Week 5 Post B

I believe that the strongest and most important part of a story is the main conflict. In The Road by Cormac McCarthy, the main conflict is that of a father and son struggling to survive in a barren land which takes a tole on their relationship and love. This main conflict always kept me wanting to read more of the book and find out what will happen next. At one point in the story however, the father and son find a secret emergency bunker filled with food, clothing and everything that they would need to survive. I was let down at this turn of events because the main conflict had temporarily been resolved. For this section of 30 or so pages, it was very painful to read and it seemed slow and boring. For me, there was no main conflict, no suspense, no hunger and no struggle to survive. Eventually, the father and son are forced to move on and face the elements again but I was confused why McCarthy put that part in the story. I do not feel that it was a good use of writing because all it did was temporarily suspend the main conflict and all the action that made the story interesting and suspenseful. I am not however, criticizing the setting or most of the plot. I enjoy reading about the father and the son but I feel that this particular portion of the story could have been left out.