Fortunately, it’s getting more and more interesting as I keep reading this book. It’s probably because there are much more exciting things happening so that I can easily concentrate on the reading. I found three quotes that interested me the most for this week too.
First quote is about the old man on the road.
“How old are you?
I’m ninety.
No you’re not.
Okay” -pg167
“There’s not any people. I just made that up.
What else did you make up?
I’m just on the road the same as you. No different.
Is your name really Ely?
No.
You don’t want to say your name.
I don’t want to say it.
Why?
I couldn’t trust you with it.” -pg 171
This scene was quite interesting because the man and the boy met a good guy (at least not a bad guy) on the road. It’s been so long, or maybe the first time they spent time with another stranger. The guy they met on the road was very old. Although his age was uncertain, it seems that he’s around 80 or something because some people had believed that he was 90. As we can see from the quotes, he is very careful of everything and doesn’t believe anyone easily. He lied on his name and age to protect himself. I can see that he has been on the road very long time and encountered a lot of dangers so that he learnt know-how of life on the road.
The second quote is about the man.
“In the night he woke in the cold dark coughing and he coughed till his chest was raw.” Pg 175
It constantly shows how the man is getting weaker and weaker. I remember seeing few scenes that the man coughed a lot and had very hard time to stop himself. I thought that this is a foreshadowing because this scene appeared several times and even the man said that he’s going to die.
The last quote is about the boy.
“It’s okay Papa.
It’s okay?
They’re already there.
I don’t want you to look.
They’ll still be there.
He stopped and leaned on the cart. He looked down the road and he looked at the boy. So strangely untroubled.
Why don’t we just go on, the boy said.
Yes. Okay.” Pg 191
This quote came right after when the man and the boy saw a terrible sight. There were dead people all over the road. Ironically, what I was shocked by was not the dead, but the boy. How could that little boy be so calm and feel nothing special about seeing the dead? Maybe it’s so normal for him, like we don’t really care about seeing people alive. Then I came to think about how a circumstance affects person. It doesn’t depend on the age, but the experience. Although the man is much older than the boy, it’s still hard for him to look at it without surprising because he knows how horrible it is. However, it seems that the boy wasn’t shock as much as the man because he had had similar experience before and he doesn’t know what the world originally looked like. It’s very sad. Even the man seems surprised by the boy’s reaction. I hope that the boy can learn how beautiful the world is without dead bodies on the road.
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I agree with you. It's really, really sad that the boy doens't feel shock or anything that we would feel when we encounter such a scary sight. I'm thinking right now, like, 'oh poor boy', 'what has he done to see such horrible things', 'he has done nothing wrong, that poor, innocent thing', but I supppose we would quite feel the same if we were in the same situation. What matters would be plain 'surviving', not 'ew look at those bodies! Eeeek!!'
ReplyDeleteI agree with you, too. When the father lied down and couldn't stand up for three or four days, I thought that the man would die! Oh, it was so relieving when he woke up at last even in a weak state. And the boy... I feel so sorry for him. He is only a child and he needs a time being a childish, joyful boy. But he's only learning about the violence of the world, and how to cope with that, usually by getting used to it.
ReplyDeleteHad a good time reading your post, Harin.
wow! I really like your last point. I was quite confused too at this scene because I thought the situation was fliped backward. It was usually the naive boy and the man just saying it's okay but in this scence everything changed. However, I never thought as deeply as you. Also I like the point about the old man that they met on the road. I totally agree with your ideas. Thanks for sharing and I really enjoyed reading your writing!
ReplyDeleteYou are very astute in observing the changing role of the man and the boy. Also, the encounter with Ely certainly gives us so much to think about. Let's talk more about it in class!
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