McCarthy Unabridged: The Road, Page 287
*This a short piece adding onto the ending of The Road because I did not enjoy how the book ended.
It is now nightfall. The wind is slowing down. The man and woman tuck the boy into many blankets near the fire to keep him warm.
It is time for you to go to sleep, says the man.
Goodnight.
If you need us, just give us a little shove.
The boy suddenly falls asleep and wanders into this childish dream. The boy’s vision blurred out and changes into a beautiful playground. The boy is jumping around seeing all of the colors that he barely sees everyday. He saw stuffed animals, toy cars racing, and other children his age. The boy is smiling so big that he is ready to burst into joy. He runs as fast as he can to other children, but they seem to get farther away as he is trying to get closer. The dream is suddenly turned into darker colors and interrupted by a spirit.
Papa?
Yes it’s me. What have I told you about having happy dreams?
I’m sorry Papa I am just confused.
It’s ok. I’m not mad at you. I just want to protect you. I miss you so much. I’m sorry I had to die in front of you like that. I love you my son. These people will take care of you. Never give up.
The boy wakes up from his dream and rushes over to the man and women and gives them a huge hug and says thank you.
RATIONALE
*Here is my ideas and decisions on why I chose to make this scene.
I wish The Road ended in a different way instead of the way Cormac McCarthy ended the book. I wanted it to continue and have at least another scene with the boy and the new man with his wife. I decided to create a short scene for the ending of the book (continuation of pg 287). Throughout the story of The Road the main point of view was focused on the man. I wanted the scene to focus on the boy’s point of view because since papa died, the boy was on his own and he was able to meet up and became allies with the new man and his wife.
One of the main themes I wanted to use for my addition to the story was survival. For survival it was a main point in the book because we don’t know what happened or what made the world like that. People were eating other people and trying to find food. The man and boy were heading towards the east coast trying to survive and find shelter and food just to live. This leads onto the other theme and that was dreams. Dreams are mostly throughout the book and usually the man and the boy have bad dreams and I remember in the book page 189, the man said to the boy that if you have bad dreams that you are not giving up and you are surviving but if you have a happy dream nothing dark at all then you officially given up on life.
The themes of the short scene help me lead up to these questions to ask. Is surviving enough? Can dreams predict your future? Since the boy has lost his father and now is with the new man and his wife, I want the creative scene to show that the boy can survive without his father. I want to make the scene where the boy is camping out with the new people and have the boy talk the ghost of his father. That brings it to the next question about dreams because in the story the bad dreams keep the man and boy survive. So I decide for in the boy’s dream it will start off happy meaning that the boy will give up on his life, but the ghost/spirit of his father will stop the boy from doing so. I still want the ending to show that there is still hope left. The boy may have nothing else to live for but he still has a life to live and keep learning how to survive and start a new life with a different family.
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