Annie, 'The Road' vs 'Blindness' - #2

We finally finished reading the book. Yeapee!~~~~~~~~~
On the first week of ‘the Road’, I compared ‘Blindness’ with ‘the Road’. This week I will compare them again. Well, this time I will focus more on comapring and contrasting the different endings of each book.

On the end of ’The Road’, the man died and the boy went with other good guys. In some ways, it can be called a ‘Happy Ending.’ From the start we knew that the man was sick and that he was going to die. Thus, it wasn’t that surprising when the man died. If you look from the boy’s view, it is sad that the man died but at least the boy survived. And, we can know that the boy is going to be protected well by those people. Maybe, the boy will be happier than when he was with the man. However, what I will focus on is the apocalypse.

In ‘The Road’, the situation didn’t get any better at the end of the book. Even though the man died, it was still the same world. Everything was still gray, no difference. Unlike this book, everything was back to normal at the end of ‘Blindness’. People start regaining their sight. It can just be seen as a typical ‘Happy Ending’ since there is no more blindness, the cause of everything.

However, when I looked at the very last part of the book closely, the woman who was able to see all the time through the book said ‘People were blind to start with, and they are blind, now. These people can see but they don’t look.’ Somehow, to the author, the catastrophe didn’t seem to have ended. It was there to start with and it’s still here. Throughout this book, the author focused on showing how the woman helped other people and how the main characters formed a group and worked together. Maybe, what he was trying to say was related with this fact. Even though the world itself didn’t change, the author wanted the readers to learn this fact and change their view towards the world. This book made us rethink about the world around us.

I think this part can relate with ‘The Road’. In this book, the world didn’t change at the end. It was still the same. Just like ‘Blindness’, the author wanted to focus more on the relationship between the man and the boy than on the setting. I felt that these two books are different from other apocalyptic books or movies because it wasn’t trying to solve the initial cause of the apocalypse. In most of the movies of this kind, it’s more about solving the cause and returning the world back to a normal world. But, these two books seem to make us think about how we would act in an apocalyptic world. They don’t talk about how this apocalypse happened or how it was solved, it was there to start with and it just is there. It is the cause of how people act but everything’s not about this apocalypse.

But, I think the two apocalypses are somehow different. For ‘The Road’, the catastrophe, which wasn’t cited clearly in the book, was the background. I mean, the humans remained the same and it was the setting that changed at first. However, in the ‘Blindness’, it was the humans that changed first. No matter this small difference, the cause led to similar post-apocalyptic situations. The world ran out of food and people started hurting each other. So, I guess the reason why I keep coming back to ‘Blindness’ is because it’s so similar in structure and the message that I gain from it.

P.S. This time, I focused more on talking about my thoughts than rather on what ‘Blindness’ was about. Well… I knew I was supposed to be explaining the summary but, I didn’t want to write the same information again. For people who didn’t know what Blindness was about, you can look on the first week’s assignment. I’m really sorry~ ///And, I really don't know what I'm trying to saying... so tell me about the things that doesn't make sense :)

Annie- Letter to the man☆

Dear the man,

Hello? Nice to meet you. My name is So Yeon Kim. You can call me Annie (which is my English name) or just So :) I guess many of my classmates have already written a letter to you. You may be tired of receiving letters in your situation but, I really want to encourage you and the boy!

First, I will introduce myself. I live in a small country called Korea. You may have never heard of it but it is located next to China. Oh, your world could have been a totally different from my world but, I am guessing that the world before the apocalypse is similar to mine. I said I’m guessing because in the book, there’s not much said about the world before. I go to a foreign language high school (which is why I can write in English).

I decided to write a letter to you for this week’s assigned part because the boy was sick. I was really worried for both you and the boy. I mean, there’s no medicine, no doctors, or anything that could help the boy survive. The boy could have died of that sickness and I’m very sure that you would have died too if the boy died. And, I really wouldn’t like that. I really want you and the boy to survive (I’ll call it surviving… even if you guys don’t like it….). So, when I read the part where the boy was sick, I was so desperate… wishing for him to survive. Then, I thought how desperate you would be. I would never be able to experience it unless my family had a fatal disease…..so… I wanted to encourage you not to give up!

I first thought about writing this letter to the boy but, the boy can’t read well… I think… And, he’s currently sick so you can read this letter out loud for him! Really, don’t give up! Even though I can’t see or feel how awful, the situation is, I can at least imagine by how you described it. It is gross, inhumane, and awful. I mean there won’t be words bad enough to describe the situation. But I believe that there are many; maybe millions of people that want you to survive. So, just do not let go!

From what I have seen, you are a brave and intelligent person. You know ways you can survive without going through inhumane experiences. You didn’t choose to eat other people even though you were starving. (Of course, it could have been because of the boy. But if it was me, and I was really right before dying, I would have eaten….) Not only that, you know how to use things you find. When I read what you have done with the things you find and how you find those things, I am always surprised. I ask myself ‘How does he know that? Is he an expert? Would I be able to do that if I were in his shoes? and so many more.’ I know that I won’t be able to survive long or be brave like you. So, you are quite good at this.

If you don’t give up, I know you can do it. I don’t know when you can stop surviving and actually live your life but, I think time will come. At times when you want to give up, think about the boy. Just like you, the boy will die if you die. Think about the world that you know but the boy doesn’t. That world may come back… So, what I really want to tell you is just don’t give up! No matter what happens to you in the future, I really hope that you don’t give up. You have the ability and luck!


From Annie that believes you can do it no matter what!

P.S. Don’t feel too pressured by this letter. I just wanted to encourage you. I know you are sick already and you may want to die, but just try your best! For you and the boy. The prize may be nearer than you think.

Annie, 3 Questions

This time I asked some questions that were too deep for me too answer :)
So, please understand if my answers are from mars. (Or even further.... from another galaxy?)


What is the definition of ‘Good Guys’ to the man? Why does the man think that they are the only ‘Good Guys’ and that there are many ‘Bad Guys’?

At first, I thought the man’s definition for good guys are people who don’t eat other humans. However, the man seemed so certain that there weren’t many good guys. (Actually, he thought there were almost none.) That means the definition that I thought of was wrong. If my definition was right, then the man wouldn’t be so certain that there aren’t many good guys on the road.

So, I remembered that when I was reading the book, I kept on feeling that the man was being kind of unfair. He kept on saying that all the others are bad guys. To me, he seemed like he was trying to force the boy to think in the same way as him.

Then, a sudden thought came to me. Maybe it wasn’t a matter of WHO the bad guys are. Maybe the man just wanted the boy to be more cautious. If the boy thought everyone else except for the two of them were bad guys, he would be much more careful. Currently, the boy is willing to help other survivors. This, may be fatal to the boy if he meets a dangerous person. So, the man may have wanted to prevent the boy from actually ‘Walking into danger’.

But then, at the end of this part of the book, the man tells the boy that the good guys are hiding from them. He now says there are good guys. Why? I’m so confused!!!!


While the man is speaking to another person, there are many parts where two very similar sentences repeat, why does this happen so often?

There are mainly two parts where this seems to happen. When the man is talking to the boy, the man repeats the words the boy said, I believe he does so because he wants to show that he’s certain about the answer that he is giving to the boy. In many parts of the book, the boy seems uncertain or disbelieving of the things the man tells him. So, in order to convince the boy that he is right or to make the boy feel more comfortable, the man seems to repeat the phrases.

Another time this happens a lot is when he is talking to the old man. In these cases the man seems to speak in a very unique way. Most of the times, (Well…..almost all of the times) the man says things in statements instead of asking questions. He makes some kind of hypothesis in his mind than asks the old man whether the thought the man had is correct or not. In these types, the old man repeats what the man had said to indicate that the assumption was correct.


What does being on ‘The Road’ mean?

From the first part of the book, I had this question on my mind. It came clear when the old man said “I was always on the road. You cant stay in one place.” (p.168).

From the first part of the book, I couldn’t understand how there could be a road (a very long one that stretches out to the South). It seems that the world the man lived in is the same as the world we live in now. But, in my world, there is no road that stretches out that far. Since it is very unlikely that they built one after the apocalypse so that was why I thought the road isn't a road literally.

So, I gained a hint from the old man’s saying that maybe going on the road just means that they are heading towards the destination that they should be heading for. I think I heard a saying that being on the right road means you are heading in the right direction. So, I thought it just meant they are heading for the South so they are on the road.

But then, it seems so confusing that there are many people who go along the same road. It is really unlikely to meet others if they are just moving to reach each their destination. And, the man wouldn't be worrying about being on the road and meeting cannibals in the first place.

Maybe.... the so-called Pilgrims made the road?!?!?!?!?
Who are the Pilgrims?

Oh My GOD! This is driving me mad!
Somebody, Anybody, please help me before my brain explodes~ ㅜㅜ

Timeline for the 3rd Part of the Book

At the first part of this book, the man and the boy were arguing about whether they can survive or not. They ran out of food and have starved for quite a long time. The boy believes that they are going to die very soon. One quote that really interested me was this quote. In this quote, the man tries to convince the boy that they will not die.

"How long do you think people can go without food?
I don't know.
But how long do you think?
Maybe a few days
And then what? You fall over dead?
Yes
Well you don't. It takes a long time. We have water. That's the most important thing. You don't last very long without water." (p.101)

After this talk, the man finds some kind of track in the snow. So, he goes to a place where you can overlook he place and finds two men. He tells the boy that they are the bad guys and they hide in the dark, trying to be unseen by other humans.


They walk along the road...


They reach the outskirts of a small town. They go into a house that the boy doesn’t want to go into. In that house, there is a male and a female naked and asking them for help. Not too soon, there are four bearded men and two women coming in the way for the house. Those people are looking for human food. They are the ‘bad’ guys. The man manages to realize very quickly that fact and runs for him and the boy’s life. They succeeded in hiding in the woods far from the house. The boy is extremely terrified. In this part, there is one thing that I think is very important. While running away from the house, the man keeps on talking about his health.

“He was going to cough. He put his whole mind to holding it back.”
“He was so weak. All his talk about running. He couldn’t run.” (p.114)

It seems that this man is quite sick in some way. I wonder what’s going to happen to the man and the boy. I mean, even if the man wasn’t sick the situation would be bad enough. Can you imagine what would happen to the boy if the man suddenly died? This part was where the sickness of the man actually evidently appeared so I felt really bad for them when I read this part and thought that it is an essential part for the storyline.

While hiding from the cannibals, the boy falls asleep. The man keeps on looking out but when the situation gets better the man decides to look for food. He goes into a burn and finds some blades, a packet of powder for making grape juice and more. He stuffs some things into his pocket. He also finds some old apples lying in the grass of the orchard. He eats some and takes the others. And, he finds some bottles and puts clean water in it. He drinks them himself first and refills it. He takes these things and gives them to the boy who just awoke from the sleep.


Then they proceed through the road.


They come up to the ruins that were once houses and the man finds old oil that smells stinky. He also finds a bear bottle and puts in some cloth at the top. This, becomes their new lamp. One shocking scene was when they came up to a mirror. The man raised his gun towards himself. It made me feel bitter because it kind of showed how cautious and worried the man is. I think it depicted very well about how dangerous the situation was.

“They came upon themselves in a mirror and he almost raised the pistol.
It’s us, Papa, the boy whispered. It’s us.” (p.132)

Then, at the same location the man finds an underground bunker. In that bunker, there is everything. There is clothes, emergency toilet, all sorts of canned food, burner, oil, practically everything. You can see how thankful and happy the man is by this quote.

“Come down. Oh my God. Come down.” (p.139)

So here, they stay for quite a few days. But, the man tells the boy that they will have to leave quite soon because it is not safe in this place. He says that they will only take what they need. The part assigned this time ends today.

I was extremely glad when the man found the bunker because I felt really bad for the man and the boy in the past. They were starving and there were cannibals all over and their bodies were too weak. Now I think it will make it easier for them to go to the south. I really was happy and wanted to scream ‘Hurray!’ when I found out that they had food!


P.S.
This week's assigned part was totally interesting. I couldn't take my eyes off of the book!
I hope the later parts are this interesting too!
I wrote this too quickly I hope you will understand my bad writing.....
I'll work harder next time ㅜㅜ

Quotes #1,#2, and #3.

When I was reading the second part of the book, I felt that they book was much more interesting than the last part because there was a comprehensible story line. I especially liked the parts where some kind of tension was appearing between characters in the book.

Pg.55-60

The first set of quotes that I chose is from the man’s flashback. On their way to the ‘South’, the boy confesses that he wants to be with mom right before he sleeps. After that talk, the man recalls his memory with his wife right before she leaves for her ‘self destruction’. In that memory, there are a lot of places where it shows the wife’s suffering and how self destruction was the only choice for her.

“What in God’s name are you talking about?
We’re not survivors. We’re walking dead in a horror film.” (p.55)

In this quote, you can see that she doesn’t think that the way she is living is actually ‘living’. For me, this was a common experience when I had no happiness or too little happiness in my life. In her case, she had to put all of her time in trying to keep her life that was meaningless to her.

“Sooner or later they will catch us and they will kill us. They will rape me. They’ll rape him. They’re going to rape us and kill us and eat us and you won’t face it. You’d rather wait for it to happen. But I can’t. I can’t.” (p.56)

Here, you can see that she also had to spend lots of time worrying and being afraid of ‘them’. I felt that this is one of the main sentences that warn us about the danger from other humans. Before this scene we didn’t know exactly what the man’s fear was. However, in this scene, you can see that the fear the man was having was from other humans and that these humans are people who rape or attack others. This was the key sentence to understanding the main character's fear.

“Maybe you’ll be good at this. I doubt it, but who knows. The one thing I can tell you is that you wont survive for yourself. I know because I would never have come this far.” (p.57)

In this part, it becomes evident that the woman is going to leave. The man keeps on begging the woman to stay and that he needs her but she still leaves him. But by the last sentence, you can see that she still cares for the mand and feels bad for him since he has to keep living. By the way she says good bye, you can at least see that she is not leaving because she doesn't like the man and the boy.

“There was no argument. The hundred nights they’d sat up debating the pros and cons for self destruction with the earnestness of philosophers chained to a madhouse wall. In the morning the boy said nothing at all and when they were packed and ready to set out upon the road he turned and looked back at their campsite and he said: She’s gone isn’t she? And he said: Yes, she is.” (p.58)

This is what happens after she leaves. The boy and the man accept her decision. Actually, I felt that they already knew that it was coming.

This quote that I made is my favorite part so far. It was the first exciting scene that came after the serene story line. It also answered two questions that I had about the book. One was whether the boy was actually the man’s son or not and the other was what had happened to the woman.

I think that this part is an important part of the book because it has a detailed story about the wife. Throughout the book, I felt that the woman has some kind of big importance even though she is actually dead. She keeps on coming out in man’s memories and dreams. She seems to be the link that connects the man and the past. If you see page 54, the man says “There is no past”, he can’t remember his childhood games and stories but, in the memories with his wife, he seems to remember quite well about the world before.

The second quote that I chose is in the scene where the man has an argument with another man.

“You won’t shoot, he said.
That’s what you think.
You ain’t got but two shells. Maybe just one. And they’ll hear the shot.
Yes they will. But you won’t.
How do you figure that?
Because the bullet travels faster than sound. It will be in your brain before you can hear it. To hear it you will need a frontal lobe and things with names like colliculus and temporal gyrus and you won’t have the, anymore. They’ll just be soup.” (p.64)

This part showed clearly that they were both enemies to each other. This part is important because it showed the man’s character. The man seems to have a very logical personailty. Instead of running away or just being afraid, the man manages to fight with the other man. His words make sense and seem very professional that the other man even asks him if he’s a doctor. It doesn't sound too special but no many people can behave this way when they are in the situation of their own life and death. In addition, I believe this personality of his seems to have acted as an advantage for him to survive in this apocalyptic environment.

Finally, the last quote I wanted to talk about was on page 82 and 83.

“A dog? Yes. Where did it come from?
I don’t know. We’re not going to kill it, are we Papa?
No. We’re not going to kill it.”(82)
“They never heard the dog again.”(83)

This is about a dog that they man and the boy finds on their journey. From far away, they were able to see that some people were living in that area. When they get closer, they find a dog. The boy begs his father not to kill that dog and the father agrees to do so. However, after time, they couldn’t see the dog again. In that scene, the boy and the man had run out of food. Thus, they were reasearching for food in that village. However, there was no food left in the food market. But, after time, they could smell wood burning.

What came to my mind? I thought of the dog eating tradition. In Korea, some people still enjoy dogs and the Westerners criticize it a lot. They think it’s really savage to eat dogs. But, in this scene, the savage tradition is portrayed. I think it shows how bad the whole situation is. I mean the author is a westerner and most of them think of eating a dog as an extremely cruel thing. So, this part emphasizes how bad the man and the boy and the other survivors needed food.

P.S.

These are some thoughts that I had while reading the second part of the book. I'm really sleepy since it's two in the morning so plese tell me by comment if there are any unlogical assumptions or errors! :) Oh, I followed someone's reading method of taking notes as I read and it helped me a lot THANKS!

'The Road' vs 'Blindness'

Assignment 2 - 'writing about something the story remined me of'


When I was reading the first part of the book ‘The Road’, I had a lot of difficulties in understanding what it was about. I couldn’t understand the words and I couldn’t put the stories together into one. However, there was one thing that kept me from not giving up. It was the unknown familiarity of the story. I think the familiarity was because of the many apocalyptic movies and books I’ve seen. As I read the book, the story kept on overlapping with a book called ‘Blindness’ by Jose Saramago.

‘Blindness’ is an apocalyptic book. The problem starts when a man suddenly yells out that he cannot see in the middle of the street. Then, the people who had contact with him get the same symptoms. As more and more people start to get this virus, the government decides to lock them in a mental institution. The book is mainly about the story inside this mental institution and the events that happen after they escape and go back into the world.

I think the biggest relation between the two books is that people can’t see well. In the book ‘Blindness’, people with the virus cannot see anything but white waves. They (the infected people) say that they feel like they are swimming in a pool of milk. So, as the story goes on, people learn to conceive things by touching them and to keep balance without looking. Similarly, if you see on page 15, the man says, ‘The blackness he woke to on those nights was sightless and impenetrable. A blackness to hurt your ears with listening.’ At first, people who can’t see feel like they can’t do anything anymore. However, as time passes they get used to it and they can live with it. Although it is a common plot used by authors I always feel amazed and touched by human’s adapting abilities. I mean, you can just experience it by turning off the light and staring at the darkness for a few minutes. Your eyes adapt and you can see distant outlines of some objects around you.

Another thing that caught my eye was the strong relations that seemed to form or get stronger as the tragedy progresses. In ‘Blindness’, people were complete strangers at first. However, as people strived to survive, they became bonded together. They shared even the littlest piece of crackers and held hands so that they wouldn’t fall apart. Similarly, in ‘The Road’, the man and the boy had a very strong bond. If you see on page 29, the author narrates that the man knew ‘That the boy was all that stood between him and death.’ Not only that, the boy seems to care about the man if you see him trying to share with the man, Coca Cola and Cocoa. I think this is why I like by apocalyptic pieces so much. As I read the book, I could feel how important it is to keep strong bonds and form great relationships. Caring about one another and surviving altogether as a result of each other’s sacrifices, it seems so great and makes me feel thankful and happy that they all survived.

But, more than the two points I made above, the thing that most reminded me of the book ‘Blindness’ was the supermarket and the continuous mentioning of other survivors. In the book ‘Blindness’, there are a lot of scenes where people violently fight over food because there are so few. The scene that struck me the most was the scene where people were all fighting with each other in a supermarket. In this scene the woman who still has her sight, finds a storage room underground. She silently moves down and finds food to take to her people. But, before she leaves the room, she opens up a sausage to eat it because she was so hungry. However, starving people smelled the sausage and started running for her! It was so freaky, gross and violent but it was really interesting too. Anyways, the man in ‘The Road’ also says on page 42 that ‘It was for us and it will be for others and we don’t know who they will be and we can’t hear them coming. It’s not safe.’ Not only that, he keeps on saying things like ‘This was not a safe place. They could be seen from the road now it was day.’(p.5). At first, I couldn’t get what it means. From the earlier descriptions, there was supposed to be nothing but this man had a fear of something. However, from the page 28, ‘In those first years the roads were peopled with refugees.’ and page 46 ‘We’re not the first ones here.’ I was able to remember the striking scene from the ‘Blindness’ and understand that the fear the man had was directed at the other survivors.

As I read this story, I could find many connections between the two books. In some ways these books are very different. However, I found that after I related two books together, it made the book a little bit easier to understand. While reading the next part of the book, I will try to connect it more with other stories so that I can understand better.