The Road

Pages 5-15 Questions: When the man says, "Will I see you at last.. Have you a neck by which to throttle you"(11) is he referring to God or those responsible for the apocalypse?
How can the man's perfect childhood memory be all that great if he says "You forget what you want to remember and you remember what you want to forget"(12)?
Parallel: On page 5 the man says "If he is not the word of God God never spoke(5). This is similar to when the man whispers "Oh, god"(12). This illustrates how the man believes that his son's fate in surviving the trip to the gulf is intertwined with the existence of God.
Contrast: The man says " Nothing"(14) when confronted with what to do to fix the broken wheel on the cart. This contrasts "like the great pendulum... you may say it knows nothing and yet it must know"(15). These quotes highlight how the man is not fixing the cart because there is now way to fix it. While he believes that the universe leaves nothing up to chance and how everything has a fate.

Pages 16-31 Questions: Does the author describe the father and son as "farm animals"(20) because he wants to portray them as clueless of the rest of the world or that they're likely going to be slaughtered?
Is the boy afraid of his father's house because the new world is all he knows?
Parallel: The line "He caught it in his hand and watched it expire there like the last host of christendom"(16) is similar to " This is where we used to have Christmas when I was a boy"(26). Both lines show that Christianity and religion are a thing of the past and cannot survive in this new world.
Contrast: In the man's dreams there is color: "In dreams his pale bride came to him out of a green and leafy canopy"(18). However, in the apocalyptic world there is no color: "Nights dark beyond darkness and the days more gray each one than what had gone before"(3).

Pages 32-53 Questions: Does the man leave behind the picture of this woman he loved because of guilt or because he could not bare imagining the past with her anymore?
Is the penguin the boy dreams of(36) a metaphor for the boy and man needing someone else to "wind them up" so they can make it to the Gulf?
Contrast: The man changes from having faith in God before the Apocalypse: "He wished them godspeed til they were gone"(53) to believing that he is his own God in that he controls his fate in his travel to the Gulf: "Tattered gods slouching in their rags across the waste"(52).
Parallel: The boy is afraid of the lightning in this dark world: "the stark gray world appeared again and again out of the night in the shrouded flare of the lightning"(48). This quote is similar to when the man and boy see the man struck by lightning: "What is wrong with the man? He's been struck by lightning"(50). This parallel shows that the dark apacolyptic world is safe and that the light of the old world has become dangerous to be around.

Pages 54-72 Questions: When society was destroyed was morality also destroyed because people were not worried about their actions being taboo?
Is the man equally as vicious as the man wearing overalls, in that both are equally paranoid of the other and turn to violence to solve their misunderstanding?
Parallel: When the boy said: "I wish I was with my mom"(55) it was similar to "By day the banished sun circles the Earth like a grieving mother with a lamp"(32). This illustrates that the boy wants to commit suicide so he can be with his mother.
Contrast: The man's tone towards the boy changes when the boy does not act like the man would want. When the boy cries for being unable to help the man struck by lightning the father is very apologetic: I'm sorry, he said. But we have nothing to give him"(51). This is different from when the man was getting angry with his son: "The boy didn't answer. He was close to losing his temper with him"(72).

Pages 73-93 Questions: On page 87 how does the boy not remember the little boy if he was so upset by not being able to talk to him?
Does the boy keep asking if they are the "good guys" to be reassured that his life has a purpose?
Parallel: "They clanked past, marching with a swaying gait, like wind up toys"(91). This is similar to when the boy has a nightmare with the wind up penguin: "I had this penguin that you wound up and it would waddle and flap its flippers"(36). This illustrates that boy's dreams are of reality and how he fears it.
Contrast: The boy is very worried that they will kill the dog:"We're not going to kill it, are we Papa"(82). This contrasts when the boy says: "Are we still the good guys"(77). This contrast illustrates that the boy wants to believe that they are the good guys, but he still asks if he they would do some immoral things.

Theme Question: Memory
Memory is used so frequently to illustrate the difference of life in the apacolypse and how our past should impact our future. The man's memories feature his wife because he still loves her and feels sorrow for losing her. Memory is always used to invoke regret and expose sorrow for the man's empty life. The man's memories are things of the old world while the boy worries about the future. This is because the boy was born in the apacolypse while the man regrets things he has done in the past.

Literal World: This world has been created using dark imagery and where the only good people are the father and son while everyone else is trying to harm them. The passage on the top of page 51 and the bottom of 43 capture this world most vividly. In both passsages fragments are used and the setting is described as smoldering and dreary. The adjectives used to describe this world are very closely associated with death showing how much death there is in this world. Also, the fragments create a sense of confusion and how all safety is gone in this new world.

Creation of The Road:
For the passage with the man with the overalls I would create a setting with many tall trees with very dim lighting. For the costumes, all three actors would be wearing old tattered clothing. The man in overalls would have makeup that would reflect how he is portrayed as an "animal inside a skull looking out the eyeholes"(63). I would put the camera between the three people with the boy and father on one side. The camera would have many high angle shots on the men and low angle shots on the boy to portray the men as animals and the boy as the victim for having to witness this. I would also place the truck very far in the background to place a reminder that the man in overalls is not alone.