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Postmodern themes and tropes in The Road - Coggle Diagram
Postmodern themes and tropes in The Road
Narrative Structure and Temporal Distortion
The author amplifies the temporal confusion by employing different tenses. This proposes to the readers that the temporal lines are obscured.
In the novel, time has no meaning.
Narrative rhythm changes a lot throughout the novel.
The author uses temporal distortion to showcase the confusion that the characters have in terms of temporality.
The Road
does not have any chapter breaks, however, it does have very long vignettes that amalgamates with the other.
Narrative Voice
The concept of memory is employed by the author as, in narratological terms, a 'narrative act'. Even though the characters look at their memories as part of their own past, remembering as an action would be in the present.
How the author uses memories showcases a postmodernist way of writing - changing the boundaries that past and present have with one another.
The author does not make the reader aware of the swap. The author showcases the postmodern concept called boundary-blurring by switching a focaliser that is internal and one that is external.
A majority of the book uses the third person and it is either through the boy or the man that the narrative is focalised.
Existential Angst
The man starts to feel insignificant.
But when the boy has no hope left, the man still does.
He puts the hope that he has where he should not.
The man in
The Road
sometimes feels that the life that he has is worthless.
Postmodern Use of Language
Many cultures have used the ocean to symbolise rebirth.
Firre symbolises conservation against the post-apocalyptic world.
The Road
is symbolic of the trip through life.
The absent trout represents how the man suffered within the postmodern world.
Questioning of morals and faith
In the past, humans were dependent on religions to direct them morally. During postmodernism, these systems were opposed which is evident in how McCarthy showcases the idea of faith within the post-apocalyptic time period.
The man constantly switches between opposing God and describing his child as divine.
Even though the man would do whatever it took to keep his son safe, the son showcases these feelings to provide aid to other people.
If there is zero moral context within a post-apocalyptic world, the characters create the moral context.