Week 1 Post A

Definitions

glaucoma(3)-bnormally high fluid pressure in the eye, most commonly caused either by blockage of the channel through which aqueous humor drains
flowstone(3)-a layered deposit of calcium carbonate, CaCO₃, left by thin sheets of flowing water, as in a cave.
granitic(3)-a coarse-grained igneous rock composed chiefly of orthoclase and albite feldspars and of quartz, usually with lesser amounts of one or more other minerals, as mica, hornblende, or augite.
congeal(4)-to change from a soft or fluid state to a rigid or solid state, as by cooling or freezing.

Figurative language

"The lamp in the rocks on the side of the hill was little more than a mote of light"(8). This is a metaphor because Cormac McCarthy describes it as a "mote" although it is clearly not. This is an excellent comparison because of all the smoke and ash caused by the nuclear fallout in suffocating the lamp's light to a point where it is just a dull glow in the night.

"He caught [the snowflake] in his hand an watched it expire there like the last host of Christendom(13). I don't know the exact word for this type of figurative language but McCarthy references Christendom in his book to give the reader a connection to the characters in the book. The reference helps the reader see the father and son more as normal people rather than characters in a fictional nuclear war.

Quote

"You forget what you want to remember and you remember what you want to forget(10). This just stuck me as an interesting quote that I thought was ironically true. In the father's case, he has already suffered terrible losses and the quote signifies an emotional reality. However, I enjoyed this quote because it seems that on tests at school I always seem to remember the stuff that isn't on the test and forget the stuff that is.

Theme- So far, we know very little about the father and his son but we do know that they are the last two people alive in their area. One theme seems to be that love can carry a person through anything. At one point in the novel, the father goes to the extreme when he answers a question from his son saying, "If you died I would want to die too"(9).