The road

Question

  1. The man is trying to remain optimistic even though his health is constantly declining. Give me two examples from pages 196-230 on how he is still trying to keep up the spirits of the boy.
  2. Also, the boy is showing himself more and more to be a product of this post-apocalyptic wasteland. Give me two examples from pages 196-230 that show it’s clear this is the world he grew up in. Explain exactly HOW you can tell.

Sample paper

The road

Question 1

The man is trying to remain optimistic even though his health is constantly declining. Give me two examples from pages 196-230 on how he is still trying to keep up the spirits of the boy.

As days are passing by, it is quite clear that the man is becoming weaker and weaker each single day and it becomes extremely difficult for him to keep up with his son. Some of the examples in the novel to justify this statement include:

  1. On page 201, the author states that after the two of them had set out again, the man was too weak and faint to walk and talk like a few years back. He had become fainter of heart, filthy with diarrhea and constantly leaned on the handle of the shopping cart.
  2. The man’s health is at stake here as his coughing is increasing becoming regular and constant to the extent that he is unable to hide it from the boy despite his best efforts of ensuring him that he is okay. On page204, the narrator says that the man coughed every step on the way as they walked along the edge of the road and the boy just looked at him (Kerouac, 2016).

Question 2

Also, the boy is showing himself more and more to be a product of this post-apocalyptic wasteland. Give me two examples from pages 196-230 that show it’s clear this is the world he grew up in. Explain exactly HOW you can tell.

The boy by now is showing himself to be a product of this post-apocalyptic world.  To justify this accusation, the author gives perfect examples such as:

  1. On page 203 when the boy and the man came upon the dead, the man tried to cover the boy’s eyes so that he cannot see the dead bodies. , however, the boy assures his father that he is okay because the pictures of dead people are already in his head.
  2. The boy is perfectly adapting to his environment as the narrator shows on page 207 where the boy tries to offer some suggestions to his father on where to hide the cart so that the people following them cannot see it (Kerouac, 2016). At the beginning of the story, the boy was too scared and clueless of his surroundings to give any suggestions.

References

Kerouac, J. (2016). On the road.