The Road final reflections

We covered a lot of this in today's discussion, but I wanted to reflect a little bit more on The Road.

Supposedly it's one of the greatest pieces of modern literature to come out in awhile, and I kept asking myself while reading it: Why? It's alright, pretty easy to read, there's a lot of rhetorical strategy, but what makes it great?

After reading the entire book, I think what makes The Road good literary fiction is the ambiguity of it. For example, we discussed for a short time how limited and abstract the discussion about religion was. Everything he said was under the surface and easy to look over. It's possible to read the book and not notice that there is a message about religion at all. At the same time, someone else reading the book could draw a lot of conclusions about the boy, Ely, and what the woman says at the end. It could really speak to someone, because it hints at religion but lets the reader draw their own conclusion.

Also, the ambiguity of the situation makes it seem even more real in a sense. McCarthy doesn't specify what happened to the world, anything specific about the setting, or even the names of the two main characters. The no-name strategy has been used a lot, usually to make the characters seem more accesible, like it could be anyone. However, McCarthy takes this to a whole new level by not really giving any information about them at all. To some readers, particularly the English majors and book critics that actually liked this book, this probably seems like great strategy and makes the book even better.

So, I can see where all the people who praise The Road are coming from. And I definitely see why it would be read in an English class. But even after reading the whole book, I wouldn't recommend it to my friends unless they really wanted to be depressed.