Road on Fire

As soon as the father arrives to what used to be his house, curiosity and melancholy take over him, making him enter the destroyed residence in despite of his child's fear and insecurity. As they walk around the house, the man evokes memories from his childhood, which make him ponder about the causes of that cruel and irreversible future. McCarthy exhibits how the man feels impotent and clueless about humanity's destiny:

What had they done?
He thought that in the history of the world it might even be that there was more
punishment than crime but he took small comfort from it." (33)

The journey continues on, and as the winter gets heavier and colder, the man and his son make an extra effort to arrive to a place known as "the gap". While pushing the cart, which has become a harder task since its wheels are buried under the snow, they arrive to a waterfall where they decide to rest. The place is meticulously described by McCarthy, which gives the reader a clear image of the beauty of the site. The characters decide to take a refreshing bath in the calmed part of the waterfall, were the man's care and pride for his son becomes evident.

The father decides to leave the place the next morning because he's afraid someone else might be there. They go under the bridge that crosses the river and, on the other side, they find an abandoned trailer where they decide to spend the night in. As the man decides to light a small fire inside the truck, he discovers dead bodies piled up in the rear part of it. The fire is a symbol used by McCarthy to display clarity and life because as soon as the fire was light, the man realized that they were surrounded by dead and that they were lucky to remain alive:

Human bodies. Sprawled in
every attitude. Dried and shrunken in their rotted clothes. The small wad of burning
paper drew down to a wisp of flame and then died out leaving a faint pattern for just
a moment in the incandescence like the shape of a flower, a molten rose. Then all
was dark again." (47)

Another human being appears in the road (for the first time in the story), and the boy has mixed feelings of fear and desire to help. The man is visibly hurt and crumbled since he doesn't notice the presence of the main characters behind him. The man decides to follow him with due precautions because he doesn't trust anyone but himself and his son. The man hobbled along the road until he sat down and never stood up again. The son started crying for he was afraid and concerned about this man's health. The father explained him that the man was hit by lighting and, even though they felt the urge of helping him, there was nothing that could be done. This attitude shows how tragedy has dehumanized the man, but the son is still innocent and pure, which makes him vulnerable to inevitable things like death.

The Road

The book "The Road" by Cormac McCarthy tells the story of a man and his child traveling across the devastated United States in search for survival. Both of them live a monotonous and scarce life, which is described by McCarthy as:

Nights dark beyond darkness and the days more gray each one than what had gone before" (3)

The previous quote sets a dark, sad and hopeless mood that is held throughout the book. Every landscape described by the main character looks basically the same: ashes, destroyed buildings and no signs of life. The desolation and loneliness of the towns make the man and the boy anxious and paranoid. They walk carefully (with a gun in the man's hand) and looking back constantly to check if they are being followed. It is sad to see how their life has come down to an endless pilgrimage and how everything they had is now reduced to a shopping cart filled with their belongings.

An interesting contrast with the book's dusky mood is the description of the man's dreams:

In dreams his pale bride came to him out of a green and leafy canopy. Her nipples
pipeclayed and her rib bones painted white. She wore a dress of gauze and her dark
hair was carried up in combs of ivory, combs of shell. Her smile, her downturned
eyes." (18)

The way his dreams are vividly described shows how he treasures those memories and wishes to go back to them. Daydreaming takes a big role in the novel as well, since the man gets caught up when remembering childhood events, like the peaceful afternoons spent in the lake in company of his uncle. The fact that the man is daydreaming permanently makes allusion to the fact that his surreal lifestyle has taken away some of his human attributes, like his sense of reality.

The conversations between the man and his son are very interesting as well. Even though they are short and dry, the exemplify how the son has absolute trust in his father and never questions his judgements or decisions:

Can I ask you something? he said.
Yes. Of course.
Are we going to die?
Sometime. Not now.
And we're still going south.
Yes.
So we'll be warm.
Yes.
Okay." (10)

 

The Great Gatsby - Close Reading

 Fitzgerald gives closure to the novel with the following quote:

Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgastic future that year by year recedes before us. It eluded us then, but that’s no matter—tomorrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther. . . . And then one fine morning— So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past. (189)

The first sentence explains the green light metaphor, which is a representation of human's dreams and hopes. The light is ahead of them, revealing how the distance and difficulties to achieve those goals grow bigger as time passes by. The second sentence shows how people are determined to reach the "light", even though it has escaped them several times. Therefore, the optimistic dreamers struggle harder and restlessly until "one fine morning-" they feel it close enough to graze it with the tips of their fingers. Unfortunately, the moment is quickly over and the light slips away swiftly. The last sentence uses the metaphor of the "current", which represents the attachment of the past that pulls people and impedes them to transform their hopes into reality. These metaphors are exemplified in the novel through several scenarios. The first is Gatsby's persistent hope of regaining Daisy's love by means of his luxurious parties and lifestyle. They are also applied to Nick's decision of moving East in search of a better future, but then being drawn back West escaping Gatsby's murder and memories. Finally, they are used at a larger scale which involves every character in the novel: The constant strive between their attempts of becoming "successful" and wealthy individuals versus their roots and basic human nature.

Coming Through Slaughter - Close Reading II

The street is fifteen yards wide.  I walk around watched by three men farther up the street under a Coca Cola sign.  They have not heard of him here.  Though one has for a man came a year ago with a tape recorder and offered him money for information, saying Bolden was a 'famous musician'.  The sun has bleached everything.  The Coke signs almost pink.  The paint that remains the colour of old grass.  2 pm daylight.  There is the complete absence of him-- even his skeleton has softened, disintegrated, and been lost in the water under the earth of Holtz Cemetery.  When he went mad he was the same age as I am now."

Sentence 1-2: The description of Bolden's town is similar to the one in the beginning of the book, in which he tells in detail the enviroment and appereance of the streets. The Coca Cola sign is mentioned on both paragraphs is a symbol of connection between Bolden's isolated world and reality. 
Setence 2-3: Although physical characteristics of the town remain intact (or similar), the people and stories in it have changed. Bolden was a recognized musician in his era, but the fact that is name and memory were forgotten and erased from those who live in the present, shows how brief and insignificant  his contribrution to others was.
Sentence 4 - 7: The passage of time has washed away Bolden's memories.
Sentence 8: The town does not resemble the one Bolden lived in, which dissapoints the author who's made and effort to preserve his life and memories. His body is rotting and so is his name.
Sentence 9: The last sentence shows a direct connection between the narrator and the main character. He feels susceptible and somehow related to Buddy. From this paragraph it is infered that the narrator fears to die and sink into obscurity and Buddy Bolden did. 

Coming Through Slaughter - Close Reading I

What he did too little of was sleep and what he did too much of was drink and many interpreted his later crack-up as a morality tale of a talent that debauched itself. But his life at this time had a fine and precise balance to it, with a careful allotment of hours. A barber, publisher of The Cricket, a cornet player, good husband and father, and an infamous man about town. When he opened up the shop he was usually without customers for an hour or so and if there were any there they were usually 'spiders' with news for The Cricket. All the information he was given put unedited into the broadsheet. Then he cut hair till 4, then walked home and slept with Nora till 8, the two of them loving each other.....” (pg 13)

Sentence 1: This sentence describes Bolden's addiction and phsycological disorders as well as other's opinions about him. People take his case as an example of how a person with great talent can destroy themselves if they are unable to handle the pressure appropiately. 

Sentence 2-3: Bolden's life before he went mad was busy and scheduled, showing he was capable and responsible to live a normal life. However, the way things are listed give the sensation that his normal life was less exciting and arousing than his insane one. 

Sentence 4-5: His participation in "The Cricket" newspaper exemplifies Bolden's attitude towards society and life itself. He never censured or "edited" (previously planned) his actions in despite of what the consequences might be (for example, his disappereance) 

Sentence 6: The final sentence of this excerpt introduces a new character, Nora. She was Bolden's wife (their marriage drew her away from prostitution) with whom he seemed to have a passionate and functioning relationship, until he abandons her unexpectedly.

The Great Gatsby - Symbolism

Symbolism is an aesthetic element F. Scott Fitzgerald uses throught the book to describe abstract concepts and ideas through objects, specially colors. One example of symbolism found in the book are the thick, round glasses of the"owl-eyed man" who first appears in one of Gatsby's parties (drunk and disoriented) and later he's one of the three men who attend Gatsby's funeral.

His glasses symbolize the blurry and distorted vision others had of Gatsby, who seemed to be a "perfect" and wealthy gentleman, but in reality he was nothing but a broken hearted man. In the middle of the rainy funeral, the owl-eyed man takes his glasses off and finally sees Gatsby's reality:

"I’d never seen him since then. I don’t know how he knew about the funeral, or even his name. The rain poured down his thick glasses, and he took them off and wiped them to see the protecting canvas unrolled from Gatsby’s grave... He took off his glasses and wiped them again, outside and in. “The poor son-of-a-bitch,” he said."

Another example of symbolism are the molar cuff buttons Mr.Wolfsheim wore the day he met Nick. The molars represent how Mr:Wolfsheim treats humans as merchandise and has no scruples about harming others in order to climb his way to the top. They also reflect his arrogance and unmeasured wealth:

"“I see you’re looking at my cuff buttons.” I hadn’t been looking at them, but I did now.
They were composed of oddly familiar pieces of ivory.
“Finest specimens of human molars,” he informed me.
“Well!” I inspected them. “That’s a very interesting idea.”
“Yeah.” He flipped his sleeves up under his coat."