The Road by McCarthy (Book Review Sample)

The Road by McCarthy
Introduction
In his novel “The Road”, McCarthy viewed gender as a line between giving up and unrelenting. Women normally gives- up easily in their endeavors while men struggles to the end as they keep trying whatever they do without giving up (McCarthy, 256). McCarthy in this novel depicts women as vessels created to meet their own end. In Butler’s Performative Acts about Gender, she existed to belief on sex/gender distinction. She argues that there is no sex that can exist without an act of gender. Butler belief that all human bodies are gendered at the start of social existence and this existence is social. Gender is viewed as something one does and not something one is. Butler beliefs that gender identity is a sign of a performative achievement which occurs because of social sanction and taboo and is represented by various repetition acts authenticated by individuals .Gender is an act which keeps on shifting and moving over time. Butler believed that a gendered behavior which involves femininity and masculinity is inflicted into a person by an act of performance characterized by normative heterosexuality (Butler, 1).Butler identifies and recommended the far-reaching use of the constitution principle which has to govern each individual’s performance in gender roles to eradicate the gender differences emanating from social sanctions and taboo. Butler identifies gender as a performative natural thing tied to socially act of gender material which creates the idea of gender. This gender is viewed as a thing that conceals its performative origin. She thinks that gender identity exists through renewed acts which can be revised and consolidated over time. The issue of humanity is overriding in these studies. The novel highlights the decisive inhumanity, and the stubborn craving of the characters to preserve what belongs to them. The struggle to keep that which is human is depicted by butler in her socially act of gender material which is vital in her quest for feminist survival theory. Therefore, the two appears entangled and interdependent.
How “The Road” novel illustrates Judith Butler’s Performative Acts and Gender Constitution
Butler’s theory of gender performance has led to the increase in debate around feminist circles. Her ideas concerning gender have resulted into a concept which gives room for gender shifts and movement. Gender nowadays is viewed and explained outside the heterosexual patriarchal ideals. Gender is viewed as something human beings rely on. Therefore any deviation from the act will result into social sanctions (Butler, 1).The road illustrates the way men and boys acts to negotiate their ways out of the disaster to become survivors. In the novel, gender issues give men and boys an opportunity to debate their existence in the society and their struggle to hold their form of humanity.
McCarthy depicts mother’s body by calling it a vessel of creation which struggles during the labors times as the man enjoys the male-centric world. Throughout the novel, the father are disclosed as an associate of his wife and the wife are regarded as creature who don’t have a place in the world apart from bringing happiness in the family. Their bodies are regarded as property for male sex slaves. However, the man did not regard the idea that the love for another is the only way to survive in the society "The one thing I can tell you is that you won’t survive for yourself. I know because I would never have come this far. A person who had no one would be well advised to cobble together some passable ghost. Breathe it into being and coax it along with words of love. Offer it each phantom crumb and shield it from harm with your body." (McCarthy, 49). The way women are portrayed in the novel illustrates morality in the novel. The Road presents men in many aspects .First men are regarded as father-son relationship monument. This is true since McCarthy devoted the novel to his son, John Francis. The road illustrates the resistance between accepting death and carrying on. The distinction is always dissimilar to gender as women have been depicted as creatures who easily give up leaving the father and son continuing with the road. The men and boys struggled to preserve their form of humanity.
The Road depicts women as stand-in for men in their survival in the society.  The Road illustrates the women as feminine in terms chthonic womanly landscape. This means that there are viewed as the negative mother complex who needs to be destroyed before fundamental problem results in the men humanity. In the novel, the female characters are depicted as marginalized and are a sign of despair and pessimism. Men as a sign of humanity takes care f the child "It was an earthquake. It's gone now. We're all right. Shh." (McCarthy, 256). This is when the boy was frightened during the shaking night as he seeks to protect and console him.
How “The Road” complicates Judith Butler’s Performative Acts and Gender Constitution:
McCarthy's implacably honest and overvalued depictions of violence and human cruelty in his novel hit the readers severely. The violence challenges categorization leading to desperation and breaking down of morality. The feminist appropriation theory of constitution utilizes the notion of an act in an ambiguous sense. The complication of the political and social structures leads to categorization of gender. Intentional political acts together with political resistance intervention led to unjust political and social relation (Butler, 2). The gender act is done in the name of women and challenges the category of women itself. The category considers the ineffectiveness of a political program which transforms the social situation of women without considering whether the category of woman is socially constructed. The effort to challenge the invisibility of women as category feminists is a risky affair as it makes the category unable to represent the concrete lives of women. Women are viewed as an entity which suffers cultural construction in the historical situation. The society requires human beings to learn divine comprehension and human hope to confront the reality of life by the guidance of God (McCarthy, 143)."There is no God and we are his prophets."
How “The Road” refutes Judith Butler’s Performative Acts and Gender Constitution:
The book refutes the theory of gender constitution hence resulting into political presumption and implications. In the book, McCarthy argues the need for feminists to rely on essen...