The Road By Cormac Mccarthy (111-205)

Summary
During this Post-apocalyptic (predicting or presaging imminent disaster and total or universal destruction) crisis the father and the son begins to witness horrible things. It all starts when the father walks into a gasoline station in search of food and clothing and a possible shelter. However, they were chased by a group of survivors as preys; hunting them down to eat them. The boy was terrified by how many people were eaten by these groups of deadly survivors. The father and the son ran with fear while the father shoots them with the pistol he had. Some survivors turned to cannibalism to survive because of how hungry they were. This event is related to the history of the "Donner Party." The Donner Party was a group of California-bound American who were traveling heading to California led by a man George Donner. However, George Donner took the wrong roots and they became snowbound in the Sierra Nevada in the winter of 1846–1847, and some of them resorted to cannibalism (people eating each other). The boy becomes frightened about what can happen to him and his father and the old man if they become too hungry. He begins questioning the father, if they will ever eat anyone, and the father and the old man assures the boy that they will not eat anyone else. The lived off what they found on the streets, such as rotten apples that have been turned brown, and coca-cola the father finds along the way. As they keep traveling they encounter other survivors, however, they keep moving because soon enough, the others will find them and eat them, but they stop to eat and drink before leaving heading south where is warmer.

Quote:
"A creaking of tin somewhere high in the roof above him. There was yet a lingering odor of cows in the barn and he stood there thinking about cows and he realized they were extinct. Was that true? There could be a cow somewhere being fed and cared for. Could there? Fed what? Saved for what?" (McCarthy 120).

Reaction:
The fact that he realizes that cows have been extinct relates to human race as well. There is nothing alive left anymore. They are just barely dead people walking the face of the earth, and those who did survive are eating each other with no hope.




"The Donner Party"