McCarthy Unabridged: The Road, Page 260

The passage below is something I believe should have been written in Cormac McCarthy’s The Road before the final edition was released.

•          •          •

The creature was watching their every move. A fearsome creature, from the certainty of there being that which was unknown. The cave was was dark. They could feel the very cold death creeping upon them. The black moonlight shined inward through a thick blanket of snow, slowly covering the entrance of the cave to the brim. The boy pulled the blankets over him. The man lie there, being the creature, and he was carrying the fire. The fire was the breath of the creature and it was a monochromatic grey, dying breath. A blanket of ice covered the cave. The breath was the only heat source for the creature and the boy and without it the boy would freeze. As the breath slowly withered away the creature’s heart beat slower and slower. A pitch black silence began to fill the room. The creature was dead. The boy held the creature in his arms and sat there crying for a long time. It was cold and dark. It was bright. A light shined from roof of the cave. Some misshapen creature, slimy, slick, uncertain fell through. It resembled the previous creature. It’s breath was fire and the fire lit the room.

The man woke up coughing. He didn’t check for the boy. He knew he was fine. He wiped the blood off of his mouth. The boy lie awake.

I had a dream

About what?

The boy didnt say anything.

I had a dream too it’s ok

ok.

Below is my rationale to explain the choices I made for my project .

My story includes the dad, the boy, and the man that comes after the dad dies. The boy in the dream is portrayed as the boy (naturally) and the two men are portrayed as the creature(s). I chose to portray these characters this way because throughout the book there are many “creatures”. The creatures are the things that bring uncertainty, which brings danger. These men are mortal, so they are nothing but unpredictable creatures placed upon this world. The boy however is not a creature, rather something closer to an angel. He is filled with motives that show nothing but compassion.

This section goes on page 260 of the book between where the boy said “but we did kill him” and where the book said “In the morning”. I feel like this is a great place to add a dream because it is evident that the man is dying more and more; further in the book we see the man slowly giving up until he reaches his death, and in the book dreams portray things that happen in the future. I wanted to make this the man’s dream (since the book is mainly through the perspective of the man), and a happy one because in the book happy dreams mean you are starting to give up (which the man is). The dream stylistically follows the general decrepit themes of the book, however for the man this is a very happy dream. This is because naturally the man is worried about what will become of the boy when he dies. This dream is reassuring him that everything is going to be alright (as far as the boy goes), and that his god will come through as he has many times throughout the book.  Presumably it is the god that will bring this miraculous coincidence of someone coming to carry the fire and protect the boy after the man dies. This explains some of the man’s actions later on in the book, and explains why he doesn’t check on the boy in this scene nor the scene after.

The conversation is also very important. It adds yet another scene where the boy is distancing himself from the man. It also hints that the boy knows the man will die soon (through this distance). The man is tried relating to the boy when he said that he had a dream too. Stylistically I’ve found the book to use single quotes, but mostly just not in the contractions, so I’ve tried to match that with the word “didnt” (as well as match a few other stylistic choices).