The Road techniques

iii) The death of everything living plants,trees, creatures and most other human beings- is evoked through the bleakness and deadness of the language.
McCarthy evokes the idea of the every living thing in the world is slowly dying when he describes the sea creature as having "translucent skin.... alabaster bones and eyes dead white and sightless as the eggs of spiders". The translucent skins indicates that the sea creature is slowly dying as the colour of their skin is becoming so clear that you can see the bones of the creature and the paleness of the creature represents death. McCarthy uses a simile when he states that the creature’s eyes were "dead white and sightless as the eggs of spiders". This emphasizes the idea that there's no life left in the creature’s eyes as they're white. This also highlights that death is almost taking over everything that made it a living creature instead death has left it almost blind to any of the hope left in the world. McCarthy states the "segments of the road there among the dead trees. Looking for anything of colour." This intensifies the assumption that the world is so bleak that all the life and colour of everything living has been taken out of the world and instead death has left its remains of every living thing. Also it’s as if there’s no beauty left in the world as all the colour has been drained out of every living thing. In addition the quotation the "weeds they forded fell to dust about them" reiterates the idea that everything living is disintegrating into nothing. Also the abruptness of this statement suggests the finality of what’s happening and that death is becoming the normality. Furthermore the use of personification and pathetic fallacy is used for example the "nameless dark come to enshroud them". This suggests that the darkness is almost engulfing the world to the point where darkness is covering the world and trapping all the sense of humanity and hope.

vi- Avoiding emotional language and keeping it simple makes the narrative all the more engaging.
McCarthy avoids using emotional language as it allows you to engage with the characters more. Also as it’s you're perspective of the character it helps you to connect emotionally with the characters. For example McCarthy doesn't portray many emotions and when he does they're vague and ambiguous. The vagueness allows us to create our own assumptions and connect our own experiences with the characters experiences. McCarthy especially doesn't suggest intense emotions in the boy especially as he wants to maintain his innocence. For example "the boy was lying in his lap with no expression on his face at all". The simplicity of the sentence of the boys face having no expression at all intensifies the reader’s engagement as it makes them feel sober that the boy’s emotions have become as cold as his father. In addition it could be showing that the boy is finally accepting that death is normality and in order to survive it has to be done. He further reiterates the sense of coldness within the boy when he states that "... his forehead covered with gore and mute as a stone" this is a horrific image presented by McCarthy as the boy has a man’s remains on his face but he maintains emotionless. It’s almost as if death has numbed him to the point where he's silenced himself from the rest of the world and made him self oblivious to death that’s right in front of him. Also the mans wife is also presented in a very cold manner. An example of this is when she states that “they will rape me. they'll rape him... and eat us.." the abruptness of these statements emphasizes that she is bitter and has no remorse for the prospect of her son being raped and its as if she truly believes its inevitable.