“The Road ” is a book that is woven with descriptive and morbid words and events, that creates a truly harrowing story. The two main characters trek across a burned and dead Earth on a voyage to nothing. They take the reader with them as they go, and every little thing is expressed with the utmost of detail. The characters are nameless, and the journey ends without a destination. Although the destination throughout the story is never really decided on, one thing these characters did stick to was the road. The road wasn’t a single solitary road, but a series of different off-chutes and main interstates that made their journey. Because all the reader knows is what the man knows, mapping this trek would be next to impossible. However, a map doesn’t just have to be the physical route they went, so this map is of something a little different.

I decided to guess the area they started out in and how their journey laid out. New York state and New Jersey was my best guess, so that’s what’s on the map. I decided to document most of the times that the dad has an internal monologue and turn those moments into symbols. Then, I guessed a route that seemed accurate and drew those symbols on the map to where they could have happened. The first symbol comes from page 75 when he says, “Golden chalice, good to house a god.” The man is of course talking about the boy here, saying how he sees the essence of god in him. Skipping a few, on page 114, he thinks, “Can you do it? When the time comes?..Curse God and die.” I drew the gun for this moment. The gun holds so much power, they protect it with their lives and in this moment he is willing to use it despite his god. In the third to last one, the boy gets sick and the man says this: “You have to stay near, you have to be quick. So you can be with him. Hold him close.” I picked the blind monster in the beginning to signify that everything wrong that happens to them is really just up to chance and there is nothing deciding their fate. Sickness, the world dying, hunger, they’re all blind. McCarthy shows the ups and downs of their trip in these small looks into the man’s mind, but overall it shows his slow decline in hope and climb in desperation. In the beginning he seems hopeful, “Golden chalice, good to house a god”, but by the end the man has completely lost hope and seems strung-out: “He is coming to steal my eyes. To seal my mouth with dirt.”(261)

My artwork is about the scene where Offred finally talks to her walking buddy Ofglen. It happens when they go by the Soul Scrolls building, and they stop to look in and see the “Holy Rollers” at work. These machines are explained to be prayer machines, writing and speaking prayers that people send in. I decided to go with a sinister look when drawing these praying machines. This was an easy decision. Offred describes them as toneless and metallic, and from their function, they don’t seem visually appealing. The part that I hope stands out on these machines is the eye. Throughout “The Handmaid’s Tale” eyes play a big role in the way the new government “decorates”.They keep the sense of privacy low and people on their best behavior. I drew the eyes looking at Offred and Ofglen, because although they probably aren’t pointed at them in the story, they might as well be.

While they are stopped, Ofglen takes the first step and reaches out to Offred with a risky question: “Do you think God listens to these machines?” After thinking over her options, Offred gives into her curiosity and says no. The conversation that follows is the first of many important conversations that they have together. I think of it as a kind of checkpoint for Offred. Now I want to back up a little because what I drew was the moment right before the dialogue, when they share a moment of eye contact. I think this moment is arguably more important than the conversation, because this eye contact is even more rare than talking is in this world, and it isn’t even face to face, it’s in a reflection! I tried to make this picture look like it was from the point of view of a passerby, an outside perspective, because that’s who we are in this situation. Offred is writing to us, we are looking into her life from what she writes, but if we were to walk by her in person, we would never know who she was. However, if you look closely, you can see a faint reflection in the shatterproof glass of the Soul Scrolls window. This is where I tried to tie it all in with a little bit of symbolism. The machines see the two Handsmaids. they have eyes, and they can see them. They mention bugs (hidden microphones). They could be anywhere, so they can never be one hundred percent sure that they can talk. They are not safe.

My interpretation of the reflection was sort of like a fourth dimension, a safe space to talk for these two renegades. It is meant to seem crazy or weird, because well, the fact that they have to take these precautions just to talk is pretty crazy and weird. I also wanted to portray a sense of disconnect from the surrounding area and the clothes they wear to what they really have their minds on. I wanted to show the shell that they are encased in, and what lies beneath.