 5)

This is the type of conversation seen throughout the entire novel. When McCarthy used "he" there was much confusion over which he was meant by it, and during the conversations, as you can see above it is very difficult to decipher which character is speaking. There are no other specific personification other than "the man" "the boy" and the occasional "papa". With the people they meet along the road, we get vague descriptions based on their appearances. This is a secret that is kept from the reader, AND from the characters. It could be a secret kept for the mere fact of the boy and the man not actually knowing eachothers names, but I believe it's a secret kept to add to the effect of mysteriousness and uncertainty in the novel.

This secret relates to the secret or the seemingly secret in "Carried Away" when Arthur says that he does not know the names of the factory workers. That he goes through day in and day out with these people knowing not much more than their physical appearance. This relates to "The Road" because the man and the boy seemingly go through each and everyday not knowing the other's name, calling eachother, sometimes, nothing at all; just acknowledging that the other is there.

Knowing the answer to this secret is not vital to understanding the plot or to understanding what is happening. It would, however, help in understanding who is speaking when. Since both main characters are males, there is no distinction of who is who. Both of their vocabularies are similiar. Neither of them are too wide or too developed so there is no distinction there. Also, when another male gets thrown into the picture for example, the man i n the doorway, or the man who got "struck by lightning" it becomes very confusing because there are no distinctions to go by other then following the text and re-reading passages a few times before comprehending it.

BA#1 McCarthy's The Road

In "The Road", the author keeps the details of the catastrophic event that happened a secret and the reader never discovers the absolute truth. All the reader knows is that a horrific event occured in the past and it devastated the entire area and the family. Everything is covered in ash and there are few survivors. It is shown that somthing horrifying was going to happen when the man was conserving water after seeing a glowing light and hearing concussions. Also as they are walking they describe "shuffling through the ash" (p. 6).
Although this secret is kept from the reader it is not necessary to understand the overall hope that lives throughout the novel. Even though the reader does not know the exact truth of why the world is suddenly devastated it does not diminish the understanding of hope and faith that is instilled in the man and the little boy.
This secret is also in connection with what happened to the mother. As a result of the catastrophic event she lost hope and thought that is was not worth it and at one point the boy wants to give up just like her and wishes he was with her. But once again hope is gained by the connection between the father and the boy. No matter what, whether a horrific event that ruined their world or the loss of the woman they both sustain the hope to carry on.

BA #1 McCarthy's The Road

In "The Road", the man (father) keeps his sickness (coughing up blood) from the boy (his son). Whenever he feels a cough coming on, he either stifles is or leaves the boy and coughs until he no longer can, so that the boy does not hear him. There is mention of this on page 11, where the man questions if God is still there after one of his coughing fits.
Another secret that the man is keeping from the boy is what really happened to the boy's mother. All the boy knows is that she was with them, and then one day she just "left." The boy never asked for an explanation. The author leads the reader to believe that she went off and killed herself because she could not handle all of the running and hiding from the outlaws. The man keeps both of these secrets for different reasons. He keeps his sickness a secret so the boy does not worry about their fate and believes that the man is strong and can protect him. He keeps the other so that the boy does not lose hope, after seeing that his mother does.
These secrets are significant to the story because they both involove the relationship between the boy and the man. They are the only people they have to rely on and their relationship must stay stable. This lets you know that the man cares deeply for the boy and will do anything possible to keep him alive.

Welcome to the Blog for Contemporary Literature (Section 1)

You'll be using this blog to "post" (create a text entry on the front page) or "comment" (respond to another student's post). For each post, you should consider significant secrets in that week's reading assignments. Over the course of the semester, you will create at least 7 entries: at least 2 posts and at least 5 comments. (You may have more posts or comments, but you should have at least one entry per week.) To make things clear, you'll need to number each post or comment as BA #x (according to the one due that week: so, for BA #1, you'll examine the secrets in McCarthy's The Road; for BA #3, you'll look at Harrower's Blackbird.)

To create a post, click on "New Post" at the top of the blog page.
To create a comment, click on "Comments" at the bottom of the blog posting to which you want to respond.

For each post, you will need to do the following, in the order given, including the numerals to designate the separate parts of the assignment.

Label the post BA#x, plus the author and title of the literary text: thus, BA#1 McCarthy's The Road, then provide the following in your post:

1. Provide a short (no more than 50 words) summary or description of the secret. Be sure to indicate who holds the secret (a character, the author, or reader) and from whom the secret is kept (a character, the author, or reader). Also indicate (by quoting and citing) where in the text you realized that there was a secret being held.
2. Compare this secret to another secret, either from the same text or from a text we’ve already read in class. (Again, no more than 50 words.) This should not be a simple observation of how this secret is "just like" another: they're both about love, they are both kept from someone they love , or they both compromise a character's aspirations. Such statements are invariably trite overgeneralizations. Maybe the secrets you're comparing are of a similar nature but the different characters have different motivations for keeping them; maybe both secrets are kept for similar reasons but they have different consequences; maybe both secrets are kept from the reader but one is eventually revealed while the other one is not. Note that each of these examples presents differences within apparent or surface similarities, an approach which generally isn't a bad way to go. You MUST support your answer with evidence that you quote and cite from the text(s).
3. Argue (no more than 50 words) whether or not understanding your chosen secret is significant to the understanding the narrative.

For your comments, you should agree or disagree with a post’s conclusions about a secret's narratorial significance (part 3) by providing and explaining NEW evidence that either supports or questions the post.