The project 4 The Road - Exercise 2

THE ROAD by McCarthy

“He pushed the cart and both he and the boy carried knapsacks. In the knapsacks were
essential things in case they had to abandon the cart and make a run for it. Clamped to
the handle of the cart was a chrome motorcycle mirror that he used to watch the road
behind them. He shifted the pack higher on his shoulders and looked out over the wasted
country. The road was empty. Below in the little valley the still grey serpentine of a river.
Motionless and precise. Along the shore a burden of dead reeds. Are you okay? He said.
The boy nodded. They set out along the black-top in the gunmetal light, shuffling through
the ash, each the other’s world entire.”
(McCarthy, 2006, p.4)


'He', the man, and 'the boy' are nameless. Why?
It makes me be curious about who are these two. Where are they from. Is the boy a son of the man? Even they have no name they have some image and face in my mind but if I focus my attention on their faces they are not clear. The imagination process is just miracle. We have small bundle information and it works, I see them and it does not matter if they have names. I can really feel a sadness, loneliness, abandonment. Still I care what will be next scene in the story. I think the feeling is boosted because they have no names. I just question myself who their are and it keeps my awareness.

How can we tell they're in danger?
They have knapsacks on their shoulders with essential things in case they have to abandon the cart. The man is watching what is happening behind them. The world is wasted. The road is empty. We do not know what kind of danger but we guess something, there are not human, so human? Are we facing some kind of apocalypse. I think so.

The chrome motorcycle mirror tells us the time is roughly contemporary. (that is true I see the time device here)
Everything is destroyed and covered by time, we can be in a future and the mirror was founded somehow, it is a relic of the past. The story is situated somewhere after the time we knew.They use just the mirror not the bike. There is really emptiness in that cut of the story. It appeals more and more to read it whole.

They are alone: 'The road was empty' Where is everyone?
Are they surrenders of a global war? Are there few surrenders who are hiding from each other? Those question helps to keep reader attention. They know they is something but they are not hiding, they use the way to go somewhere, anybody can see them, right? Are they expect to meet somebody on the road?

There's been some sort of disaster:
Nuclear war? International war? I do not know but it destroyed the world as we know it in these days. So it must have been something critical - apocalypse. We do not see enough and we do not know where we are. we do not see building, cars, nothing human based, only road, mirror, cart.

They're on a journey with everything they own. Where are they going? Where they come from?
They are going to a better place they heard about? They are looking for supplies? They are going back? Unanswered question are appearing in my mind.

What does The Road symbolise?
The hope? Goal, new life?

Can you spot any poetic devices? What effect do they have?
Imaginary - serpentine of a river, I like the rhythm but I can not explain why? for example: ... that he used to watch the road behind them .... there is a repetition of consonance. Metaphor ... in the gunmetal light ... Motionless and precise. The effect is simple, it is great readable even English is not my native language.  The text is really easily understandable.

What other stylistic language choices does McMarty make and why? Why might he not punctuate speech?
If he does is, it would destroy the mood of calmness, aloneness, quit and tensionless, I think. In the text it somehow disrupt the tension.

What features give us a sense of where we are? How does McCarthy create a post apocalyptic world? Would the impact be the same if he were to remove the man and boy?
The serpentine of the river and gunmetal light represents a struggle in world after a global critical sproblem. Life is not as was before. The serpentine can represent that the life way is not easy, to be sentenced to live in dust on the ground, the shape can tell us that it is not easy to reach the end. The metaphor of gunmetal light is supporting the apocalypse, I think.

What's the prose style like?
As I mentioned above, I can read it really easily and the description of the world is perfectly done.I like how the long and short sentences give the rhythm of the story. If there would be more colourful and detailed prose it would destroy the drama and darkness in the story. It suits more in romantic prose.

How does it all make you feel?
I am surprised how many information can be put in short paragraph. As a reader I was not aware of that and now I will try to see more. Anyway the power of text is amazing. I must read that book to know more what is the story about.

The project 4 The Road - Exercise 1

Re-write a few lines:

- First person narrator:
I pushed the cart and both me and the boy carried knapsacks. In the knapsacks were essential things in case they had to abandon the cart and make a run for it. Clamped to the handle of the the cart was a chrome motorcycle mirror that I used to watch the road behind us. I shifted the pack higher on my shoulders looked out over the wasted country.

- Second person:
You pushed the cart and you and the boy carried knapsacks. In the knapsack were essential things in case they had to abandon the cart and make a run for it. Clamped to the handle of the cart was a chrome motorcycle mirror that you used to watch the road behind You. You shifted the pack higher on your shoulders looked out over the wasted country.

If McCarthy had chosen the first person point of view the story would be limited to the thoughts and feelings of the person, the man or boy. We should see the limited what they see through their eyes. The difference between the man or boy's point of view could be in experience of the world, the adult POV and child POV, the man's worry about the child's vulnerability and on the other hand the dependability on man in child POV. I can imagine how the child is exploring the world and is learning from the man and on the other hand from the man point of view we can see how he does protect the child against wasted world.

The omniscient narrator was used to share more information from the scene, not to be limited to say story through one character but describe it above the scene. The feelings and thoughts are represent through the description of them how the omniscient narrator see them, not from their mind, it is not allowed to enter to theirs internal thoughts and feelings.

It is great explain in that article:
http://www.scribophile.com/academy/using-third-person-omniscient-pov

Really strange to see dead man in photographs together with alive man

http://m.imgur.com/a/Mvfrr

Irina Ratushinskaya

I bought that book because I was curious why the poems are so dangerous for dictate regimes.

Exercise 3 - Fern Hill by Dylan Thomas

Poet's mood: 
Thomas describes his childhood and how he was amazed by the place where he was as a child. In the first stanzas we can enjoy the world as a child. Just to be aware of the place and its beaty. In the last stanzas the mood is about inevitable of being - death.

Poetic devices:

Repetition:
there are words which are used more than once: green, time, golden. The repetition emphasizes that there was youth , time was running slowly

- time let me hail and climb -
- time let me play and be -
- time let me green and dying -

Consonance
- And green and golden I was huntsman and herdsman, the calves.
A verse about the place, as I was children I love to discover the ground, the wood, always there was something.

I like these lines:
- The night above the dingle starry 
Even I was not there I see the place in my mind, beautiful nature lighted by the moon and stars.

Imagery:
- As I rode to sleep the owls  were bearing the farm away
I remember days as I was child and after a day spend outside it was great to fall asleep and watching dreams.

- Golden in the heydays of his eyes
I feel a personification of good in that line 

I like the calmness, loneliness, playfulness, curiousness in that poem even I did not like it at first glance. More and more I remember similar moments I was experiencing in my childhood.

I like the different version of reading. The rhythm depends on the speaker I like that version:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Z-ZuguSrQQ 

I did not get that line, it is probably that English is not my nature language:
- Up to the swallow thronged loft by the shadow of my hand,

Anyway I should go back and read and listen to that poem again.

Exercise 2 - my first short poetry in english language

Everyday morning
out, there
I am looking
watching, searching
memories are here

there there there
inside
dissolved, still plausible
still heartbreaking
why you are not here.

Exercise 2 - poetry

examples:

I like that czech band and Filip Topol's text. In this example he use simple verses:

I'm lucky 
vždyť ty taky
nad městem sou
slunce mraky

I'm lucky 
vždyť ty taky 
v noci budem
pouštět draky

here is the song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SD84m59d4Ps

My favorite czech song. It hit my heart when I was 10.
Jaromir Nohavica: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eIct9dw65cY

Spatřil jsem kometu oblohou letěla (t consonance)
chtěl jsem jí zazpívat ona mi zmizela
zmizela jako laň u lesa v remízku  (jako = Metaphor)
v očích mi zbylo jen pár žlutých penízků