The Winding Path of Dreams

“The Road” by Cormac McCarthy is a masterfully written novel that delves into many themes, like human nature, good vs. evil, relativism, and dreams. The theme I chose to make my lit log about is the dreams and how they reflect the man and the boy’s journey. In making my lit log, I wanted to take Cormac McCarthy’s writing and interpret it visually. I wanted to show the chronological progression of the dreams as the story went on from the cave dream at the very start of the book to the boy’s dream nearing the end of their journey. I decided to depict each dream in rough, worn drawings to match the dead post-apocalyptic world the story takes place. I achieved this by using chicken scratch, loose line work, and sketching pencil techniques. I also edited the drawing’s contrast, exposure, and color to get my envisioned look. Each dream is numbered in chronological order, with dotted arrows winding and pointing between each dream to depict the descending and winding nature of the story. Each dream represents a checkpoint on the road of how the man or the boy interprets what they have been through unconsciously. I decided to draw the man with an obstructed face to depict his moral ambiguity. I decided to draw the boy with simple cartoon features to show his innocence throughout the story. As you can see at the end of the path in the drawing, I didn’t illustrate the last quote, as the last dream mentioned in the story was not described. I did this on purpose to represent the end of the last piece of escapism, fading into an exchange of words.

(could not upload full image on here)