Assignment # 2

     Throughout a novel the dramatic occurrences that take place either set up or finalize the work as a whole. Depending on what the author is trying to portray is how the story will be affected by the dramatic occurrences. The Road, a fictional novel written by Cormac McCarthy, utilizes a passionate tone to show how the bond between a father and son affects their lives as they adventure through the barren wasteland. Near the beginning of the novel the man and the young boy scavenge through a store when the man finds one last Coca Cola in a vending machine. "...then titled the can and drank. He sat there thinking about it. It's really good, he said. Yes it is...Let's just sit here. It's because I won't ever get to drink another one, isn't it?"(pg 23-24) This scene symbolizes how much the father cares about his son, by him giving the boy something that they will never see again and wanting the boy to enjoy all of it. As the mad and the boy venture on they are approached by marauders and eventually come in close contact with one of them individually. "He dove and grabbed the boy and rolled and came up holding him against his chest with a knife at his throat...The man fell back instantly and lay with blood bubbling from the hole in his forehead."(pg 66) The man killed the marauder with no hesitation once he threatened the young boy. The man will do anything, as far as kill someone else without thinking twice, as long as it secures the boy's safety. At the end of the novel the man tragically dies, yet the boy doesn't leave his side for multiple days. "...he sat beside him and he was crying and he couldn't stop. He cried for a long time. I'll talk to you every day, he whispered. And I won't forget. No matter what."(pg 286) The boy shows how greatly he cares for his father in this emotional moment by not leaving him and promising to still talk to him. The man and the young boy were all that each other had throughout the entire novel. The bond they shared from their laughs, surviving, and struggling created a close connection between the two that grew stronger as they lived through their journey on the road.