The RoadRat analysis

 1. What element of foreshadowing is employed in this section and why? - (pg. 62)

This section of the novel employs a sense of hope and innocence to the story of the protagonists journey on the road, 'The day seemed almost warm and they slept in the leaves.' However, hidden beneath the hope about the world may not be completely dead and winter may be coming to an end, McCarthy employs an element of foreshadowment by having the boy play with his truck,  'The boy took his truck from his pack and shaped the roads in the ash with a stick.' From first glance the reader can see a child, finding amusement and some sort of entertainment from a toy truck, which lures them into a false sense of security and hope that things may start looking up. However, McCarthy is foreshadowing the boys truck in relation to the truck that is about to come around the corner in the next section. The truck that appears on the road in the next section, is a complete juxtaposition to the truck the boy was playing with, it symbolizes destruction, cannibalism and all sense of hope and innocence is destroyed. The boy is foreshadowing the noise of the truck, 'they could hear the diesel engine out on the road, running on god knows what', with the innocent statement of, 'He made truck noises.' The boy is seemingly the only good thing left in the world, and even he cannot prevent the course of human destruction for more than one section at a time. McCarthy is bringing to light the importance of the goodness in the boy and the question that will him 'carrying the fire' be enough to save himself let alone the rest of the world.

2. What does the description of the men teach us about them? (characterisation pg.62-63)

 McCarthy introduces the arrival of the new characters in a way that makes the reader believe that the men approaching are not good men, he makes the readers believe that these are 'the bad guys', 'the pistol in his hand..God, he whispered'. McCarthy then goes on to give the reader a description of the way they look and the way they walk which also gives us a negative opinion of the men, 'They came shuffling through the ash, casting their hooded heads from side to side'. McCarthy is always sure to refer to them as 'they', rather than individual people, maybe because McCarthy wants to depict them as having lost humanity and therefore lost individuality.  These men are also made to look like they are being held prisoners by whoever is in the truck which follows them, 'Slouching along with clubs in their hands..Coughing', there seems to be no escape for the men and the destruction they are seeing as they 'cast their hooded heads from side to side' seems to be normal for them. Amongst the destruction and desolate landscape the men see no escape and can imagine no change for the future.
The road rats character is so explicit that is in direct contrast with the implicit character of the man.

Why does McCarthy describe the road rat in such detail?(characterisation pg. 65)

 The road rat is described in such detail to separate the characters of the man and boy from him, so the reader knows the difference between the good guys (being the man and boy) and the 'bad guys' which is the road rat. The name 'road rat' itself is a derogatory way to describe someone and the way he describes his clothes and the tattoo on his neck of a bird which he claims was done by someone, 'with an ill formed notion of their appearance', all are negative descriptions of the road rats appearance.McCarthy makes it clear to describe his belt being too small for him, 'the holes in it marked the progress of his emaciation', which tells the reader that although this man is a 'bad guy' he has no privilege over the 'good guys' in the way of food of survival. McCarthy also makes a comparison to an animal when describing the man, 'eyes collared in cups of grime and deeply sunk. Like an animal inside a skull looking out the eyeholes', this description is, again, making the point of the bad guys, including the road rat, have lost all sense of humanity. The men have lost morality and are digressing back into animals who will eventually waste away on the road to nothing and join the ash which already lies on the roads surface.

What do we learn about the man through his exchanges with the road rat? (pg.68)

 From the previous section where the man displays his extensive medical knowledge, in this section we understand that the man is of many talents and another one is that of some kind of military r army training. The man shows extremely quick reactions and he had a keen eye for description around him. In what seems like seconds, however the audience is never sure because McCarthy gives little sign of time passing, the third person narrator has described the man knowing a detailed list of the things on the road rats belt, whilst being aware that the man had taken exactly two steps forward and was almost between him and the boy. In the following sentence the road rat has reached the boy and is holding a knife to his throat, the man simultaneously has, 'already dropped to the ground and swung with him and leveled the pistol and fired', the man knew what the road rat was going to do and was two steps ahead of him. The description of how the man kills the road rat is extremely accurate, 'leveled the pistol and fired from a two-handed position balanced on both knees at a distance of six feet', which implies the man has done the maneuver before. In the mans previous life he was clearly not an ordinary civilian, he had special skills which included an in depth knowledge of the brain, quick reactions and military skills, indicating a very intelligent man.

"A single round left in the revolver. You will not face the truth. You will not" Who is the man echoing here? how do you believe these words are uttered? 

These words were originally uttered by the woman, the mans wife, before she killed herself. The reason for her killing hersewlf was because there was not enough to kill all three of them and dshe thought he was selfish for wasting a bullet, and the reason he is remembering those words now is because he has just shot the road art, using up another bullet. The fact that there is only one bullet lefts means that if there is a point where they both want/need to die, one of them wont be able to because there wont be enough bullets to kill them both. The man is having conflicting thoughts over the right choice to make, that will benefit both of them in the long run, he is becoming more and more doubtful as to if they actually find the good guys. These words would have been uttered in a sinister voice at the back of his head, by his wife, almost like a guilty conscience.

Why don't the other men chase after the man and the boy following the shooting? (pg. 73-74)

Once the man shot the road rat, they run and expect the other men to chase after them, however that is not the case. When the man returns after what we can only guess as a few days to collect his trolley, the body was gone and only s few bones and guts lay spread on the road. Therefore the reason the men did not chase after the man and boy was because they were so hungry that when they saw the opportunity of food they took it. Cannibalism was the reason behind the man and boy getting away safely, because the other men were more interested in eating the remains of there friend, than chasing after 'food' they might not catch.

It is not until page 77 that the man finally cleans the 'gore' and 'dead mans brains' from the boys face. Why?

On page 77 the man 'washed the boy's face and hair', however the blood and brains had been sat in his hair and on his face for days. The reason for this was because they had to hide and run away from the cannibals in case they found them, they could not afford to spend time washing the boys hair if the men were looking for them.  The importance of washing the boys hair was shown to be lesser than that of feeding and keeping him warm, this shows that McCarthy wanted to highlight the way different societies rank things of importance. The man and boys number one priority was to be fed clothed watered and to find shelter because they were running away from death, and although the boy would not have wanted blood on his face and in his hair, he was able to cope with it because he faced the possibility of starvation and hypothermia on a daily basis. The last line in this section the man says, 'This is my child, I wash a dead man's brains out of his hair. That is my job.', this phrase highlights the mans thoughts as to why he didn't was it out sooner, he is convincing himself that looking after the boy and helping him is his job and he doesn't really want to be doing it, although that is not true. This idea of the man distancing himself from the child is again riveted in everything the man does, he tries to show little affection to the boy so when the time comes when they both have to die, he won't feel guilty if he has to shoot his own son.