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.