assignment 2) 'The Road' reminded me of the movie 'The Day after Tomorrow'

At the first time I got this book, I was very curious about the deep meaning of the title ‘The Road’. I had background information that it was an apocalyptic story, but I couldn’t figure out the relationship that the title would have with the events of this story. As I read through, I could see that ‘the road’ was the place where the main characters long for their survival and think again about the lives of human beings. Moreover, while reading through this story I had lots of difficulties comprehending unusual vocabularies that I’ve encountered for the first time. The atmosphere of the words used made me expect that the ending of this story would be rather depressing and negative. However, I’m eager to know how the story would end and how the two main characters (man and the boy) would get through harsh environment and sustain their lives.

Come to think of it, this book, ‘The Road’ seems to have many apocalyptic aspects of the world similar to those of a movie called ‘The Day after Tomorrow’. Mainly concerned with the idea that they both contain events that lead to the end of the world and the fact that they show us the great feeling of love between son and father, it enabled me to be a lot closer with apocalyptic stories or Science Fictions.

To start with, relating ‘The Road’ with the movie ‘The Day after Tomorrow’ showed me the characteristics of apocalyptic stories and what they warn to the human beings. The basic storyline of ‘The Road’ is that a man and his son were left in the burnt village with ashes and dust all over them. They are trying to move South to avoid the freezing temperatures and survive with all their might. On their way heading South, they encounter hardships with keeping their wills tight and heading for their goals while looking at dead bodies stranded all over. The movie ‘The Day after Tomorrow’, as many people might already know, is also a disaster movie with the ice freezing and the temperature of the Earth going rapidly down. There are some survivors hoping for the Earth to recover to its original state, meanwhile they fighting for their sustenance, competing with each other for food and basic needs. According to these two stories we can figure out the impact that these incredible disasters could bring to humans. In these cases they only seek for their own survival, not even considering about the others in the same situation. The close bonds between the human beings weaken and the world becomes a place where peace could never be found. Humans begin to act like animals literally and compete for only their own benefits. It seems to show about the real humans and warn us about what we could do in unexpected situations. As many of you might have felt, this is bad, really bad. But there’s some light of hope even in the toughest environment.

What is the light? It’s probably the people whom you love. In ‘The Road’, the man really cares for his son, clutching him tight and giving his son Coca Cola and cocoa to drink. Also in ‘The Day after Tomorrow’, the main characters, a father who is searching through the snow to reach the civilians and the son longing for his dad to come and rescue them from the library worry and pray for each other. In the story they finally meet one another alive and feel the importance of family and the intense love between them again. Like this, I think that catastrophes can rather teach us a lesson of the close bonds we can keep even in bad situations.

Overall, through reminding myself of the movie ‘The Day after Tomorrow’ and relating it with ‘The Road’, I could learn about how the apocalyptic events can affect humans and what we should remember even in the harsh environment. I wonder what will happen next in the story ‘The Road’, I’m eager to find out. Will the man and the boy reach South and live happily ever after or will they have some other problems to get themselves through? I’ll figure out.