Synthiesis of the Novels To the Light House and The Road (Essay Sample)

Synthesis of Novel The Road and To the Lighthouse
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Synthesis of the books The Road and To the Light House
When one reads McCarthy's The Road and Woolf's To the Lighthouse, it is hard not to note the similarity in themes that both writers try to make the writer understand. In both Novels, the writers take the reader through a series of events that finally yield fruits for the survivors. The authors for the two books have used unique techniques to drive their points in a way that the readers do not struggle to understand the main issues after reading the entire novel. This paper will provide a synthesis of novels ‘The Road’ by Cormac McCarthy and ‘To the Lighthouse' by Virginia Woolf.
Though quite different in plot and styles, novels The Road and To the Lighthouse are both about journeys. In The Road an unnamed father and his son journey through a post-apocalyptic land, years after an unknown disaster destroyed civilization and most of life on earth. The novel ends when the boy is taken by a stranger after his father succumbs to arrow injury. McCarthy makes the novel easy for the reader to understand this journey by writing it as a third person narrative. Also the actual names of the characters are not given and instead, people are referred using general terms such as man, father, boy, son or mother. In last section of To the Lighthouse Mr. Ramsay with his daughter and son are joined by some friends on their trip to the lighthouse. This is over ten years after the beginning of the novel, and many things have happened including the death of the death of Ramsay's wife and some of his children. The novel ends when they reach the lighthouse. Unlike in The Road, in To the Lighthouse, the names of the characters are given.
In The Road, the father takes the boy south towards the sea after realizing that they wouldn’t be able to survive the oncoming winter. They carry their possessions in a Knapsacks and supermarket cart. This clearly shows how unprepared was the duo before starting their journey to safety. The father is aware that he is dying and tells his son to use the remaining bullet in their revolver on himself rather than falling into the hands of the cannibals. It is the father’s belief in life after death that motivates him to tell his son to use the last round on himself rather than falling into the hands of the cannibals. On their journey, the duo suffers from hunger; contend with the horrors of the post-apocalyptic world such as cannibals harvesting human captives for food and a newborn infant roasted on a spit. Here, the author tries to emphasize the hostility of the environment surrounding the father and the son.
In the McCarthy’s The Road the man and the boy reach the sea that turns out to be the man's end of ‘the road' and their condition doesn't improve. They head back inland. The sea symbolizes the end of the man’s life and also the new beginning for the son. The man loses a lot of blood after being shot with an arrow, and he dies. Interestingly the father believes that his death is not the end of their companionship. He tells the boy that he can continue to talk to him through prayers after he is gone. Here, McCarthy is trying to show the spiritual beliefs of the two. The father and the son believe in life after death. This could also be the reason as to why he tells his son to shoot himself rather that falling into the hands of cannibals. After the death of the father, the boy remains with the corpse until the third day when he encounters a man who says that he has been tracking the pair. The strange man convinces the boy that he is a "good guy" and takes him under his protection. Though the father dies while not sure about what will be the fate of his son, it appears that the journey successful. After the death of the father, the protection of the boy is taken over by the other man. The portrayal of a woman at the end of the novel contrasts with how a woman is portrayed in the beginning. By committing suicide, the boy’s mother represents woman as weak and prone to despair while, in the end, women are portrayed as strong and hopeful. McCarthy uses the dog that comes along with the man and the woman as a symbol of security. McCarthy uses the dog guarantees the reader that the boy is finally safe.
In the novel, To the Lighthouse, times passes quickly as the novel enters "Time Passes" section. War broke in Europe. Andrew Ramsey, the Ramsey's son, is killed in battle, his sister Prue dies from an illness related to childbirth, and Mrs. Ramsey dies suddenly. Mr. Ramsey’s family no longer vacate in their summerhouse, which is currently in broken condition. The death of Ramsay’s family members symbolizes the anticipated changes in the position of women in this society. Mrs. Ramsay has eight children and her daughter dies while giving birth. Lily’s successful painting will overturn the perception that the role of women in the society is to marry and give birth to children. The death of her daughter during childbirth symbolizes the turning point of this tradition. Ten years pass before the family gets back to their home. Mrs. McNab, the housekeeper, hires a few other women to help in the cleaning of the house (Woolf, 1994, p 159). McNab and the hired house helps rescue the house from decay and oblivion. When Lily Briscoe returns, she finds the house well set. The renovation of the house by McNab and the hired women indicates the role of women to bring changes in the society.
In the last section of The Lighthouse, Ramsey, his remaining children, and other guests journey back to their summer house ten years after the death of Mrs. Ramsey. Upon returning to their summer home, Ramsay plans to take the long delayed journey to the lighthouse. The trip almost fails as his children, Camilla, and James are not prepared, but they eventually set off. As they travel, Ramsay's children are silent in protest at him for forcing them to join the trip. The previous commotion between Ramsay and his remaining children over the journey indicates the resistance by the society towards the journey to free women from traditional perceptions. However, James keeps the sailing boat stable and instead of receiving harsh words he expects from his father, he is praised. This provides an unusual moment of empathy between the James and his father. Camilla’s attitude towards her father also changes from resentment to eventual admiration. This journey brings a sense of family reunion. Here, the family reunion depicts the acceptance by the society to accommodate changes regarding the new role of female in the society. On their journey to the lighthouse, Ramsay family is accompanied by the Sailor Macalister together with his son who is fishing during the trip. The son cuts a piece of fresh from the fish he had caught to use for bait and throw the injured fish back to the sea. The fresh cut from the fish symbolizes their sacrifice towards reaching their destination. The fish can represent the society that accommodates both good and bad traditions. The piece of flesh that is used for bait can represent the good traditions while the rest can represent bad traditions and beliefs that need to be abandoned. As they set sail for the lighthouse, Lily attempts to finish the painting she had in her mind since the beginning of the Novel. Lily reconsiders her memory of Mr. and Mrs. Ramsay, trying to balance impressions from ten years ago so as to reach towards an objective truth concerning Mrs. Ramsay and life itself. Here, Woolf is trying to use Mrs. Ramsay as representative of female degradation in this society. Just as the sailing party arrives at the lighthouse, Lily finishes her painting (Woolf, 1994.p153). After seeing that the painting satisfies her she comes to realize that the execution of her vision is more valuable to her than to leave a legacy in her work. Woolf is showing that whatever Lily is doing is not for herself alone but the society as the whole. Finally, they make it to the long waited destination, the lighthouse. After reaching the lighthouse, their lives become illuminated and understanding develops. Lily manages to finish her painting. The relationship between Ramsay and his children takes a new direction. The vertical line in Lily's painting represents a division of the old system of misogyny and subservience from the newly established egalitarian system that values the rights of women.
In The Road, McCarthy ensures that the first section of the novel captures the sinister mood of the whole journey. The whole journey of the son and the father is full of miseries. For example, the second sentence of the novel already indicates the desolate world in which the father and the son inhabit. As quoted from McCarthy (p.3) "Nights dark beyond darkness and the days more gray each one than what had gone before. This also symbolizes the hardships they encounter in their journey to safety. "Throughout the novel, the details of the landscape provided reinforce the desolate image of the landscape. As quoted from McCarthy (p.11) "The blackness he woke up to on those nights was sightless and impenetrable" and "No sound but the wind in the bare and blackened trees." The general mood of the novel is that of death and bleakness. The plot of this fiction is set in a way that the reader cannot avoid worrying about what will happen next to the father and the boy as they continue their journey towards the sea. Interestingly, the perception of the father’s dreams is paradoxical because it is ...