Author: baxte72004@gapps.uwcsea.edu.sg

The Road 

The Importance of being Earnest

Thesis: All novels have soe connection to past stories and draw upon literary traditions but many diverge from these to shape a new story with different plot structure or characters  adding new and vital elements to literature 

Explanation of Book 1: the Road is a novel by Cormac Mcarthy following a father and his son’s journey through a barren post apocalyptic landscape as they attempt to find a respite from the harsh world they find themselves in

Explanation of Book 2: The importance of being earnest is a play by Oscar Wilde following a comedy of errors that result from mistaken identities and attempts to escape the monotony of upper class life

Idea 1: Genre (conventions from past stories)

• Wilde follows the “well made play” 
  • which has a focus on “complex and highly artificial plotting, a build-up of suspense, a climactic scene in which all problems are resolved, and a happy ending.”. The ideas of building up suspense are shared by the novels and to some extent, the road also has a happy ending. However, the complexity and over-the-top plots are not shared. The suspense in the well-made play is often reliant on misunderstanding while the suspense in the road is built over repetitive scenes and the scale of the plot with the risk being death not the small risks of Earnest

Idea 2: Wilde changing genre while McCarthy based on old ideas

• Wilde creating a new type of character “the dandy” while The road is based on old forms of story such as the idea of the “quest” and the Grail
  • Here link in The christian references that are part of the ‘grail’ story type as well as reference throughout the book
• Both strayed from some traditions with Wilde adding the character type and McCarthy’s almost dystopian novel that is devoid of any new civilisation
• But while mostly here earnest is the one that strays form convention in some ways it is more traditional
  • Earnest follows a traditional narrative structure (although very dramatically) while the Road strays from it with many monotone repetitive moments so although tensions is slowly building there is little action

Idea 3: Within the story – autobiographical videas

• But a similarity is that the dandy was based on Wilde himself and the relationship of father and son was based on McCarthy’s own life
  • Past stories could also be autobiographical storys that influenced the writing

Norma’s internal dialogue appearing during Roy’s chapters, such as during the job interview and when he talks to Eve 

–In chapter 11, we begin to sense the wall breakdown between the separate identities of Roy and Norma. Positioned as if in the back seat of the car ride between Eve and Roy, the first-person narrative seems to have shifted to an almost wholly third-person description.The bra being found causes Roy to deviate from his traditional “grounded” narrative. The bra is a part of his hidden person, Norma. He begins to go into magazine speak, a characteristic typical of Norma as he describes ways to clean out the stain from the white bra.

• Suggesting an ingredient…“That get your clothes whiter than the day they were bought” (178)

Norma is Seemingly Paradoxically omniscient here shown through her narration but Roy’s reported thoughts and direct speech, norma is an unreliable narrator yet speaks as if she knows everything about everyone, creating the paradox- she is biased, almost delusional- nobody perceives situations in the same manner as her

• The job interview

• When he encounters Mr. Hands. Roy would not have known about Norma’s experience meeting Mr Hands for the first time but her voice still comes through “Perhaps I should introduce myself, thought Roy” strongly implying they are the same person.

Henah: The role that Mary plays in the tension between the split personas of Roy and Norma

• Mary acts as a mother to Roy, a nurturing, caring figure, while she remains a more distant ‘housekeeper’ to Norma
• Considering that she is, in reality, mother to both Roy and Norma, this seems to be a clear rejection of Norma and her femininity
• Mary disposing of Norma’s clothes when she was younger can be interpreted as a desperate attempt to rid of the persona of Norma herself, but also as an attempt to move forward beyond the immense grief that Roy harbours
• Therefore Mary’s growing acceptance—or tolerance—of Norma and her clothing choices are monumental. It breaks down the formally clear distinction between Norma and Roy, and one starts to bleed into the other

 Maya: Dichotomy between norma and Roy, mary’s treatment of each. Photos and their significance to the concealment of norma and the personal identity she holds

• “Not a single photo of me” 
• Plays a big role in the allusion to roy and norma being the same person 
  • They cannot simultaneously exist, even in photos 
• “Somehow she always manages to cut me out of the shot”
• Professional photos will ‘mean something to me – something quite special’ (197)
  • Make her feel ‘Invincible’ like ‘64000 silver shillings’ (201)
• Power that comes with knowing norma’s true identity?
• Mary’s treatment of norma after Roy gets a job and settles hints towards the duality, but the reluctance and outright denial of photographing her still carries an underlying tension 
•  photos serve to dramatise and emphasise norma’s womanhood, mirroring her heightened sense of femininity at the moment
• Roy being representative of both Norma and himself is hinted towards by all the photos of him in the house 
  • Especially as norma is now described as more in ‘limbo’ and ghostly when Roy is not home 

Creativity is an interesting lens seeing as it has to do with the role imagination plays. The play is a memory play that often avoids realism. A clear moment of that is the description of the set where the reader understands the meaning the description tries to portray but with the abstract language trying to build that set accurately would be near impossible. Also, creativity comes into play in the scenes where the narrator is not present and since the play is semi-autobiographical Williams likely would not have seen either, but these conversations are still written despite not being based in fact.

In a play that has a main character so similar to the author questions about how much the two share the same perspective are bound to arise. How many of Tom’s views and desires are actually those of Tennessee Williams? Also, when thinking about this, one must consider the fact that the narrator version of tom speaks with heinsight that Williams would also have creating interesting issues as memory is fallable so perspectives could become biased over time, for example with how Amanda irritated Tom in the moment but here is a feeling of fondness for her from the narrator and a little regret for leaving a feeling that probably grew over the years.