9/16/19 Brian Cheng Period 8

Brian Cheng 9/16/19

Period 8

Aim: How does The Road strive to enchant its reader through survival?

Do Now: If you had no idea when you would eat again, what would your last meal consist of? Why?

There were varying responses to this question. Some people said that they would have a regular meal so they wouldn’t crave it afterward. Others said that they would have a grand meal and go out with a bang. The deeper meaning of this question is that food means different things to different people but it is more than just nutrients and substance. To many people, food is ingrained in their culture and tradition and brings back nostalgia to them. However, food means something different if all of a sudden we’re living in an apocalyptic world-it also represents survival to those people. 

After the do now, the lesson transitioned into a discussion about the bunker scene.

It’s food. Can you read it?

Pears. That says pears.

Yes. Yes it does. Oh yes it does.

The class mostly had similar thoughts on the father’s tone. Most of the responses mentioned that the father was surprised, he had low expectations and once he found the peaches he couldn’t actually believe it. From there the class established that the mood created for the reader was one of relief and happiness for the father and the boy. Throughout the story so far they have been starving never knowing when their next meal would be. They had to constantly battle the elements and run away from the bad guys so when they finally caught a break and found that bunker they were given a sense of security that they haven’t experienced in a long time. 

However, looking at the symbolism provided the class realized that the bunker has a deeper meaning to it. The bunker represents The Garden of Eden aka Paradise. But as we know, humans weren’t able to stay in paradise forever.  In the story, we know that the father and boy have to move on. The bunker does give them temporary safety but if they stay any longer paradise will turn into hell and soon their bunker will be the place they get killed by other people. 

Transitioning from this the class was given the scenario the father and boy were in where the boy wanted to give food to the old man but the father was leery. The class agreed that the father was justified for being leery but tha the boy wasn’t wrong for wanting to give food to the old man. The father knew the world before the apocalypse so he knows how terrible their current situation is, but the boy has known nothing except for the current world so he still has empathy and compassion in him.
Lastly, Ms. Fusaro ended the lesson with this though. Movement is Survival and that in order to survive one has to keep moving. When one no longer decides to keep moving they have given up and in an apocalyptic world then that means death. 

Reflection:

I learned that humans are more primitive and selfish than we think they are. The only thing keeping us civilized is our safety net of accessibility to food, shelter, and clothes. Take those things away and we go back to a society where compassion is rare and things like a can of peaches suddenly become a delicacy. In our society we have technology and an abundance of resources that makes it so that we don’t have to physically move in order to survive. However, the idea that movement is survival still holds true for us. Throughout our lives, we are constantly trying to move up the ranks going from elementary to middle to high school and even college and for some even further than that. Once we get jobs we are still moving up that imaginary ladder in order to survive.