Author: jschwartz20

In both novels No Country for Old Men and The Road, McCarthy chooses incredibly unique ways on how he tells the story, and the personalities of each character. Time is something McCarthy alters in a different way to compel his readers and make the story more interesting. With No Country for Old Men, the story is told by Ed Tom Bell, the county sheriff, who reminisces how justice was different in the past, and how he challenges with catching the advanced “new criminal” Chigurh. Ed Tom Bell fights with the reality that he doesn’t have the means to catch this criminal, because Chigurh is into new crimes and thinking that Ed Tom Bell has never had to deal with before. The story is told in a unique way with many flashbacks and going back and forth between different past, present, future times. 

As with The Road, McCarthy also chooses to alter time in a different way while writing this story. The father and son are stuck in a post-apocalyptic world when they still have their memories of before this ever happened. Time is very much slowed down in this story to make it seem as the two main characters are really struggling with keeping their humanity and something to live for. And the father often reminisces about past times with his wife, and past times him as a child when everything was different. He remembers his old house, and his father, which are all gone now, and he is only left with his son. 

Both novels have events that stand out immensely. In No Country for Old Men, it is the coin toss. Chigurh walks into the gas station and has a talk with the owner of the store. He is very intimidating and dark in a way. He asks the owner to pick heads or tails in a coin toss, which would ultimately determine if Chigurh would kill him or not. Chigurh strongly believes in fate and that whatever the coin landed on was what the owner deserved and what was destined to be, because the owner had gotten to this point. This point in the story really shows who Chigurh is as a criminal and the way he thinks about life and how he has chosen to live it. McCarthy made this scene to make the readers question what they believe in, and how they are going to live their life. 

In The Road, the event that stands out the most, in my opinion, is when the father is about to die and tells the boy to “carry the fire.” The father wants the boy to take everything he learned from his father, and carry that with him throughout the rest of his life, and to spread good wherever he goes. McCarthy also wrote this part of the novel to make the readers stop and think about what they are spreading out into the world, and what they are living for.

McCarthy has such rich and deeper meanings in his novels that can be depicted throughout both novels. He tells the novels in such an easy, but complex way that it is so easy to feel as if you yourself are in the novel. He chooses unique writing styles to make his novels his own. In The Road, it is not having any chapters, and just letting the novel flow in its own way, and for the readers to not be interrupted with a number on the next page. In No Country for Old Men, it was the soliloquies. The soliloquies were a unique way to follow Ed Tom Bell and his life. It broke down his different beliefs of how the justice system has changed, and how he doesn’t think he is skilled enough to catch Chigurh. It was almost like a mini journal of Ed Tom Bells’ thoughts, and how he felt as a sheriff. 

In conclusion, McCarthy uses his words in a way that is unique from any other author. He takes real-life problems or themes people deal with every day and make them into story plots and characters. McCarthy isn’t afraid to write in a different way and go out of the writing norm. Which I believe makes him a great American author.

I believe Steinbeck’s techniques in The Grapes of Wrath, are similar to other authors and he doesn’t have many unique or different ways of telling his stories. I do believe he is good at presenting his words in a way that people can follow along and picture each scene and person in their head, but I believe is also like a lot of other authors. I believe he makes people question the meaning of life, and when we are thrown with challenges how we will rise above them, or not. One of the most outstanding quotes in the novel is “There ain’t no sin and there ain’t no virtue. There’s just stuff people do.” Which is a sentence that can be taken in two ways. Either the reader agrees with Steinbeck’s words, and that people have their own choice of how to live their lives, and that there is no defining word of right or wrong, it is just how people react to certain situations. Or there are the people that believe there is something after this life, and sin and virtue are different choices that people can make. That there is a certain code that most humans live by and that there are consequences for people’s actions and life is more than “just stuff people do.” 

Steinbeck titled the novel “The Grapes of Wrath” for more than one reason. The definition of it is an unjust or oppressive situation, that may inflame desire for vengeance. I believe Steinbeck used this title to describe the Dust Bowl era, and how challenging it was for families, but he also used this title for a deeper meaning. He used this title with the hope that readers can be content with the fact that we really don’t know why bad things happen, good things happen, and we don’t really know why we are on this earth. So not knowing, can be an uncomfortable, or unjust situation, but it is how we react to those situations that matter, which is more than just sin or virtue. 

Going into the different writing techniques Steinbeck uses, the way he transfers the chapters between the Joad’s family and the farmers and describing the environment of the Dust Bowl, I find to be interesting. Although it is a little harder to understand and keep track of what is happening throughout the novel with the switches back and forth, this unique way of telling the story I find compelling. I also like how much Jim Casy has a part in the Joad chapters and how Tom Joad isn’t the only the main focus, and not the only character trying to find themselves or their purpose. I do wish that Steinbeck would have gone into more detail or had some chapters dedicated to the younger siblings, and following them through their thoughts and journeys and seeing the other characters through their eyes. 

The ending of the novel is definitely different, which I believe is needed in a novel, especially a “Great American Novel.”  Although I don’t know if I would have used this for an ending, Steinbeck really highlights the humanity part of our world, and how in the end we are all just children. We may have responsibilities, bills to pay, jobs, people to look after, experiences we have gone through, but in the end, we all need each other to live, and we are all children deep down that make mistakes and are never perfect. 

So in conclusion, I believe the Grapes of Wrath, is indeed a “Great American Novel” and I think it brings so many deeper meanings and aspects together to make the reader interpret and truly think about on a deeper level. Steinbeck uses many characters in the story, he breaks up his chapters in unique and different ways, he has a very interesting ending of the novel, and he presents his writing in a professional, but real and easy to understand way. Also, he took a real part of history and turned it into a fascinating and complex story with problems not only of the Dust Bowl, but with characters finding their identity, community purpose, love, and sense of humanity which I believe are all core themes we need in our lives. 

With the conclusion of The Road, there are many unknown factors that McCarthy leaves the readers to think about and analyze. “Carrying the fire” was an often phrase the man used when talking to the boy. When the man dies, the boy is left to “carry the fire” which in my opinion I believe it means to carry on the good that is left in the world. The man is telling the boy to be a good person, and carry on the good memories and history the man taught him. Also with the ending of the novel switching to talk about brook trout and valleys, I believe it is the man’s last way of “carrying the fire” because I believe the last paragraph of the novel is the man’s thoughts and remembrances of life before the apocalypse. This ending concludes the novel almost like a dream. The whole novel was also told like a dream, in a slow and specific way but distant, and giving the readers the ability to remember certain things, but not all. 

With dreams being the only way for the man and the boy to escape their reality, it highlighted the importance of memories and experiences. It also alters our sense of reality, as the whole novel itself was told like a dream. In one of the man’s dreams with his wife on the beach, in that moment he thought to himself that “If he were God he would have made the world just so and no different.” which shows he had an appreciation of life, and I think that was one of McCarthy’s most important messages throughout the novel. Also, I believe that McCarthy wanted the readers to stop and think about what is really real in our lives, and what the purpose of life even is, or if in fact, we are living in some kind of dream. 

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. 

The Road by McCarthy has a prominent theme and underlying issue of sense of reality. So far throughout the beginning of the novel, the man and the boy wander through this space of earth, with memories and emotions from before this apocalyptic world. They travel to find food and shelter in an environment of gray snow, dark sky, and ash on the wind. McCarthy illustrates their loneliness and fight to keep their sanity, knowing that they had a normal, better life before all of this happened. 

“The snow had stopped and it was so quiet they could all but hear their hearts.” (page 35) When I think of being able to hear my own heart, I think of running a cross country race, or in the middle of a basketball game with seconds on the clock and the game is tied. In these moments, life or reality is altered. Time feels slowed down and it seems like you have a lot of more time to think. There is a sense of independence in these times, and quietness, but these times don’t last forever. In The Road, there is the same feeling of time being slowed and a sense of independence and quietness, except it doesn’t seem that it is going away anytime soon, and with no other people around them to help in this time, it seems close to impossible to keep their sanity as time goes on, which brings together my point of their sense of reality and trying to keep their sanity throughout the novel. 

One of the continuing themes that reoccur throughout the novel that is very prevalent is social unity. Starting with Tom Joad in the beginning chapters. He has shown his ability to create a relationship with someone even after the fact that he was in prison. When he comes across Jim Casy for the first time in years, he brings him along his journey and creates a friendly relationship with him. Not only Tom Joad, but the rest of his family shows social unity through this hard time period. Although neighbors are going against each other for their own survival, there is still a present unity between the farmers and their families.

In chapter thirteen–when the Joad family meets the Wilson’s–there is a strong sign of social unity. Both families do not have much belongings or money, but they still share with each other. Two examples being: When the Joad’s Grampa dies, the Wilson’s give their quilt to the Joad’s so they can properly bury him. The Wilson’s make a deal with the Joad’s to travel to California in their car. From the beginning, the Joad’s and Wilson’s have had a sense of social unity.

“You won’t be no burden. Each’ll help each, an’ we’ll all git to California. Sairy Wilson he’ped lay Grampa out.” is a quote that Ma said when she was telling the Wilson’s that they should stick together, because they showed kindness. Ma knows that they could create a good relationship with the Wilson’s, and hopefully make it to California together, and easier.

There are many different scenes and messages that Steinbeck presents to the readers and one important message is: in difficult times, there are still beauty in people and their morality. Each one of the characters have had to face harsh reality, and choose to either travel alone, or come together and create social unity.

“I don’t know” is one of Ed Tom Bell’s most frequent phrases used throughout this novel so far. He became a sheriff at the age of twenty-five, so he has been in law enforcement for his whole life, so he should know the twist and turns within the crime department. 

McCarthy really constructed Bell into an older sheriff that doesn’t understand the crime he is dealing with in the novel. With each italicized section, Bell comments on how he doesn’t know if law enforcement work is more dangerous now than it used to be, doesn’t know if law enforcement benefits from new technology, and he comments on how he reads the newspaper every morning to try and get an idea of the problems he is dealing with. McCarthy makes Bell out to be a sheriff that is trying to catch the drug-runners, but in the end really has no chance due to his deficiency of knowledge in the crime present in the novel. 

Bell seems to be the kind of man that is labeled “traditional”, hence living in a small town in the South, being a sheriff in a small town, married young, and seems to have some harsh comments towards other races. His character is very sheltered and not knowing of the new up-coming problems that are happening within this novel, and he is slowly realizing that.