"The Road" by Cormac McCarthy.
The class opted for a "take home" assignment in place of an in class exam on the The Road, so here it is. It's two questions - please respond to both of them. I anticipate a total response of 500-750 words or something you might comfortably write during an hour of class time. It does not need to be as polished as the two formal projects for the class. I'm looking mostly at the substance of your arguments and support.
The environmental question:
In class, I quoted George Monbiot*, an environmental journalist who writes The Guardian as saying:
A few weeks ago I read what I believe is the most important environmental book ever written. It is not Silent Spring, Small is Beautiful or even Walden. It contains no graphs, no tables, no facts, figures, warnings, predictions or even arguments. Nor does it carry a single dreary sentence, which, sadly, distinguishes it from most environmental literature. It is a novel, first published a year ago, and it will change the way you see the world.
Write a response that explains whether you would agree with Monbiot.
It's hard to claim any book is "the most important environmental book ever written," so lets temper that a little bit, and just say, "a very important environmental book". Is The Road a very important environmental book? In taking this question seriously, I ask you define what you think qualifies as an environmental book and what criteria you think one should use to judge it's importance. What do you think makes The Road a powerful influence here or what do you
think is lacking?
The literature question:
In the end of the book, the man says to the boy that he has to live, because he has to carry the fire. He assures the boy that he has the fire in him, and that the father has "seen" it. What do you think he means by this? In taking this question seriously, I ask you explain not only what you think the fire might represent symbolically, but
what actions the father has seen in his son that best represents it?
In short, what specific scenes or actions do you think best represents the boy's "carrying the fire"?