STOLEN

I’ve been stolen.  Stolen from the boy and the man who have been my companions.  This new man has no gun and no hope.  The man will fiercely protect the boy – and he still has one bullet.  I have seen the man kill for the boy before.  It was very matter of fact.  The boy was threatened and the man protected.  It’s clear that the man did not question his actions, but the boy is different.  I heard him ask, “Are we still the good guys?” He was assured by the man that they were – but I know the boy still wonders.  I think he wonders every time that he holds the man’s gun, and every time the man threatens a person who could use their help.  This new man can hardly push me along the road, I am heavy with all my companions’ supplies and the thief can hardly grip my handle with the stump where his fingers used to be. 

It is as I thought.  I am with the man and boy once again.  The thief is gone, left naked and helpless by the man.  The man’s version of justice is swift and merciless yet the boy knows that even without shooting the man they as good as killed him.   The boy’s guilt resonates as he says “But we did kill him” (260).  He is able to get the man to attempt to return the clothes to the stranger, but the clothes are left in a crumpled pile on the side of the road and will likely never see their owner again.

When the man tried to tell the boy to forget about the thief he tells him that he is “not the one who has to worry about everything”(259).  But the boy replies “Yes I am… I am the one.” (259).  This tells me that the boy is special.  He has maintained throughout his journey that they should be helping others.  He is different from the adults on the road.  His voice reminds the father that everyone is responsible for his or her own decisions.  I am attaching a link to the song, Cry Out to Jesus. This sheds some light on why people do what they do. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JmVxRl5bc4Y&ob=av3n

CARRYING THE FLAME

Time and time again I have been pushed past rotting bodies and boiled bones on the road.   The man-eaters we passed today are a sign of what the man fears most - rape and murder.  A pregnant woman eating her own babe shows no love for the babe or it’s father, and no hope for life.  Likely a victim of rape and hunger, the woman shows no hope for the future. This could have been the fate of the boy too.  Roasting on a spit, charred and gutted, like the newborn babe.  But this boy has the man to protect him and most importantly he has hope burning inside of him.  I’ve heard the man and the boy talk about carrying the flame with them.   Carrying this fire with them keeps them safe from the cooking fires of others.  They have hope for survival and make the choice to fight to survive.   

I think the song, No Sound But the Wind, performed by Editors shows the importance of the relationship between father and son and the importance of keeping their hope burning strong.  I’ve included a link to a video with images from the movie The Road.  A person that calls herself Eccentricelf23 prepared the presentation. She can be found at  http://eccentricelf23.deviantart.com/.

Elijah

Just when my basket was most full the man and the boy met a traveller on the road.  It was the boy who saw him first.   He put his hand on my handle and had the man pause and look.  We followed the man for a while to see if he was a threat, but it was the boy who convinced the man that the traveller was not a threat.  It was the boy who reached out and put a hand on the traveller’s shoulder and offered him food.  He kept offering his hand to the traveller and the man kept telling him not to.  The boy wants so badly to help others.  He is a ray of light in the darkness.  I think the man knows this because he lets the boy give the traveller food even though he wants to keep it for himself and the boy.  He wants to make the boy strong but he does not want him to lose his ability to see good in the world.  The man thought the traveller might “turn into god and they to trees” (163), but if anyone there were a god it would be the boy.   If there is hope for the future it is that boy.  The man turned back to see the traveler leave them.  The boy kept looking ahead.  It is the boy who is looking towards the future while the man is stuck in the past.