The Road: McCarthy’s writing style

McCarthy has a very unique way of writing that I believe presents his writing in a compelling and interesting way that makes the reader focus more on the story, rather than other aspects of things that could distract a reader. In The Road, McCarthy chooses to have weak grammar, as in his other novels, and have no chapters. While many may think this is a poor way to tell a story, I believe it makes the reader more focused on the story, as well as fits the summary of the novel because the man and the boy are stripped of everything to survive. They are stripped of their past lives, family, food, shelter, and McCarthy doesn’t give them names. I believe McCarthy’s writing techniques in this novel highlights the characters in the novel and the way they fight for their survival and sanity. 

Another aspect of his writing style that is different from other authors, is that he breaks up his paragraphs and pages in a way to single out certain paragraphs and sentences that he wants to highlight to the readers and get them to think about the significance. For example, on page 32 McCarthy divides the page into five parts. He breaks up the text in those different paragraphs to signify different parts of the plot and make the reader think of different parts throughout the story using flashbacks and dreams. One sentence from the page is “Query: How does the never to differ from what never was?” This sentence is highlighted more than any other sentence on the page and makes the reader stop in their tracks and think about what he just said, and how it relates to the story and even the reader’s own reality.