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When asked by the boy to tell about the bravest thing he'd ever done, the man replied, "Getting up this morning." What does he mean by this statement? What is so brave about him getting up?
What do you think is more difficult: being the boy and listening to see if your father is still breathing or being the man and knowing your son is doing that?
crozzled...new word to me...I like it.
He'd stop and lean on the cart and the boy would go on and then stop and look back and he would raise his weeping eyes and see him standing there in the road looking back at him from some unimaginable future, glowing in that waste like a tabernacle. There are still religious allusions sprinkled in here. If there is no hope -- as seems to be the case -- why cling to religion?
The man imagines this is the reversal of creation -- what it must have been like before, when the earth was first made. If so, isn't this hope, since the world would have evolved from this point before? Is it plausible that this could be a new starting point?
Look around you, he said. There is no prophet in the earth's long chronicle who's not honored here today. Whatever form you spoke of you were right. What does this passage mean to you?
What clues do we have that the man (and woman) are not cannibals -- are "good guys"? What doubts are there?
Once there were brook trout in the streams in the mountains. You could see them standing in the amber current where the white edges of their fins wimpled softly in the flow. They smelled of moss in your hand. Polished and muscular and torsional. On their backs were vermiculate patterns that were maps of the world in its becoming. Maps and mazes. Of a thing which could not be put back. Not be made right again. Inn the deep glens where they lived all things were older than man and they hummed of mystery.
Love that final paragraph. There appears to be some hope buried there...what hope do you see in this last paragraph? What other things are hidden in this paragraph?
28 comments:
In a society like the one the novel is set in it is understandable to state that getting up that morning is the bravest thing you have ever done. Getting up means that you are setting out to face the world and whatever obstacles you face. Life itself can be very challenging, but where the man and boy are living makes living the most challenging aspect of every day. It would be easy to just give up and die, but by getting up in the morning you are being very brave.
I think it is more difficult being the man than the boy in this situation. Knowing that your son is worried, and you are the one to cause that anxiety, must be very painful. That guilt on top of the pain the man may be feeling physically must be very difficult. Also, the man knows that he is going to die, and have to leave the boy alone. Those thoughts may also be haunting him which makes his situation much more difficult.
I think it must be harder for the man, to know that his son is sitting there, trying to hear if he is still breathing. Though it must be incredibly painful for the boy to watch and listen as his father slowly slips away, I think this intent listening makes it even more painful for the man. The man knows that he is dying, and he also knows that when he is gone, the boy is going to be all on his own. I feel like the father would despise himself for this weakness, this ailment, because although it means an end to his suffering and pain, he knows that eventually he'll be leaving his son all on his own. Although the boy is sad at the knowledge that his father is dying, he can be content in the fact that his father is supposedly going to a better place. There is no such comfort for the dying man, because he knows that there is no safe haven for the boy, and that he will no longer be around to protect him.
I think it would be harder being the father knowing that his son is listening for his breath. The man already knows that he’s dying, and it must be truly upsetting when the boy started to notice.
The man says that the bravest thing he’s ever done is getting up in the morning because it would be hard going to bed every night and never wish to wake up. His wife already committed suicide to get away from the pain and suffering, it must have taken a lot to keep the boy and himself alive.
The man imagines this is the reversal of creation -- what it must have been like before, when the earth was first made. If so, isn't this hope, since the world would have evolved from this point before? Is it plausible that this could be a new starting point?
This is a very plausible theory. Just like a forest recovering after a fire, perhaps this is the start of a new life for Earth and its inhabitants. Much hope can be found in this viewpoint, but as always, there is a darker alternative. If this is a reversal of creation, then perhaps this is the end of the world, rather than a new beginning. Perhaps Earth is ending as it began, with desolation and peril and chaos. Perhaps there really is no hope, because with no Earth, there is no human race. Nothing can survive.
I think it is harder for the man to know that his son is listening to make sure he is still breathing. Although it is also hard for the boy to listen for his father breathing, I believe the father's predicament is harder. He knows that one day he is going to stop breathing and he won't be there for his son anymore. To know that his son cares so much and that he is hoping that his father is still alive has to be one of the hardest things to ever go through. The boy knows that one day his father is no longer going to be there, but the father has to let go knowing the son will go on living without him.
While both are extremely difficult position to be in, I think that it is more difficult to be the father knowing that his son is listening to see if he is still breathing at that moment. In theory, all children should outlive their parents, and a parent should never have to suffer the loss of a child. However, over time I think it is more difficult for the son because he has to live with the loss while his father “moves on.” Especially since his father has told him his entire life that he would take him with him, and in the end he could not bear to do it. Living without his father is something new to him, and while it is impossible to prepare himself completely, a little time may have made it easier.
I believe that it is plausible for this to be a new starting point for the Earth. The planet has gone through ice ages before, and turned out for the better. It has also experienced a mass extinction when the dinosaurs where eliminated. The man is hoping by thinking this. However, I don't believe it is hope for himself. He is aware that he won't be alive much longer, but he hopes for the boy's life.
The bravest thing for anyone in the society to do is get up in the morning... their struggles are large, continuous, and testing. There is a quote that I heard somewhere that goes something like "the fights we fight today are the fights we fight forever." I think this is very fitting in the book as the man and boy have been through a LOT (the understatement of the year), and their fights were all they had... besides each other. Since the man died I expected the boy to die as well (spoiler). I thought the fact that he happened to meet up with some other "good guys" who are "carrying the fire" was a little too optimistic of an ending for me. From the beginning I thought they were both doomed, but I guess not.
I would have to agree with the man’s statement about getting up in the morning. Not many people would want to wake up the next morning having to look forward to a bleak, difficult life. It takes a lot of courage to wake up and face all of the situations the man and boy encounter in just a single day. All of the hopelessness and the struggles can exhaust a person in a short amount of time. They both have to be brave and take it one day at a time.
What was so brave about getting up in the morning is that he knows what type of world he is waking up to, and still does it. Being brave to me is facing an obstacle that instills great fear in you. The man deals with his struggle by accepting that he cannot change the world, but only his view on it. Along with this is waking up even though he knows how weak he is and that he will have to watch his son watch him slip away.
I believe it would be more difficult if you were the boy listening to the man to see if he is still breathing. Although it must be very hard for the man to know that they boy is doing this, and that whatever he says will not help the boy cope once he is gone, the fact of the matter is that the man will be gone. The man won't have to deal with the pain and suffering anymore, and they boy will still be there. They boy will of had to watch the last breath and then know what to do next to keep surviving. Both the boys and the mans position is very hard in the situation, the boys is more difficult in my eyes since the man can see the light and the boy won't be able to.
I think the state of the world in this novel could be a new beginning. It is said that the world started out as nothing and in time it evolved and changed. It could be doing that again. It will just take time and the people will just need to stay positive and hope.
Then again, just as it could be a new beginning, it could be the end. I agree with Emily and how she stated the the world could be ending the way that it began. It's just as possible as a new beginning and it makes the same amount of sense.
I think that eventually the world will become uninhabited by this human race. The so called "good guys" never did anything to defeat or dispose of any of the cannibals. This world seems like it's going to end with a limited food source running out. The little bit of hope that was given at the end of the story was like that in "The Giver" it could be interpreted in two ways happy or tragedy. Leaves everything to the imagination and the sense that happiness is a true part of life, maybe happy endings do exist, but that's up to the person reading the story.
For the man and the boy it is a constant struggle every single day to do little things such as eat, bathe, and sleep. For anyone in this situation it would be a constant fight to wake up in the morning, and face the uncertain challenges ahead of him or her that day. Not knowing if they are going to get lucky finding food and shelter, or if they will have to sleep another night on the ground under the tarp, the man struggles greatly, now especially with his health dwindling. The fight for survival is one that no one chooses to take, and the man and the boy seem to have been fighting it for many weeks now with little hope that their situation will improve. Every single day is a constant struggle emotionally, and physically. The uncertainty, not knowing what is going to happen the next day in the crazy world they now live in I think makes the man brave to wake up every morning.
The man is so brave to get up in the morning because he has to face another day in that world. It means another day of obstacles: trying to find food and water, trying to find a place to sleep that night, trying to keep moving even though it hurts, trying to stay alive for his son, ect. The man knows that it would be so much easier if he would just die, but he has to stay brave for his son and get up in the morning.
I think it is more difficult to be the man knowing your son is listening. Not only is the man the one in pain, but it must be emotionally painful to know that. The man feels as if it is his duty to look after his son and it probably hurts him to know that his son is looking after him. The man wants to look strong in front of his son even when he feels weak.
I like the way that the book ended. Although the man died, it led the boy to finding someone to care for him and look after him. I'd like to think that the man that found the boy was one of the 'good guys', and that he lived on and had a healthy life.
What do you think is more difficult: being the boy and listening to see if your father is still breathing or being the man and knowing your son is doing that?
As for this question, I believe that being that man and knowing that your son was listening to see if you were still breathing would be more difficult. The man must have felt so hopeless, like he was letting his son down, and he was all that the boy had. There is no worse feeling than hopelessness.
The son would have clearly been worse. Not only is your only relative left dead but now you must venture on alone. All hope deminishes with the death of his only compainon. While the novel doesn't end that way, if the group he joined at the end wasn't friendly then it would have been as I previously stated.
Every morning the man wakes up with the knowledge that it could be his last day. He is fully aware of the horrible situation he is in and that it would probably be much easier to run into death's willing arms. However, he stays to fight for his son. He stays alive does the brave thing - staying alive. I really give him credit for facing every challenge with a brave attitude, and never giving up on himself or the boy. It really shows how brave the man is as a character.
I read the last paragraph many times, to try to catch everything that it implied. "Patterns that were maps of the world in its becoming," were original maps, now the world has changed, the trout has been touched by human hands, and cannot be pure anymore. But the "mystery" in the "deep glens," is what humans are searching for, to try to find the meaning in their lives. I believe that we have to have hope in order to look for the mysteries of life. If there was no hope, the would would not have humans, and the trout would go untouched.
The bravest thing the father may have ever done was get up every morning in that world and i understand why he would believe this of himself. He never knows what obstacles hes gonna face day after day. He is staying alive for his son and waking up every day for his son. It is the hardest thing in the world for the father to have to worry about what will be out in their way next. But he stays brave and true to his son. He isn't giving up till god takes him.
The exchange between the son and the man before he died was very sad yet touching. I cant imagine how heartbreaking it would be for a father to have to leave his child all alone in such a cold, scary world. But I really loved the ending of this book.
I want to believe that the man who found the boy was a "good guy." The man gave him a choice whether to go with them or not. He also covered the father with a blanket like the boy had asked and he didnt take his gun away from him.
The man says that getting up in the morning is the bravest thing he's ever done because he faces death every day. He wakes up to starvation, thieves, bad weather, cold, etc. It definitely takes a braver person to push through all of that instead of just giving up.
I can't imagine either situation between listening to see if my father is still breathing or my father knowing I'm doing that. Both situations are terrible because you're helpless either way. There's nothing you can really do in either situation.
"I'm scared. Do you understand that? I'm scared...You're not the only one who has to worry about everything"(218). The old man finally admits to the boy that he is worried and scared just as the boy is. He says this after the threatens the man who stole the cart. The boy didn't understand that they would have died if his father would not have indirectly killed the theif. This quote shows how the old man has grown to admit his fear. He has had to be the strong one through the entire journey and now we see that he has felt the same way the boy has the whole time.
by the statement, the man means that by even daring to go on in the condition he is in, he is taking one of the biggest risks of his life, which would make him extremely brave. it would be so easy for him to just not get up, to give up and not care about what happens to the boy, but he keeps going anyways.
they cling to religion because religion offers hope for after death, that as bad as things at the moment, there will be something better farther on.
the idea of episodic creation is very interesting, and it offers hope that those still alive will get to experience something no one else probably ever will.
Getting up in the morning is the bravest thing the man does because they live in a place of total destruction. People resort to cannibalism,food is scarce, and they don't have a home anymore. Everything they fcae is a constant hardship. Giving up would be the easy thing to do. Hope for soemthig better is what gets them up in the morning to face the harsh world.
I love it when the boy is described in a religious way. I can really picture it, the boy having a glow about him in the dim, hopeless world. I think that the man sees the boy this way as well because, despite of his claimed disbelief in God, the man can see the hope of the world in his son. The boy is a pure light that the man knows will succeed him into the future. Even as the book ends, I believe that after the story, the boy has great potential to restore the world to a certain degree. The man knows that there is no hope except for the boy, and, in this way, I think that the boy is the man's religion.
Getting up in the morning is the bravest thing you do every day. It constitutes his will to face the unknown as well as his past. By waking up, he is facing reality and accepting all that he has done. It, in a way, symbolizes strength to face the world and all of it's problems rather than lying down and accepting defeat.
It is plausible for this to be a new starting point for the Earth. The planet has gone through ice ages before, and turned out for the better. The man is aware that he won't be alive much longer, but he hopes for the boy's life. That's why he won't give up until he finds the good guys for the boy to keep traveling with.
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