In this course, students will read The Road by Cormac McCarthy. Through our reading, we will participate in a discussion focused on analyzing the novel and its relationship to current events happening in our world today.

"A father and his son walk alone through burned America. Nothing moves in the ravaged landscape save the ash on the wind. It is cold enough to crack stones, and when the snow falls it is gray. The sky is dark. Their destination is the coast, although they don't know what, if anything, awaits them there. They have nothing; just a pistol to defend themselves against the lawless bands that stalk the road, the clothes they are wearing, a cart of scavenged food—and each other.

The Road is the profoundly moving story of a journey. It boldly imagines a future in which no hope remains, but in which the father and his son, "each the other's world entire," are sustained by love. Awesome in the totality of its vision, it is an unflinching meditation on the worst and the best that we are capable of: ultimate destructiveness, desperate tenacity, and the tenderness that keeps two people alive in the face of total devastation" (McCarthy). - Citation provided at the bottom of the course description

Through our discussions, we will discuss the destruction of the environment, nuclear warfare, the post-apocalypse, and more! Our discussions will focus on the uniqueness of the novel and writing style while investigating the messages that the author is sending the reader about our actions, their consequences, and the effects it has on the world around us. While we will be discussing current events, we are not teaching about the current events. We will be investigating how the novel relates to current events and the dangers that human mistakes can pose to our world as we know it. 

Citation: 
           McCarthy, Cormac. The Road. New York, Vintage International, 2006.