History Literature / TheRoad

''The Road'' was published by {{Cormac McCarthy}} in 2006. It garnered critical praise in America and went on to win the Pulitzer Prize. The book is notable for a stark, minimalist style interspersed with occasional [[PurpleProse purple metaphors]]. The writing is idiomatic to say the least, eschewing most punctuation (including quotes) and occasionally including one-sentence chapters of philosophical musing.

* ArtisticLicenseBiology: It isn't widely known, but canned food is only safe to eat for five years. The man and his son should be at serious risk of contracting botulism by now.
** Debateable. The older cans are, the more likely they are to be unsafe, but if the cans are intact and were properly processed in the first place, the food can be safe for much longer. The US military recently opened and tested provisions canned in the 1950's and found them to still be safe.
*** There are several points in the book where the man throws out cans and jars that he thinks look untrustworthy.

* HeyItsThatGuy: [[TheLordOfTheRings Aragorn fighting flesh-eaters in the woods? We've seen that before.]] And look, he's mugging [[TheWire Omar Little!]]

In 2006, prominent American novelist {{Cormac McCarthy}} published ''The Road'', a post-apocalyptic novel which garnered critical praise in America and went on to win the Pulitzer Prize. The book is notable for a stark, minimalist style interspersed with occasional [[PurpleProse purple metaphors]]. The writing is idiomatic to say the least, eschewing most punctuation (including quotes) and occasionally including one-sentence chapters of philosophical musing.

Depending on whom you ask, ''The Road'' is either a melancholic but stirringly beautiful story about the goodness of humanity in a hopeless world, or a hellish nightmare so dark that no sane person would read it. And if you enjoy breathing, never point out that this book, despite its premise, is not to be found in the [[SciFiGhetto science fiction section of the bookstore]]: [=McCarthy=] fans will get upset at the implication that High Literature would be grouped with Genre Fiction, and Genre fans will be upset because The Road is pretty tame when compared to the Post-Apocalyptic genre, as a whole.

Like most of [=McCarthy's=] books, it was optioned for a film, and TheFilmOfTheBook ''The Road'' was released on November 25, 2009. It was directed by John Hillcoat, the director of ''TheProposition'', starring Creator/ViggoMortensen and CharlizeTheron (in a minor role). The score was done by NickCave and Warren Ellis (no, not ''that'' WarrenEllis).

* AntiHero: The Man might count. Though considering the world he lives in its understandable.

* InferredHolocaust: Pretty much one of the reasons why the ending is so bittersweet. [[spoiler: Even though the boy is in good hands, ''the biosphere may be dead.'' If so, no one is going to live long once what is left of food is eaten and the remaining humans have all cannibalized each other.]]

Depending on whom you ask, ''The Road'' is either a melancholic but stirringly beautiful story about the goodness of humanity in a hopeless world, or a hellish nightmare so dark that no sane person would read it. [[TakeAThirdOption Or, it's just boring, repetitive, unpleasant, pretentious, and grammatically nonsensical]]. And if you enjoy breathing, never point out that this book, despite its premise, is not to be found in the [[SciFiGhetto science fiction section of the bookstore]]: [=McCarthy=] fans will get upset at the implication that High Literature would be grouped with Genre Fiction, and Genre fans will be upset because The Road is pretty tame when compared to the Post-Apocalyptic genre, as a whole.

Like most of [=McCarthy's=] books, it was optioned for a film, and TheFilmOfTheBook ''The Road'' was released on November 25, 2009. It was directed by John Hillcoat, the director of ''TheProposition'', starring ViggoMortensen and CharlizeTheron (in a minor role). The score was done by NickCave and Warren Ellis (no, not ''that'' WarrenEllis).

* ActorAllusion: The Lonely Planet New Zealand guidebook on ViggoMortensen's bookshelf may be reference to TheFilmOfTheBook ''TheLordOfTheRings''.

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* ApocalypseHow: Debatable. We don't know how much of the world is dying, but the parts that are may potentially be [[ApocalypseHow/{{Class 4}} Class 4]] - biosphere extinction has already occurred and the affected areas are in the final stages of dying. Some Scientists McCarthy knows have stated that the world the novel is set in is consistent with Earth after a Meteor Strike or the Yellowstone Caldera, both of which the world has dealt with and recovered from.

** "Okay" could also be considered an arc word.

*** Besides, there are several points in the book where the man throws out cans and jars that he thinks look untrustworthy.

* InferredHolocaust: Pretty much one of the reasons why the ending is so bittersweet. [[spoiler: Even though the boy is in good hands, ''the biosphere is dead.'' No one is going to live long once what is left of food is eaten and the remaining humans have all cannibalized each other.]]

* RapeAsDrama: Alluded to as one of the many perils on the road - not least because it's often the precursor to [[ImAHumanitarian something worse]].

* ApocalypseHow: [[ApocalypseHow/{{Class 4}} Class 4]] - biosphere extinction has already occurred and the world is in the final stages of dying.

* ThrowTheDogABone: The boy [[spoiler: loses his father, his only source of joy, comfort, peace of mind, and protection. Just as the story sets him up to travel the world as TheAloner, some scavengers who claim to "carry the fire"... and by [[PetTheDog all the available evidence]], they're trustworthy]].

* ThrowTheDogABone: The boy [[spoiler: loses his father, his only source of joy, comfort, peace of mind, and protection. Just as the story sets him up to travel the world as TheAloner, the scavengers who'd shot at them earlier come to pick him up... and by [[PetTheDog all the available evidence]], they're trustworthy]].

* ImAHumanitarian: The only way for most people to eat, now that the biosphere's dying out. The man and the boy are amongst the few survivors who ''don't'' indulge in this.

*** Take that a step further: [[spoiler: What if the prisoners were being kept alive on a diet of ''other prisoners''NightmareFuel]]

*** Take that a step further: [[spoiler: What if they were being fed ''each other?'']]

** There's also the question of what happened to the rats, roaches, and other small, fast-breeding animals that are more resistant to catastrophe than humans are. And the question of how the cannibals managed to avoid scurvy on a diet of nothing but human flesh.

Set after an unspecified global disaster, ''TheRoad'' follows two survivors, a man and his young son, who journey south through the smoking ashes of the United States, toward what they hope is a less dangerous country somewhere near the East Coast. During their ordeal, the man and the boy have only the rags on their backs and a cart of scavenged food. And one another. As they travel, they (and the audience) bear witness to a dead world, where nothing moves but the ashes in the breeze, nothing grows, and the sun is blacked out by a layer of poisonous ash. The only living beings except for them are the starving bands of men that stalk the road.

Like most of [=McCarthy's=] books, it was optioned for a film, and TheFilmOfTheBook ''TheRoad'' was released on November 25, 2009. It was directed by John Hillcoat, the director of ''TheProposition'', starring ViggoMortensen and CharlizeTheron (in a minor role). The score was done by NickCave and Warren Ellis (no, not ''that'' WarrenEllis).

!!The original novel TheRoad contains examples of:

* SlidingScaleOfIdealismVersusCynicism: There's a whole cottage industry that's sprung up around debating this question. As noted in the description, there's a group that believes the book is mind-shatteringly depressing. There's another group that believes TheRoad is, through all the death and misery, a chronicle of the strength and beauty of the human spirit.

In 2006, prominent American novelist {{Cormac McCarthy}} published ''TheRoad'', a post-apocalyptic novel which garnered critical praise in America and went on to win the Pulitzer Prize. The book is notable for a stark, minimalist style interspersed with occasional [[PurpleProse purple metaphors]]. The writing is idiomatic to say the least, eschewing most punctuation (including quotes) and occasionally including one-sentence chapters of philosophical musing.