week 2- assignment 4

Wow! This story is becoming more interesting as chapters pass by. While I was reading the pages 51-100, I couldn’t take my eyes off each and every detail. From the story related to the man’s wife to the conflict between the man and the other survivor, I’d say Cormac McCarthy really deserves the Pulitzer’s prize! Though, there were some specific parts where I felt impressed and attracted by the most, so let me introduce them.

Page 54
So, he whispered to the sleeping boy. I have you.
Page 74
This is my child, he said. I wash a dead man’s brains out of his hair. That is my job. Then he wrapped him in the blanket and carried him to the fire.
Page 82
He bent over and kissed him on his gritty brow.
These three quotes that I mentioned above are the ones that I could feel the strong bond between the man and the boy. In such desolate and barren environment with nothing to rely on, the man and the boy just have each other to keep their faith alive. So they build intense relationship and try to express love toward each other more (but there are some times when the man acts in harsh manners to the boy, probably as a way to keep the boy safe). Moreover, this part in particular appeals to me because it makes me think again about the relationship with my own parents. Nowadays I stay in the dormitory and go back home just during the weekends, so I don’t spend much time with my family. The first month (March) was so busy that I couldn’t even think about my parents a lot but as time passed, I began to feel the importance of my family and how much they affected me. Anyways, from these phrases I could feel the strong humanity between the two characters and relate it to my situation.

Page 66
He dove and grabbed the boy and rolled and came up holding him against his chest with a knife at his throat. The man had already dropped to the ground and he swung with him and leveled the pistol and fired from a two-handed position balanced on both knees at a distance of six feet.
In my personal thought, this part was the most thrilling but rather tragic one from pages 51-100. In this scene, the man and the boy encounter another survivor who seems to be very big and aggressive. The stranger tries to get the man’s properties by threatening the boy as a hostage but then the man shot the stranger and ran away from the dead body with his son. While I was reading this part of the book I felt 2 things. One was about understanding the man’s situation that there were no other things to do but to shoot the stranger, and the other thing was about the human’s selfishness. With the limited amount of food, clothing and shelter left for the survivors of the apocalypse, they are becoming more violent and uncooperative. I’m sure that I’ll turn this crazy when I encounter situations like these, but it makes me think again about how the humans can be so selfish.

Page77
Are we still the good guys? He said
Yes. We’re still the good guys.
And we always will be.
Yes. We always will be.
Okay.
This is the scene where the boy doubt whether they are the ‘good guys’ or the ‘bad guys’ after seeing his dad being so cruel and violent to others. I totally understand the boy’s feeling. He must have lots of confused thoughts in his mind about his dad and his behaviors. I think the boy is too young to know that his dad is acting that way just to keep him safe. Furthermore, I noticed that the boy is slowly losing his faith and his identity after living in the harsh environment for so long. He doesn’t seem to trust his dad as much as he did at first and the boy seems to be too exhausted to do anything.