Behind Bars

People often wonder how the plays Shakespeare writes are supposed to turn out. One play, for example, would be Hamlet. There have been various interpretations by different people, and they all imagine it in a different way. In This American Life radio show, the program encounters one particular way of understanding the play, and that is by a production staged by prisoners sent to jail for terrible crimes. It’s obvious that these people will have a very particular way of reacting to Hamlet, due to their notoriously violent past. Hamlet seems to be the perfect play for a staging by cell mates, since it constantly deals with the issue of murder. It is very interesting to imagine the famous play, which involves nobility, the graciousness of a ruling court and other such terms of honor, combined with the brutality of cold blooded murderers, sent to prison for the most terrible crimes. This special way of interpreting the play certainly gives a very new perspective on how the audience can view the play.

The main bridge that connects Hamlet with top security jail convicts is the idea of murder. This topic is quite a delicate one, and it raises many different questions. For example, is murder ever justified? Do we have any right to end another person’s life, regardless of who it might be or what he has done?

Hamlet, for example, wonders deeply on this delicate ground. Claudius killed his father, and the ghost of him even entreats him to take revenge. But, then again, is Hamlet in the right to kill Claudius? Wouldn’t killing him turn him into the same monster he was? To kill or not to kill, that is the question.  The answer isn’t as simple as we can imagine. Our society has established its rules in order to create a community were everybody can live safely, without fearing its members. However, society hasn’t been able to eliminate that suppressed, wild feeling of violence that exists in every human being. Humans are after all, animals, and as well as any other living thing, they have savage instincts. Despite society’s effort to suppress these untamed impulses, many humans are indeed, prone to act in that savage way. Revenge, for example is nothing more than a feeling of rage that can drive some to terrible actions in order to get even with someone who might have hurt you.

These savage instincts are the ones responsible for the dreadful crimes some of the actors in this special Hamlet production were sent to prison. It is certainly very fascinating to observe how this performance will bring to the spotlight the bestial side of Hamlet, and how assertive they can make it be. There are so many ways to interpret Hamlet, that over the last 400 years, it's what has kept it alive.

Get Thee To a Shrink

Hamlet's gone crazy! That's what some people would say. However, how can we define crazy? How can we explain Hamlet's complicated state of mind, avoiding being misled by his tricks and devious actions? This problem calls for a well-trained psychiatrist and who better than the father of psychology himself, Sigmund Freud.
Freud begins by analyzing Hamlet's character, comparing his dilemma to the one of Oedipus in the work Oedipus Rex.  According to Freud, both situations deal with realizing a forbidden desire. However, instead of wanting to marry his mother, Hamlet wants to avenge his father.
As the play develops, Hamlet is revealed as incapable of carrying out his task. No matter how much he thinks and reasons with himself, he always arrives to the conclusion that he is incapable of acting against his uncle.
The question is why? Is he a coward, does he not abhor Claudius, or is he scared?
Freud wonders about these questions too, but he further explains what really happens in Hamlet's mind. Indeed, Hamlet is unable to take action, but only in his task. In the play Hamlet has no problem in killing an eavesdropper and sending two courtiers to their deaths in his place. What he cannot do is kill his uncle. Does he like him or something? No, he actually hates his guts. However "the loathing which would drive him on to revenge is replaced in him by self-reproaches, by scruples of conscience, which remind him that he himself is literally no better than the sinner whom he is to punish"(41). Hamlet, in other words, feels guilty. He can't bring himself to murder his uncle, because he then would be just as terrible as Claudius was. To Hamlet, that murder would be just wrong. The evil Claudius is a murderer who killed his father and then married his mother. He is the man who has taken his place and is the one "who shows him the repressed wishes of his own childhood realized"(41). All these factors have come together, forming an impediment in Hamlet's mind, which leads to his consequent "to do or not to do" action.
This, to Freud, is the explanation of Hamlet's weird character. All his crazy behavior and incoherent actions is merely a mask from which behind lies a man in doubt, confused by his own thoughts and unable to decide what to do. This simply proves that Hamlet is the perfect example of a human being. In some way, it might be possible that there is a Hamlet lying behind every person. Every conscience must have its doubts, its expectations, wishes and repressed dreams. It is simply the way of the human mind, and perhaps we all are a little crazy, for our own sake.

No Need for Silly Action

To do or not to do, that is Hamlet's dilemma. Throughout the play we have seen nothing but thinking, meditating, grieving and cursing from a mentally disturbed Hamlet. The only thing lacking is the action.
Friedrich Nietzsche compares Hamlet to the Dionysian man. He describes both them as those who "have once looked truly into the essence of things, they have gained knowledge, and nausea inhibits action"(39). The very theme of action versus inaction is clearly depicted in one of Hamlet's most famous soliloquies.  He quietly meditates and thinks to be or not to be, to act or not to act, to remedy his situation or quietly suffer. Throughout his solemn wonderings Hamlet argues with himself, considering all the options and their opposites. Whether it would be better to suffer the effects of his misfortune or act against the rising obstacles. In the end, after mulling over the possibilities, he concludes with the fact that thinking too much has ruined the possibility of doing anything at all. As Nietzsche finely words it, "knowledge kills action"(39) of man. Hamlet considers actually doing anything impossible when second thoughts come into mind. There is no way anything will be done when "the native hue of resolution is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought"(III.i.92-93).
And thus, people like Hamlet or the Dionysian man have been cursed to a life of doing nothing. It is very hard for them to do anything, as they consider the fact of being asked to correct all the wrongness in the world as ridiculous and even humiliating. It seems that they consider that action is not able to change the eternal nature of things. Perhaps it may sound foolish and even lazy. But this conclusion has not been formulated out of ignorance or even an excuse to avoid work. It is the true and sad knowledge that "an insight into the horrible truth outweighs any motive for action"(39). Dreaming is hopeless when reality breaks in. According to Hamlet, "enterprises of great pitch and moment, with this regard their currents turn awry, and lose the name of action"(III.i.94-96).
For this, Hamlet will remain as inactive as he has been throughout the play. It may be easy to dream, to imagine and to fantasize over great projects and clever actions that could possibly improve the situation he has been forced to live through. However, Hamlet knows that there is little chance that any of those dreams will ever be able to give any product. The knowledge that there is so much more behind wishful thinking and hopeful daydreaming has dragged him deep down to earth, practically helpless by his pessimistic thoughts.
When it comes to consider whether to be or not to be for Hamlet and the Dionysian man, it seems that the inaction will be the very essence of their action.

A Play Called Hamlet

Shakespeare has written a multitude of famous plays, such as Macbeth, Much Ado About Nothing, Twelfth Night and other celebrated masterpieces. However, there is none other that can compare itself to Hamlet, Shakespeare's unbeatable champion.

Before getting to know the play better, many begin to wonder about the factors that make it such an incredible piece. According to A.C Bradley, the main ingredient to the play's great taste is the main character, Hamlet himself. Not for nothing did Shakespeare decide to honor him with the title of his story. It is Hamlet the one who makes the play the extraordinary artwork the play managed to become.

Bradley declares that without Hamlet "the remaining characters could not yield a Shakespearean tragedy at all"(Bradley, 57). In my opinion, this observation is correct, and I think that it is Hamlet the one who makes this story something more than a typical struggle for power within a royal family.

Hamlet is the central character, standing alone surrounded by the rest of the cast members. As opposed to other Shakespeare plays like Macbeth or Othello, Hamlet has no accompanying figure of similar importance to him. There is no accomplice like Lady Macbeth, or plotting traitor like Iago that share comparing importance in the narrative. Everything happens because of Hamlet, and everyone seems to act in accordance to Hamlet's scheme.

Up to Act II Scene II, the turn of events has been occurring as an effect of Hamlet's actions. Determined to avenge the murder of his father, Hamlet has taken a rather peculiar but brilliant attitude in the presence of the others. From the moment he talks to his "father's ghost" and discovered the truth about his death, Hamlet has devised a plan to get back at Claudius. It's still not certain how he will accomplish this difficult task, but it seems that part of his plot is to feign insanity, and make sure to make it apparent to his mother and uncle. I still wonder how the rest of his plan will unfold, but Hamlet's character is making of this play and argument to prove Shakespeare's genius.

If you think about it, without a character as complex and developed as Hamlet, the rest of the story would have no particular importance. Bradley himself confesses that without Hamlet, he would have considered it to be a play similar to "those early tragedies of blood and horror"(Bradley, 57). Practically primitive and hardly considered worth being called a child of Shakespeare. Thanks to Hamlet's presence, the play has gained the fame and prestige it has deservedly acquired. After all, only Shakespeare can create a character so fantastic that it is able to alter the course of the entire play.

Playing Hopscotch

After reading The Road, I realized I was struck by McCarthy's style throughout the novel. A curious fact is that not once did he use semicolons or quotation marks. According to him, this doesn't actually mean anything. He just wanted to keep his novel simple, flowing and with no punctuation stumbling this process.

Fair enough, but I'm not really sure if they don't mean anything. The whole novel is an allegory, which means that every single word that he puts (or doesn't put) is there for a reason. Everything is supposed to mean something. This is why it's hard for me to believe that he decided to omit regular rules, like quotation marks from his novel.

There is a novel called Hopscotch (Rayuela) by Julio Cortázar, and it too has a very particular style in writing. For starters, the book isn't even arranged in chronological (or even logical) order. The book begins in chapter 73, and then takes you back to chapter 1. Not strange enough? It also includes an overwhelming amount of spelling mistakes, made on purpose. There is a complete chapter made up of only invented words. In addition to this, most of the text throughout the novel has a minimum of periods, colons, semi-colons, etc. There are huge paragraphs, flowing freely by the use of comas alone.

Of Course, all of it has a special function. Cortazar's mission was to create the perfect "anti-novel". It follows the surreal movement of the period, and throughout the novel there are constant references to surrealism, including discussions about artists from this group like Mondrian and Klee. He also relates his attempt to break all boundaries with jazz, the structure less genre of music.

The composition of this novel is based on breaking the standard, destroying literature itself to liberate it from its chains. Cortazar frequently describes words as "black bitches", since they completely ruin the meaning of what they describe. To eradicate this problem, Cortazar invents his own words, which make a better delivery of the message he wants to express.

The endless paragraphs that flow uninterrupted for pages are another ally in Cortazar’s master plan. However, he does this in a way in which readers barely notice, and before they know it, they have read a whole chapter without encountering a single period. The way the words move freely resemble the chain of thoughts that go through a person's head, never stopping, smoothly connected and with no need for punctuation.

This bizarre structuring is completely relevant to the story. Every single wrong "h" he includes, every random jump of chapter and every "sbornia" he writes have a direct significance in the story. This utter blasphemy towards literature has transformed Hopscotch into one of the greatest works of art ever written.

Who knows if McCarthy didn't intentionally arrange his novel the way he did. It obviously isn't as blatant as Cortazar’s, but I still believe there is a level of relevance in the way he omitted such traditional marks of punctuation in the same way he omitted the sun. The lack of correct punctuation could be interpreted as the lack of correct values among humans, which have forsaken all common rules that used to shape society. It could also be a reflection on what is missing in the world they live in, like nature, or even seasons. Despite McCarthy's claims that the lack of correct punctuation doesn't mean anything, I can see how anyone can interpret it as pertinent. I probably wouldn't have thought so if I hadn't been reading Hopscotch at the same time. Perhaps only I understand what I am trying to say. It’s true that words aren’t perfectly designed to express our thoughts effectively, and it may be possible that the real comprehension of thoughts is reserved for each individual. Your mind may be the only place on Earth left that is exclusively yours. It’s very fortunate that it is so.

The End

All you could wait for was death. Hope had finally dried out and there was nothing that could save them now. The man was too weak to keep going and there was nothing left for him but the end. He had promised to never leave his son alone, but when the moment finally came, he wasn’t able to stay with him. Regardless of always having planned to leave this world together, he couldn’t bring himself to shoot him and end it all. He knew that the boy still had a future ahead of him. He knew he would be able to survive, and this gave him reason to let him live on. He would always be with him, no matter what, but he had to keep on living. It’s the end of the man, but the kid will move on and carry the fire, in hopes of finding the good guys, and possibly find a better world.

Cormac McCarthy’s novel had a great impact on me as a reader. Not only did it make me realize how dependant our survival is of nature, but the lengths at which kindness, sacrifice and love are able to stretch. Throughout the pair’s journey, we constantly see the sacrifice of the man for his son to his last breath. We can see the way the child has preserved values like compassion from being wiped from the face of that heartless world. Transcending through hunger, cold, fear and despair, the bond of love that kept them together helped them complete their voyage through the decadence of life and the last coughing breaths of Mother Nature, slowly fading under the cover of ashes.

According to McCarthy, his inspiration to writing this novel came from a vision he had of a city, imagining it in one hundred years burning in fire, and this novel seem to be the image of what he imagined would come after. The fact that there would be continuation after the apocalypses shows that even to him, not everything will be lost.

This novel was a mixture of the crude and savage with the warm and tender. Cormac’s novel proves that even in the most arduous situations, there is always a little light of hope, lying in the noble heart of a young boy, born from the ashes and carrying the fire that will save humans from their imminent death. What this child represents is the assurance that even when everything points towards the final end, there will always be hope, and hope is all that man needs to survive.

Desperate

Time passes on and there is still no sign of improving circumstances for the man and his kid. All they have found on the abandoned ships are practically useless. They found a flare gun, a very ironic object to find. On regular conditions, a flare gun would have been a priceless object. They would have been able to signal someone to come to their rescue and finally end the nightmare. However, in this situation, who can you call for, the good guys, God?  They are completely alone, forsaken by anyone able to help them. There is nothing they can do and no one they can call to. All they can do is work it out unaided.

Desperation is beginning to crawl into the man as things begin to get ugly. Not only is his cough getting worse, but his son gets sick, potentially threatening his life. The feeling of complete impotence drives the man to despair, “sobbing in rage” (250) for his weak child. Fortunately he gets better, but then they encounter an even greater problem. Someone had stolen their food cart. This cart held all their food, their clothing and their shelter, and just like that it was gone. This definitely aroused the most savage and primitive instincts in the man. In his brain, all that existed was the thought “retrieve the cart at all costs”. They found the thief, and this planted one of the toughest moments between the man and his son. The man was engulfed by a sudden surge of savageness. Brutal feelings of anger and revenge completely took over his mind, and despite the kid’s desperate pleas, he pitilessly left the thief naked in the freezing cold. This he did out of utter anger and thirst for vengeance. They had retrieved their cart and the thief posed no further threat. He just needed to make the thief suffer the way he’d done to them.

The kid on the other hand is completely horrified at his father’s actions. He implored mercy for the thief, and despite the thief’s wrongdoings, he didn’t want him to die. After finally convincing his father, they walk back to give him his clothes back, but to no avail. Regardless of the man’s apologies, there is no hiding the tone of disappointment when he judgingly tells him, “But we did kill him" (260). 

There Must Be Something

After walking on the road for what seems like eternity, the man and his son have finally reached the sea. It turns out to be a big disappointment for everybody. I don't know what the man expected to find there, but it's definitely less than what I had hoped for. I had been expecting the sea to be somewhat of a salvation for the miserable couple. I imagined that this place would be warm and lively. I even began to imagine that there would be people living along the coast, perhaps exempted from the horror that had devoured the continent.
It's too sad that this wasn't meant to be. The ocean was also victim of whatever catastrophe plagued the world. We can share the kid's frustration when he realizes that it had lost its blue hue. I had been hoping that the ocean, a typical symbol of power and mystery, would have survived the apocalypse. It seems that not even the greatest and most powerful feature of nature known in our planet was able to shake off the ashes and now it lies “bleak…Cold. Desolate. Birdless” (215).
Now that there is nowhere else to go, what are they going to do? Should they keep moving or is their journey over? This reminded me of a dream the little boy once had about a toy penguin. It moved and flapped its flippers even though nobody had wound it up. Like the penguin, the man and his child are living on for no reason. Now that they have reached the sea, there is really nothing that drives them forward, but they insist on staying alive, waddling on with no winding.
Despite the adversities they have to affront, I think that there is still hope for the man and his son. The fact that they survived this terrible catastrophe and that they are still alive is proof that they aren't doomed. Most signs of life are gone from the planet, but they have been able to conserve theirs. Is it wrong to believe that there are other good guys out there, surviving the way they did? Who knows if at the other side of the ocean "there's a father and his little boy and they're sitting on the beach"(216). It's even possible that at the depths of the ocean there could still be life. Maybe "great squid propelling themselves," or “another man ...with another child on the dead grey sand...lost to the same indifferent sun"(219).
If all of this were to be true, then there’s a possibility of rebuilding civilization. Of course it won't be like it used to be, but at least it would be a place in which the kid will be able to grow, and life on Earth can be restored.
For now, all that is left to do is to remain living, and perhaps, eventually they will find other good guys with whom they can share their fire with. As long as they are both breathing, there is still hope.

Moving Forward

Throughout the book, the man and his son have been walking down the road, searching for food and hiding from the cannibals. However, they are not just wandering erratically through the ashes. They are heading south in hopes of reaching the coast. But what will they find there? How different is the coast to the place they’re in now? From what I have read so far, everything is covered in ash, barren, desolate and dead. Could the ocean have survived whatever destroyed the land? Is it conceivable to think that there could be anything on the coast that could save them? Unfortunately, they have no other choice but to go and hope for the best.

The path towards the coast, however, is not easy or reasonable in any way. The man claims it will only take two weeks or three, but there are many obstacles that they must overcome in order to get there. First of all, the man seems to be sick. If he gets too weak, they won't be able to move anymore. His son fears the worst, and his nightmares prove that he knows his father might die. One night he wakes up crying and as the man consoles him, he says, "I was crying. But you didn't wake up...in the dream"(183). If the man dies, will the son survive? Most likely, he won’t and the man understands the simplicity of this situation. He must remain living to protect his son. He must sacrifice entirely to the survival of his child, because to him, he is the only hope left of civilization, and the only reason he has decided to stay alive.
Another problem they have had to deal with throughout the novel is the threat of the cannibals. It seems that they are getting more savage and beastly as they run out of food. They have become so frantic that they have reached the extreme of eating a newborn child. The human infant, roasted on the coals of a dead fire, represents the death of humanity and the total loss of principles. Any hope that civilization would rise out of the ashes lay charred and defiled by savageness. This makes it even more essential for the man to keep himself and his son alive. They are clearly one of the last "good guys", and it is up to them to keep humanity from sinking hopelessly into the dark depths of brutality.

 For this reason, they must get to the coast somehow. The coast symbolizes hope and survival. The man and his son walk towards it as their only possibility of salvation. There's nothing that ensures that they’ll find something, but the fact of having a goal is what keeps them moving on. Without this goal of reaching the coast, they might just as well have stayed in the bunker forever until the supplies ran out or the “bad guys” found them. They have their little light shining through the fog, giving them one last reason to stay alive.

This symbol can be related to the green light mentioned in The Great Gatsby. It would stimulate Jay Gatsby to try harder, leading him forward, despite there being no guarantee that he would indeed achieve it. The ability to fight blindly for a dream, regardless of all odds is what relates Gatsby to the man and his son.  Hopefully, they won't have Gatsby's bad luck, and theirs will lead them towards salvation, and the possibility of salvaging what’s left of civilization. 

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Vivid Words

The Road continues its story with the man and the son having to move  from the miracle bunker in order to avoid being found by the cannibals. They keep walking on the road, and eventually they find unexpected company. Described with McCarthy's words, they found "an old man, small and bent," who carried, "an old army rucksack with a blanket roll tied across the top of it and he tapped along with a peeled stick for a cane."(p.161). The description of this man lead me to realize how vivid the image had appeared in my mind.

Throughout the novel, McCarthy has a special touch in description. Of course, this is necessary in a novel were the reader needs a detailed description of the world that surrounds the characters in order to fully understand their situation. It's hard for readers to imagine a barren world of ash and debris, as they comfortably sit on a plump couch reading at the warmth of a glowing sunset with a tranquil world of trees and playing children displayed right out their window.

McCarthy's grim descriptions of his world are able to rip the unwary reader from his snug environment, and thrust him into this terrible wasteland of hunger and sorrow. His words are able to send chills through the reader’s skin when merciless rain drives the desperate couple to search for shelter in, "houses or barns or under the bank of a roadside ditch with the blankets pulled over their heads and the noon sky black as the cellars of hell."(p.177). He can also spread the feeling of despair or horror, for example, when the kid realizes with a sudden void in his stomach that he left the gas valve open.
Thanks to McCarthy's vocabulary, it's possible to comprehend the true profundity of the circumstances in the novel, and by fully connecting to the story, the reader can experience it as an active spectator, rather than a mere observer.

A Fortunate Change of Events

As the man and his son walk through the desolate land, it seems that they are running out of time. He was beginning to think that they weren't going to make it, and with good arguments. They hadn't eaten in days, they had no clothes and barely enough supplies to make a fire and there were cannibals hunting for their flesh. The man was desperately,” beginning to think that death was finally upon them and that they should find some place to hide where they would not be found."(p.129). When he was finally going to give up, there was a sudden turn of events hidden behind a buried door. Despite the kid’s fear, the man gets into an underground bunker were he literally finds “everything."(p.139). The man and the kid can't believe their eyes at the miracle they were seeing. "Crate upon crate of canned goods. Tomatoes, peaches, beans, apricots. Canned hams. Corned beef."(p.138). The author keeps describing the amount of goods that seem unreal even to the readers. 
As they begin to sort out through all this amazing stuff, it's surprising to see that the kid feels guilty. This place was set by someone who thought they might need it some day, but they had obviously died before they got to use it. He's not sure whether it’s okay to take it, and he thanks them with the moving words:
"Dear people, thank you for all this food and stuff. We know that you saved it for yourself and if you were here we wouldn't eat it no matter how hungry we were and we're sorry that you didn't get to eat it and we hope that you're safe in heaven with God."(p.146)
It's amazing to see how the kid feels about his moral values. Despite the fact that he had been close to death, he wouldn't have eaten if it had been someone else's. It seems like he doesn't want to turn into a bad guy, and his moral strength is stronger than his impulse. This feeling is almost absurd, considering the harsh conditions he has had to endure along with his father. However, this is what marks the difference between them and the cannibals. The child must understand at some level that they are the ones who keep civilization alive, protecting it from the savage ways of the bad guys, and preserving the morals of kindness, respect and perseverance. This fortunate encounter was a way to prove that they are still the guardians of civilization. They are still the ones who carry the fire.

Sacrifice

This novel gets tougher and more nightmarish as the pages turn. The incident at the house was until now the most horrible scene that the book has presented.
Starving and desperate for food, the man leads the way to a seemingly abandoned house in hopes of finding anything edible. Despite the kid's pleas, the man forces a locked door open, and soon he regrets doing so as he encounters a horde of people sitting naked in the dark basement, probably next in line to be eaten by the "bad guys". The cannibals see them, and as the man and his son run for dear life, a new and terrible situation is set on the table. "Take it” said the man giving the revolver to his son. "If they find you, you are going to have to do it. Do you understand? You know how to do it."(p. 113). The horror of asking his own son to kill himself is just too terrible to imagine. How savage and inhumane has the world become in order to render self-destruction as a better alternative than being caught by the cannibals.
I can't help but wonder how the man and his son have managed to preserve the desire to keep living in such an inhospitable world. Is there any hope for them at all? Is there any reason for them to keep enduring such a tortuous existence? The mother obviously decided she wasn’t willing to withstand it. Why has the man decided that it's worth maintaining him and his son alive? So far, their condition is so depressing, bleak and unfavorable that I can't help but look at their future pessimistically. The prospect of a better future is still covered by the falling snow and ashes.

A Grave Encounter

Until now, the story had mentioned no specific characters other than the man and his son. The mother apparently committed suicide, leaving him forever with their child.

Now, a new presence has appeared in the story, and it's the men in the diesel truck. These are the men the man has been hiding from all this time. They are obviously dangerous and should be avoided at all costs. Unfortunately, one of them runs into their hiding place, and after he tries to kill the son, the man is forced to sacrifice one of his bullets on him. The kid, filled with the man's brains, is terribly shocked at this, and he begins to wonder. Worried, he asks his father, “Are we still the good guys?"(p.77).
This question had stunning effects on me. How is a father supposed to explain to a child the complexity of the situation? The idea of murder is a very delicate theme to discuss with a child. However, there is a definite justification to the circumstances. The man he killed was probably a murderer himself and was definitely going to kill them both. Judging by the fact that the man was so desperate to avoid them must mean that they were a threat to their survival. He had asked the man what they were eating, and when he responded, "whatever we can find"(p.65) he never specified what it was. It wouldn't be surprising that the reason this men are so dangerous is that they have become cannibals. Hunger can drive men to the limits, and in order to survive, they might have turned to this twisted solution for survival. The author implies this when the man goes back to the place were "he found the bones and the skin piled together with rocks over them. He pushed at the bones with the toe of his shoe. They looked to have been boiled."(p.71).
It seems that the man had a good reason to kill the man, and the murder was necessary. Despite the thought that only God has the right to decide who lives or dies, there seems to be little room for argument in this grotesque situation.
The truth is that in this savage and ruined world, there is no right or wrong. There is just survival.

Who's Anybody?

As I read through the dark pages of this heartbreaking book, I can't help but make questions about the characters' current situation. First of all, what has happened to the world that McCarthy is describing? There are only faint remains of a past civilization hidden under ashes and ruins. The only strong leftovers from it are the roads. Just as McCarthy describes it:

"...they used to belong to states. What used to be called states?

But there's not any more states?
No
What happened to them?
I don’t know exactly. That's a good question.
But the roads are still there."(p.43)
The roads here lie as a testament of the past. We can't know for sure what it was but this piece of evidence assures its previous existence. However, we can't find a reason yet for the sudden disappearance of it. What has left this poor land in ruins? How long ago was it and why are there survivors?
Apparently, there are other people roaming the land like the man and his kid. It seems, though, that they pose danger to them, since the man is always alert and avoiding any encounters at all cost. Apparently in this world, "every man for himself" seems to be the dominant rule. We can see in one of the passages as the son asks his father:

"What's wrong with the man?

He's been struck by lightning. Cant we help him? Papa?
No. We can't help him...There's nothing to be done for him."(p.50)
Here we have seen how harsh the man has become. Surviving is already hard, as he is in charge of their own survival, so helping the man, regardless of how dire his condition seems, is not an option in his mind.

There are still many more questions that haven't been answered yet. The kid's mother remains a dark enigma, which has been appearing frequently during the man's dreams and memories. The matter of death and the insinuation that the mother abandoned the man and her child by committing suicide has already been mentioned, but real events are still well hidden under a dark mist of mystery. Hopefully, the fog will slowly lift and we will see the reason behind the desert of ash and grey and the man's motivation to remain living.

The Last Coke of the Desert

The Road by Cormac McCarthy has begun with a chilling story of a man with his son, fighting to survive in a barren land destroyed by a yet unknown catastrophe. The cold is becoming unbearable and it seems that the only chance of survival rests in moving South.
McCarthy is able to transmit the obscurity of this situation with very direct and blunt prose, and lets his readers process the gravity of the situation through short but deeply significant incidents. A great example of his technique is the encounter with the unexpected Coca Cola can.
While walking through a run-down supermarket, the man and his son stumble upon a soft drink machine and manage to retrieve a small can of Coke. The man gives it to his son, and despite the son's efforts to share it with him, the man firmly declines. McCarthy ends this touching scene with the child's words,
"It's because I won't ever get to drink another one, isn't it?"(p.24)
It is revealed that the son is completely aware of how precarious their situation is and this can only emphasize the difficulties he has suffered along his father. McCarthy uses this technique to stress the horror and loss of innocence that the kid is going through. The blissful state of ignorance and carelessness which people were meant to enjoy during that beautiful period of life is snatched away from him and replaced with a savage fight for survival, roaming a barren land in hopes of finding food or warm clothing. It is a completely devastating scene.

Skeleton

Coming Through Slaughter by Michael Ondaatje is a novel that describes the last year of sanity of Buddy Bolden, the famous jazz player. Ondaajte has built this novel in a particular stucture in order to fully percieve the events ocurred through the perspective of many characters.
Ondaajte frequently switches the narrator, moving from an omiscient narrator to first person, and from Buddy Bolden's perspective to other characters like Webb the cop. The structure of this novel can be seen in this diagram, centering all points of view around the main event, the day Buddy Bolden went crazy.

An Enigmatic Buddy Part II

From the previous blog post, we obtained an impression of Buddy Bolden as an unethical drinker, but caring father. In general, he appeared to be a nice and harmless fellow. However, further on in the novel, we begin to discover a new side of him that was definitely unexpected. A perfect example lies in his sudden outbursts of rage that lead him to hurt other people around him. One of these situations happened with Robin, and he certainly regretted it. As Ondaatje writes:
“In the late afternoon I walk back along the shore to the small house and it is against me dark and shaded. Robin and her friends. I am full of the white privacy. Collisions around me. Eyes clogged with people. Yesterday Robin in the midst of an argument flicked some cream on my face. Without thinking I jumped up grabbing the first thing, a jug full of milk, and threw it all over her. She stood by the kitchen door half laughing half crying at what I had done. She stood there frozen in a hunch she took on as she saw the milk coming at her. Milk all over her soft lost beautiful brown face. I stood watching her, the lip of the jug dribbling the rest onto the floor.” (Ondaatje, p. 68)

This passage shows a side of Bolden that seems very wild and a little bestial. It is implied that being around Robin’s friends makes him uncomfortable, which would let readers infer that there is a side of him that is very reserved and a little antisocial. His reaction during a heated moment of argument was to lunge at a harmless and helpless woman with a jug of milk. Readers can assume that this thoughtless reaction is not strange in him, due to the fact that Ondaatje has provided other examples of his reactive behavior throughout the narrative. Hence, we can deduce that Buddy has an uncontrollable temper that can be unleashed in sudden spurts of violence that won’t spare relatives or loved ones. However, Buddy also presents a calmer side that includes regret and consideration for other’s feelings. This is further proved in the continuation of the passage, where he excuses himself, and even pursues Robin’s forgiveness. As we can see, Buddy's personality is composed of many levels that are not only conflicting, but could also be the reason behind his terminal insanity.

An Enigmatic Buddy Part I

Coming Through Slaughter by Michael Ondaatje is a particular novel about Buddy Bolden, one of the pioneers of jazz music. This novel orbits around his character, constantly providing clues to discovering who Buddy Bolden was really.
Many characteristics of Bolden are described in the following passage:
"It was a financial tragedy that sleep sobered Bolden up completely, that his mind on waking was clear as an empty road and he began to casually drink again although never hard now for he played in the evenings. He slept from 4 to 8. His day had begun at 7 when he walked the kids a mile to school buying them breakfast along the way at the fruit stands. A half hour's walk and another 30 minutes for them to sit on the embankment and eat a huge meal of fruit. He taught them all he was thinking of or had heard, all he knew at the moment, treating them as adults, joking and teasing them with tall tales which they learned to sift down to the real. He gave himself completely to them during the walk, no barriers as they walked down the washed empty streets one on either side, their thin cool hands each holding a finger of his. Eventually they knew the politics of the street better than their teachers and he in turn learned the new street songs from them. By 8 they were at school and he took a bus back to Canal, then walked towards first, greeting everybody on his way to the shop."(p.13)

A reader can infer that Buddy is an alcoholic, and it is implied that his body is so used to the alcohol, that it can absorb it in four hours. However, one can assume that he doesn't drink at night because he needs to be relatively sober to be playing his music.
It seems very important for him to walk the kids (presumably his children) a whole mile to school. He talks to them about everything he is thinking, which portrays a very meaningful relationship between him and his kids. He shows a very paternal and caring attitude with them, buying them breakfast and taking them to school, which is something that would be typically done by a mother. The fact that they have to buy breakfast implies that no one will cook it for them. This would mean that their mother is not fulfilling her job as a maternal figure, and therefore leaves this part to Buddy. Bolden also displays a very friendly and trusting personality with his children. The way he acts with them makes him look more like a friend than a father, swapping his duty of teaching values to teaching jokes and street politics. In turn, he also learns from his children, which could make readers infer that he has a childish side too.
Buddy takes the bus back to Canal, which suggests that walking to school isn't absolutely necessary. This could mean that they can't afford three bus ride tickets plus going back, or Buddy wants to spend more time with his children.
He greets everybody on his way back to the shop, which could mean that he is very friendly and is known by everybody in Canal.
This is the first image that Ondaatje offers of this mysterious character. Later on, other descriptions of Buddy’s character will let us see a different side of him.

Just a Little Farther

The Great Gatsby by Scott Fitzgerald is one of the most important American novels, denominated as a great classic of American literature. One of the highlights of this novel is its use of symbolism, key in conveying the author's message to his readers.

This novel is narrated in order to describe the speeding world of the "The Roaring Twenties" that occurred in America during that period.

One of the most outstanding symbols in the story is the green light at the end of East Egg's dock. It is barely visible from Gatsby's mansion, and it stands next to the Buchanan's house, right were Daisy lives.

This small green light that flashes dimly in the night could represent Gatsby's desperate dream of winning Daisy back. Back when he was a soldier in World War I, Daisy had promised she would marry him. However, the prospect of having a secure future of wealth and comfort with Tom Buchanan led her to break her promise and marry him instead. Gatsby's strong desire to regain her love led him to dedicate his whole life to do so. He got involved the bootlegging of alcohol business and became very rich. He bought a mansion in West Egg, in which not only did he hold opulent parties of wealth and luxury, but he could also see this little green light sparkling in the distance. He would stand in his lawn at night and embrace it as a little beacon of hope, wishing that someday he would win his beloved Daisy back.

Sadly, the amount of effort he spent in the accomplishment of his goal would never be enough. The green light would remain distant and out of reach be out of reach as Daisy sunk in the shallowness of the wealthy and superficial society in which America had driven into. Nick realizes this as he pondered:
"He had come a long way to this blue lawn and his dream must have seemed so close that he could hardly fail to grasp it. He did not know that it was already behind him."(p. 193).
 Not only does the green light represent Gatsby's unattainable dream of winning Daisy back, but it also represents the unattainable American dream that so many people experienced during that age. The yearn to live the sweet life of parties and extravagance led many people to dedicate their lives to it, regardless of what it demanded, or what they left behind along the way. As the American society sailed towards this faint light shining in the distance, the values of its people were regrettably lost.
This conclusion is well defined at the ending of the novel, with Nick's final thought that read:

"Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgastic future that year by year recedes before us. It eluded us then, but that’s no matter—tomorrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther. . . . And then one fine morning—
So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past."(p.193).