Elma's+Page


 * __The Road__: Pages 1-30**


 * Role:** Literary Luminary

__The Road__ Quotes Quote Questions
 * 1) 1. “Then they set out along the blacktop in the gun metal light, shuffling through the ash, each the other’s world entire” (6).
 * 2) 2. “You forget what you want to remember and you remember what you want to forget” (12).
 * 3) 3. “He said the right dreams for a man in peril were dreams of peril and all else was the call of languor and of death” (18).
 * For quote 1, when someone/something is your world entire, what does that mean to you? How does this quote make you feel and how does it display the father and son’s relationship?
 * For quote 2, are there instances where it has applied to you in some area of your life that you are willing to share? Why do you think as humans we tend to this?
 * For quote 3, why do you think that the father would dismiss his colorful dreams as dreams that foretold his fate of death? Do you think that there is some truth to the quote? Why or why not?


 * __The Road__: Pages 31-82**


 * Role:** Discussion Director

__Discussion Questions__
 * Which part/parts throughout the assigned reading do you feel most piqued your interest or had some type of affect on you- whether it provoked excitement, curiosity, sadness, etc.? Why do you think that/those particular situation affected you the way it/they did?
 * On page 50, reading between the lines, what do you think is the real underlying reason why the father just walked past the electrocuted man on the road without stopping to help or even acknowledge him?
 * In this assigned reading, what do you think the boy is most concerned about? What do you think his father is most concerned about? If you think that they have different concerns from each other, then how do you think this difference strains and affects their relationship? If you think that they both have similar concerns, then how does it also affect their relationship. Provide examples to support your opinions.
 * Those men in the truck that the father and son encountered, who do you think they are, and what do you think they want or are searching for?

__**The** **Road**__**:** **Pages** **83-135**


 * Role:** Vocabulary Miser

__Vocabulary__

"Then they set out upon the road again, slumped and cowled and shivering in their rags like **mendicant** friars sent forth to find their keep" (126).
 * **mendicant**- begging; practicing begging; living on alms.

"**Runic** slogans..." (90).
 * **runic**- having some secret or mysterious meaning.

"The wall beyond held a **frieze** of human heads, all faced alike..." (90).
 * **frieze**- any decorative band on an outside wall, broader than a string course and bearing lettering, sculpture, etc.

__**The Road**__**: Pages 136-185**


 * Role:** Connection Master

Connection 1: The secret underground bunker with both food and tool supplies that the father and boy uncovered reminds me of typical zombie/apocalypse movies where some people save up supplies in preparation for like the end of the world or a zombie take-over so that they have a means of survival.

Connection 2: I can also relate to the father's interaction with the old man they encountered to //Night// because in //Night,// when the Nazis hung a little boy who to Wiesel looked like an angel, Wiesel (and many of the other Jews that were there), questioned his belief in God's existence. He said that with the little boy's execution, he saw that God was dead. This is similar to the old man saying that there is no God for in desperate and dire situations where there seems to be no hope, people often question their faith and even reject it sometimes.

Connection 3: When the father teaches the boy the about the controls of a train, it reminded me of a part in the //Polar Express// (the Christmas movie) where the boy was taught how to control the train while the train conductor and his assistant went outside to fix the train's headlight and that the controls of a train were simple like the father in the book explained to the boy.

__**The** **Road**__: **Pages 186-235**


 * Role:** Literary Luminary

1. "When your dreams are of some world that never was or of some world that never will be and you are happy again then you will have given up. Do you understand? And you can't give up" (189).

2. "Do you think that your fathers are watching? That they weigh you in their ledgerbook? Against what? There is no book and your fathers are dead in the ground" (196).

3. "When he went back to the fire he knelt and smoothed her hair as she slept and he said if he were God he would have made the world just so and no different" (219).

Quote Questions


 * With quote 1 in mind, whenever you think about or imagine a different world, have you truly given up on the present world? Explain.
 * For quote 2, why do you think that the boy is starting to ask such philosophical/deep questions that seem to come out of nowhere?
 * For quote 3, do you really think that the father meant it, or is there a deeper meaning to what he said? If you think he meant it, explain why. If you think that there's a deeper meaning, then what could it be?


 * __The__ __Road__**: **Pages 236-End**


 * Role:** Discussion Director

__Discussion Directions__

1. What part or parts in the last pages of the book affected you in some way, whether it/they was/were emotionally, mentally, or both? Describe the part or parts and explain why it/they affected you.

2. What change or changes in the father did you notice in these last pages of the book? Why did he change?

3. In your opinion, what would you say was the climax after finishing the book? It could be anywhere in the book. Explain your choice.

4. Why do you think the author added the last paragraph (the one that Mrs. Clark-Evans read to us one time) at the end of the book? Did the ending confuse you? Discuss how you understand the ending of the book.

5. What other things would you like to talk about or clarify?