The Road Sections 101-110 Quotes
The Road Sections 101-110 Quotes
How we cite the quotes:
Citations follow this format: (Section.Paragraph)
Quote 1
He [the roadrat] let go of the belt and it fell in the roadway with the gear hanging from it. A canteen. An old canvas army pouch. A leather sheath for a knife. When he looked up the roadrat was holding the knife in his hand. He'd only taken two steps but he was almost between him and the child.
[The Man:] What do you think you're going to do with that?
He didnt answer. He was a big man but he was quick. He dove and grabbed the boy and rolled and came up holding him against his chest with the 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. The man fell back instantly and lay with blood bubbling from the hole in his forehead. (102.54-102.56)
There are plenty of extremely violent set pieces in The Road, and this is one of them. When a roadrat (one of the "bad guys" who steals and murders) tries to take The Boy hostage, The Man responds pretty much like an action hero in a movie would. He drops to his knees, pivots, and fires straight into the roadrat's forehead. McCarthy's description – "blood bubbling from the hole in his forehead" – is quite graphic.
Obviously we're very happy The Man is able to protect The Boy. But you also kind of have to wonder about the guy's ridiculous firearm skills. It's like when your friend has to tell a lie to protect you, but you're a little taken aback by just how good he is at lying – it's a little troubling.
Quote 2
He walked through the woods to where they'd left the cart. It was still lying there but it had been plundered. The few things they hadnt taken scattered in the leaves. Some books and toys belonging to the boy. His old shoes and some rags of clothing. He righted the cart and put the boy's things in it and wheeled it out to the road. Then he went back. There was nothing there. Dried blood dark in the leaves. The boy's knapsack was gone. Coming back he found the bones and the skin piled together with rocks over them. A pool of guts. He pushed at the bones with the toe of his shoe. They looked to have been boiled. No pieces of clothing. Dark was coming on again and it was already very cold and he turned and went out to where he'd left the boy and knelt and put his arms around him and held him. (110.1)
One funny thing about literature is that most authors worth their salt can still write pretty sentences even when they're describing something really ugly. It's almost as if you can't get away from beauty in good literature, no matter how hard you try. Case in point: McCarthy's prose sings here, even though he's describing the remnants of a cannibal feast.
Take a look at this sentence especially: "Dried blood dark in the leaves." Not only is it sharp visually, it's also got nice sound patterns. It's not that this book is particularly guilty of prettifying violence (compared to certain other works of great literature), but it's our job to point these things out.
Quote 3
He came forward, holding his belt by one hand. The holes in it marked the progress of his emaciation and the leather at one side had a lacquered look to it where he was used to stropping the blade of his knife. He stepped down into the roadcut and he looked at the gun and he looked at the boy. Eyes collared in cups of grime and deeply sunk. Like an animal inside a skull looking out the eyeholes. He wore a beard that had been cut square across the bottom with shears and he had a tattoo of a bird on his neck done by someone with an illformed notion of their appearance. He was lean, wiry, rachitic. Dressed in a pair of filthy blue coveralls and a black billcap with the logo of some vanished enterprise embroidered across the front of it. (102.5)
McCarthy, through dialogue between The Man and The Boy, divides most of the characters in the novel into "good guys" and "bad guys." This is one of the "bad guys." Certainly the character has been pushed by hunger to evil ("the holes in [his belt] [. . .] marked the progress of his emaciation"), but he also seems wildly inhuman ("like an animal inside a skull"). And his bird tattoo – a creature who often represents human striving or transcendence – is crudely drawn. We wonder how long it took for him to get this way. Does evil happen all at once in the novel or by degrees?