Overview
What year was the novel published?
2006
Who acts as a foil to the man and the boy?
The bad guys - cannibals, gangs and people who have abandoned all sense of morality
"Because we're carrying the fire"
Repeated throughout the novel, “carrying the fire” becomes a central symbol of hope, morality, and human goodness. It separates the father and son from the “bad guys” and reminds them (and us) of the importance of holding onto values.
Can I ask you something? Yes. Of course you can. What would you do if I died? If you died I would want to die too. So you could be with me? Yes. So I could be with you. Okay
Father/son relationship
What year did I start?
2021
What genre does the novel belong in?
Apocalyptic and Post-Apocalyptic Fiction, Dystopian Fiction
Who said this quote and why: "I was appointed to do that by God. I will kill anyone who touches you.”
The man is explaining to his son why he had to kill the Road Rat.
"You forget what you want to remember and you remember what you want to forget."
Captures the trauma and psychological burden of survival. The paradox reflects how memory can become a curse in a world where the past offers no comfort.
Within a year there were fires on the ridges and deranged chanting. The screams of the murdered. By day the dead impaled on spikes along the road. What had they done?
Breakdown of society
Subjects I can teach?
English/History
What POV is the novel written in?
Limited third-person point of view
Who said this quote: "Sooner or later they will catch us and they will kill us. They will rape me. They'll rape him. They are going to rape us and kill us and eat us and you wont face it."
The mum
"The clocks stopped at 1:17. A long shear of light and then a series of low concussions."
A haunting, indirect reference to the apocalyptic event. The stopping of time symbolises the end of normalcy and structure.
Sometimes the child would ask him questions about the world that for him was not even a memory. He thought hard how to answer. There is no past... But he stopped making things up...and the telling made him feel bad. The child had his own fantasies. How things would be in the south. Other children. He tried to keep a rein on this but his heart was not in it. Whose would be?
Loss of innocence
What was my 2nd option after teaching?
Speech Pathology
What tense is the novel written in?
Past tense
She was gone and the coldness of it was her final gift.” Who is the “she”? What was her final “gift”?
The Boy’s mother who committed suicide rather than slow the Man and Boy down on their journey.
"He said: If he is not the word of God God never spoke."
The father elevates the boy to a divine symbol of hope and purity, reinforcing the idea that the boy embodies all that is good in the world.
"He dreamt of walking in a flowering wood where birds flew before them he and the child and the sky was aching blue but he was learning how to wake himself from just such siren worlds."
Dreams and memory
Name of my dog?
Apricot (April)
Who are the main characters?
The man and the boy
Explain the significance of this scene: "He was as burntlooking as the country, his clothing scorched and black. One of his eyes was burnt shut and his hair was but a nitty wig of ash upon his blackened skull."
Both characters encounter a "survivor" who has been struck by lightening. The boy wants to help him, but the father refuses. This scene displays a haunting image of suffering when an individual is stripped of identity, individuality, and dignity.
"He could not construct for the child's pleasure the world he'd lost without constructing the loss as well and he thought perhaps the child had known this better than he."
The father’s love is limited by reality—he can’t give comfort without revealing grief. It underlines the impossibility of sheltering innocence in a broken world.
Irony or pathos (appeal to emotions)
Do you think I lie to you?
No.
But you think I might lie to you about dying.
Yes. Okay. I might. But we’re not dying. Okay.
Faith, trust & doubt
My favourite anime character atm
Sung Jin-Woo