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This passage is the father breaking down what happens when they run out of love.

I’m sorry but there is no way we can take the boy with us you have to believe me.

What makes him any different than me?

Nothing.

You were able to take me

You’re different

How?

Because

You love me

I need you

They walk in silence pacing their steps.

Are you out of love?

No why?

That boy is alone.

We can’t take him. He could kill us.

And I’ll be alone

The man talks to the boy about the possibilities of what will happen if the other little boy goes with them. He quickly explains to the boy what a setup is and how the other boy could be the reason they die.

What if he’s like me?

What if he isn’t?

We don’t know.

Why am I not enough for you?

What’s the other possibility?

We don’t die.

He comes with us.

Then he dies.

Then we die.

The man walks away ashamed of his next thought. Knowing it will cripplekill the boy.

I die

No no I didn’t say that. I wouldn’t let you die.

And you keep going?

Exactly.

I’m not enough for you.

They share a silence and mumble their words as they finally understand each other.

I’m all you’ve got.

This is my rationale explaining what exactly is happening in my creative piece.

For my creative piece I added a forgotten/cut-out text to page 86 right after the boy finishes talking to the man about bring the other boy with them. The man in the book turns down this idea very quickly without explanation. In my creative piece I decided to finally have the man explain his decision to the boy in depth.

My essential question for this was; Is there a certain amount of love each character can give out at once? In my passage I display both of the main character's position on this by inserting things like “Are you out of love?”, to indicate that there is only but so much love you can have. Other things like the man asking the boy “Why am I not enough for you?”. Implying that the boy has so much love for everything it drives the man crazy. I do this so readers can get a better understanding of how much love the man lost when his wife left him, leaving him with only enough love for the boy.

A symbol I chose to use for this passage was, love affects our choices. The man and the boy’s choices differ when it comes to helping people out. The man believes that they should only focus on themselves because he doesn’t have time to love anyone else. The boy never experienced a tragic lost like the man did with his wife so when he sees someone in need he wants to help them. In my creative piece I proved this by writing things like when the man says, “there is no way we can take the boy with us”. I changed the way the boy responds though by having him question the man’s decision while simply asking him “What makes him any different than me?”. The boy realizes that him and the other boy are both alone in a sense. The other boy was physically alone and the boy is emotionally alone. He travels with the man who keeps him company but does not fulfill his emotional needs.

To end my creative piece I talk about the man explaining to the boy what could happen if they bring the other boy with them. If they take him and the man spits up his love for them, he will not stop if the boy dies. He will keep going because he has to take care of the other boy. The boy takes on the man's feelings about being unwanted. Now the boy and the man both have grasped the fact that they only have each other.

The passage below is what I think could be added to Cormac McCarthy’s The Road before the final edition.

So where are we going?

You’ll see.

What is there?

Let’s just say we’re going to the good guys.

The good guys?

Yes, the good guys.

And are they carrying the fire?

Yes, they’re carrying the fire.

They walked through the sand and calculated the sky. The days seemed longer, it was getting warmer and the grey clouds slowly disappeared. They have been walking for a couple of days already, approaching their destination.

The man stepped passed the bank and towards the woods. There in the middle of the woods was an open confined community, surrounded squarely by a 20 foot concrete wall. The boy still wrapped up in the blanket, followed the man to the gate.

Here we are. Welcome to Margin.

What is this place?

This is the home of the survivors.

So no one here eats people?

Nope, we don’t eat people. I told you, we’re the good guys. Everyone here is just like you and me.

Come on follow me, let’s get you settled in.

Infamiliar faces observed the boy as he tailed the man. The pistol was still with him, just like Papa said. He didn’t let anyone take his Pistol. It was the only physical part of Papa, that the boy had. The man brought the boy into a tent.

There’s someone I want you to meet.

There stood a woman with blonde hair. As she made eye contact with the boy she started to cry.

Jonathan?

Mama?

Jonathan ran towards her in tears hugging her in disbelief.

For my creative piece I have decided to add my part to the ending of the book which is on page 287. The boy and the man 2.0 start to build somewhat of a relationship. The man 2.0 is leading and replacing Papa as he continues the journey that the boy Papa started down south. As you see in the dialogue between the boy and the man 2.0. The boy is still very curious and he is continues to asks questions about the “good guys” and “carrying the fire”. The boy wants to have this trust in the man 2.0.

The man 2.0 is taking the boy to a confined community where it is safe. The man 2.0 and the women are sent from this community to find any survivors, also known as the “good guys”. In which they bring them back to this place, so that they can start a new civilization that is against cannibalism.

One major theme in this book is survival, trust and love. The whole point of this book is survival. The man 2.0 and this woman are helping these children. The boy trusted the man as a good guy, he didn’t know what was going to happen to him or what was in store for him. However, he did have hope and he continues to follow the man 2.0 and goes south like Papa had said.

In the book the pistol is mentioned a lot.The boy and Papa run into the “bad guys”. The pistol is the last thing that Papa gave to the boy before he died. Also, that Papa said to never give it to anyone so he will always have it on him. I think that since Papa can no longer protect him, the pistol will.

The boy reunites with his mother in the end. In the book it never mentions what exactly happens to the mom. Most of us assume that she died. I chose to have her alive in this confined community because before she disappeared she did tell Papa to keep going south because that’s where it’s warmer. This is where she ended up being as well. At the end the mother also, calls the boy Jonathan. She reveals that the boy’s name is Jonathan. The Christian meaning behind the name Jonathan means given of god. The boy represents numerous amounts of god like features and traits. When the mother realizes that the boy is her son, she cries because she feels guilty for leaving him and Papa. She is also in shock because she didn’t think she’d see either of them.

​CREATIVE PIECE

The scene below is what was deleted before the book was published

He traveled through the skies. He had moved forth the dark leaves that scattered on the ground. There was a dog. It came gallop trotting towards with its nostrils fully He had on a mask that covered his identity. The man was in sight, but could not hear his screams. He went through a cave where it was dark and filled with groans from those that were not strong enough to see what God had planned for them.

The boy heard gunshots that skimmed past his ear. He had ended up in a yard, that had crumbled excreta on the grounds. The boy called for his papa and only to see his ashen, thick breathe passed through the air.  

The boy woke up in a daze. The man was laying next to him with the quits pulled around his head. The sky had moved along the with only the pink shades showing.

Papa?

He didn't answer at first.

The man looked up at the boy`s waxen face.

What is it? What` s wrong.

I dreamt something bad about us.

What did you dream. It is not real

The boy faced the road. You were using your pistol, I heard the gun go off. I was scared, the boy said.

It was just a dream, we will be okay, okay?

Okay

He cupped the boy`s forehead in his hand. There was a light silence that echoed off the stiffened trees in the cold. The man looked intensely for any sign of danger on the road, no one was there but the awaken dust that relocated every second.

Rationale

This is an analysis of why I made the decisions for my project

I chose to analyze the motif on dreams, because this was a way to introduce or get the reader prepared for the upcoming scenes. McCarthy shows the reader how dreams could be the gateway to what is going to happen. It takes place where the reader is in the man`s or boy`s dream and has a front seat of what they are about to see or what they already saw.

I wanted to draw attention to this scene because I feel that the dream was a good way to build up to the scene.. I also think that dreams shows how the boy captures lots of  the images and in returns them has dreams that show that. Dreams is a non-direct way to send the reader pointers about what will happen next in the book. You can see inside the character's head, which also build character development. It gives you in this case, how the boy takes what is happening around him and dreams about it.

The scene where the man from the truck comes and finds them, I think needed to be more developed. It wasn't foreshadowed at all. There was no indication that the boy would have been in that type of danger. When adding the scene prior to that happening, I feel the reader is now inclined because they want to read more because of the dream. The dream was basically a startup to what was going to happen in “reality”.

There was a lot of questions to be asked, should as Why are dreams so important? This is what I wanted to make clear and analyze on. Dreams were constantly brought up in the book because it showed how the man and the boy differed in accepting what was happening. When the man dreamt, it usually was involved with people in his past or people that he once loved. This was because the man knew a world before this. When it came to the boy, his dreams were based upon fears that he had or foreshadows that would happen later in the book.

The word that I used that was McCarthy-like was “water-logged” which just meant moist or wet surroundings. This was not used in the book and I think adds a feel to where the character was and basically the whole mood of the dream.

My goals for this project was to interview someone who's ideas and experiences I wanted to hear about, along the lines of identity and belonging. I also wanted to see if I could incorporate music that actually went with the piece in some way, instead of just putting some random music on in the background. In general I wanted everything to tie together well, in a somewhat story like fashion or at least chronologically. Finally, I just wanted to make a project that I was proud of and that I thought sent a good message. Hopefully I achieved that but I am proud of my interview and what I put together, even though I know there are places that need improvements. I wanted to make sure I didn’t procrastinate on this project either because creating a decent podcast is a lot of work.

I found that the easiest part of this project was doing the interview. I thought that it was fun and interesting. The interview felt like an easy conversation so it flowed very well. It was really hard to edit down the 40 minutes to only 8-10. I felt like who I interviewed said a lot of good things and to choose between them was very difficult. I also found it hard to make it sound more like a story rather than an interview. I wanted to make it flow very well too, so that the different topics weren’t choppy, they each connected. I could've done better with time management while doing this project and I know that if I had given more time to it, it could be improved. I’m still proud of my work however, and enjoyed doing the interview for my podcast.

The passage below is what I think could be added to Cormac McCarthy’s The Road before the final edition on page 183 right after a dialogue.

In a murky weather, the man went looking for something to start a fire. All the branches soaked through. Nothing to use. Everything was futile. The man walked through dismaldingy ground that used to be a grassland. He kept searching for a while, but could not find anything. They did not have a lot of time until the sunrise. The man figured they will be fine by the morning. He came back to the shed where the boy was shivering and waiting for him.

Papa. What if you dont wake up?

Just like in your dream?

Yes.

I wont. I will always be here with you.

But what if you dont?

It is my responsibility to take care of you.

Will I find the good guys if you dont wake up someday?

Yes but you will need to be careful.

Why? Because there are bad guys?

Yes.

Who can I trust then?

You will know the good guys when you see them.

Okay. What are we doing here if we dont know if we will survive?

Faith.

Faith?

Yes. God will show us the way of the South.

Im scared.

Why?

I want to go with you wherever you go.

You need to believe me we will be okay.

Okay.

Okay.

I’m still cold. Can we go to sleep Papa?

Yes. Of course.

Okay.

Okay.

Here is the rationale to explain my decisions for the creative scene.

I decided that creative writing of this project will be added right after the dialogue between the boy and the father on page 183. Their dialogue ended when the boy was talking about his dream, where his father did not wake up. I wanted to continue their dialogue where the boy asks him what is the point of going down the road and what will happen to him if the man dies.

I wanted to focus on the boy and how he always asks questions when he is not sure and is scared. He asks a lot of questions about what will happen to him when his father does not wake up and if the good guys will take care of him. Since the scene happens at night, cold weather lets me use the motifs of what the boy says throughout the book for example, “I’m cold” “I’m scared”.  

The themes I picked were: faith, who can you trust?, God and safety vs. risk. Faith and God are important parts of the book that the man values. The man talked to God, which is why I thought it would be good to include God, when he tells the boy that God will show them the way. The theme about ‘who can you trust?’ and ‘safety vs. risk’ had to do with good and bad guys. This is why I had the boy ask his father if he will deal with the bad guys just in case the father will not wake up. Good and bad guys come up in the book all the time and they are also the people who they meet on the road.

The main motifs I included in the dialogue were “I’m scared” and “Okay”. These two motifs are repeated in the book most of the time when the boy and the father talk. “Okay” is usually what the boy says to his father’s answers. One of the essential questions was “What is the point of going down the road?”. The reason why I picked this question was to show what can happen at the end of the book. When the father answered that God will show them the way, the boy knows that place will be a better place comparing to where they were on page 183. I came up with ‘dismaldingy’ vocabulary word to describe where the man was walking to find something to start the fire. I used adjectives that both mean dark and gloomy, just like the road in the book.

The passage below is what I have imagined was cut from Cormac McCarthy’s The Road before the final edition was released.

Creative Piece:

The boy and his brand new friend went into the yard to play. There was so much dust. Not a typical playground. They got so caught up in having fun that they didn’t even notice how dirty their faces were getting. The boy’s friend hit him and ran away. The boy started to chase him and followed him into the woods. He started to be surrounded by the rancid smell of death but didn’t let that bother him. All he could think about was finding his friend. For a brief moment he even forgot all about the man.

Hello? Where are you?

The boy kept wandering about through the woods. While running he stumbled upon something and ultimately fell on it. He felt the thing. It was a person.

I found you!

The boy didn’t hear an answer. When he took a closer look he realized that the body was a dead body of a stranger. He quickly pushed himself off the body. He started running away from the woods and back towards the house, but he remembered something. His friend was still alone in the woods. He wondered. Is he okay? I can’t just leave him. I have to help him. He could be in trouble. The boy stopped. He thought for a little while. He then turned around and walked back through the woods. He wanted to find his friend.

The passage below is the scene in the middle of the night at the beach that never made it through the final edits of The Road.

Standing back up on his feet was difficult. He walked a bit farther away from the boy, toward the beach. He bent over with his hands on his knees. He knew he wouldn’t last much longer, his lungs ached and he head spun. He prayed the boy didnt remember any of this when the sun comes up tomorrow. The waves were rolling slowly, crashing and pulling closer. Still coughing and spitting up blood the man quickly started.

He ran to the boy. He was still asleep and the man felt his forehead. It subsided and was back to normal. The boy was whimpering quietly and tears were leaving dirty streaks on his cheeks. Please, leave my papa hes got the fire… me instead. The man sat next to the boy. Tears now streamed down his face too. He brushed the boys hair slowly, wiping the sweat and tears away. Soon the boy’s crying quieted. The man coaxed the fire back with what was left in the ashes but it didnt warm the chill creeping into his bones

Im supposed to save you, you dont save me. What are we doing here? I cant be here without you.

This section of Cormac McCarthy’s The Road is what I envisioned was not included in the final version of the novel:

Why has mom been acting strangely lately?

I dont know.

Is she okay?

Yes.

Are you sure?

Go talk to her yourself and find out. Ive tried talking to her too much already.

Okay.

The boy descended down the creaking steps, using the candle from upstairs to navigate through the ominous darkness of the world they live in, which night after night, engulfed their residence. The boy always made sure to treat the candle with care. Dropping it would mean that the house would become completely dark, or destroyed by flames. Either situation was inevitably disastrous. Carrying the fire wasnt a choice to the boy, it was an obligation, one he took to heart. Downstairs, at the table, across from the blazing lamp, sat his mother. Sitting calmly. Seemingly thinking, possibly reminiscing, The boy approached her quietly. The woman continued to look outside at the snow.

Mom?

Yes?

Are you okay?

No.

What’s wrong?

Everything.

Why does dad seem upset?

We dont want the same things.

What do you want?

The woman continued looking outside, not once looking at the boy, playing with her fingers, tapping her toes, her eyes filling with the slyest tears, completely blind to her son.

I want you to come with me, I dont want you to be killed.

Mom, we are survivors for a reason. We have to keep hope alive for others, and ourselves.

I cant stay here anymore. Please, leave me be son.

I love you mom, I hope you dont leave.

Here is the rationale portion of the project that will elaborate upon the choices made in the creative portion of the project:

The placement of where this scene should be could have only been before the section of pages 55-58. For there were only a couple of flashbacks regarding the boy’s mom and it would only make sense to put the additional scene before the confrontation between the mom and the dad in which led to the mom killing herself to escape someone else eventually killing her. Due to this being a flashback, it is a reflection of a significant event that occurred in the past, that has passed. To be specific, this event is so vital to the development of the boy because it shows directly how the boy is viewing the family’s current predicament. He isn’t giving into a natural reaction to hopelessness, he sees light in darkness, which is why he carries the fire, because he has the attitude and hope humanity needs to become strong again. Seeing his mother leaving only further influenced the boy to have compassion towards those suffering, intentionally or unintentionally. Carrying the fire of humanity and having the willingness to survive at such a young age, by the boy, is what this book is all about, and this additional scene provides an introduction to the boy’s willingness to do all of this throughout the novel. The term “carrying the fire” isn’t complex, it simply refers to carrying humanity, having humanity still in you despite the current circumstances, you are the light in a world of darkness, this reference being made as the boy walks down the steps with the candle to go talk to his mother.

This reference to the boy’s past and how he reacted to his mother leaving is significant. For in the novel, it is shown that the boy evidently cares greatly for his mom, wishing to be dead with her and not living at one point. This fact however shows even more how much more human this boy is. Being human does not mean simply being positive all the time, it means acting accordingly to a situation, sometimes. He is a seven or eight year old boy, of course he is going to want to be with his mother after knowing she wanted to die, it shows the boy has emotion and cares for others, at such a young age, this boy is specially gifted. The world is devastated, the current situation of the boy and father isn’t bright, but it is the fact that they continue to survive, and do whatever they can to survive, within the borderlines of humane acts, that makes them special. What would you do if the world was ending? The boy has made it clear, carry the fire, and have hope, plentiful hope.  

The Passage that I have created below is a passage that I have written and feel that could have partook a role in the plot of this book. It examines the man and the boy talking briefly about the mother, but it dives more into the symbolism of her leaving them, and

Creative Piece

The man was beginning to drift off to rest.

Papa?

Yes.

What was she like?

Who?

Mama.

The man was silent.

Well…?

Why do you ask?

I heard you mutter her name when you were resting.

Go to sleep.

Okay.

The man woke up before the boy. He salvaged what was left of the fire to prepare their breakfast. The boys eyes creaked open only to find the somber beach he drifted off on.

Papa?

Yes?

You never answered my question.

The man handed the boy the boy his meal. Here eat this.

The boy stood up frustrated. He slapped the food out of his hand. Why won’t you tell me?!

Damnit. The man shouted. You really want to know about her!?

Yes. Shouted the boy.

She was a quitter! She left us for dead. There are two kinds of people in this ashen world we live in. There are the people that have hope and don’t.

Okay.

There are people that aren’t afraid to fight for what you have. Those people are the ones that make it. All you are is a hopeless wanderer trapped in the obscurity of the never ending grey shadow of the bezaleel. Do you understand what I am saying?

No.

What I am trying to say is never give up. You’re the last of all our hope. Always carry the fire. You’re the last of the good guys.

Okay.

What about you Papa?

What?

Are you a good guy?

I don't know.

Okay

Rationale

So, what I decided to address the theme in this book of “Good Guys, and Bad Guys” and the idea of “not giving up. I chose to address the idea of good guys and bad guys specifically because I felt like I would be able to achieve that from the scene where the man remembers when he was dreaming about his wife. This scene stuck out to me because I wanted to write more about the man’s wife just because I felt like she wasn’t mentioned enough in the book, but I chose this one specifically because it was closer to the end, and there had been more controversy that had occurred in the book, and the father had built up a relationship more with his son that the reader would be able to see and understand some of the references that I made in the passage. The scene from the book that I wrote about was right after the scene of the boy and the man on the beach and the boy had gone swimming. He comes out and they are sitting by the fire. This scene was supposed to be a “don’t poke the bear” scene. For the majority of the book, the father had managed to keep his cool with the boy, but in this one I wanted it to show another side to the man. The boy asked his father a couple of questions about his mom, and the man sent him signals not to ask, but the boy still asked.

I chose several motifs to represent this book, in my passage because the book itself is filled with them and there are so many juicy ones that you could choose from and honestly I couldn’t decide between them. Since this scene is happening between the father and the son, I wanted to use the motif “Okay” because that is a common word that is used a ton between the two of them when there is simply nothing else to say in conversation. They have become numb. “Okay” is symbolic of how they communicate. Another motif that I choose to write about was the one that was addressing the greyness that surrounds them. Mccarthy throughout the whole book is always addressing how neutral and gloomy the world is, and so I thought it couldn’t be a real scene from the book, if there was no “grey” reference. And in all of this grey, there was the fire which is supposed to be symbolic of hope. This is what the boy is supposed to be carrying inside his heart, and he should never let it sizzle out (words from his father)