Choose a passage that speaks to you and speaks to a theme of the novel (The Road) as a whole.
The passage is in the road starting on pages 127 to 129 (will link it)
2. Write an intro and thesis statement that encompass both the specifics of the passage and speak to a larger issue/theme/question (that you will address in the second part of your essay).
This is the thesis I want to use: Just like in other parts of The Road, McCarthy emphasizes the opposition between good and evil in order to highlight the balance the man and the boy seek in an unhinged and chaotic world. (feel free to change wording, but that is the topic I am going with)
3. Dedicate the first 2-4 body paragraphs to specifics in the passage based on your close reading (the word choice, imagery, language, syntax, and tone)
4. Dedicate the final 2-4 body paragraphs to how the passage addresses a larger (literary analysis part)
issue/theme/fundamental question. You can obviously bring in (aka nuggetize) from
other parts of the novel in this second part of the essay.
5. Conclude with a sort of “turning outward” to speak to the significance of your issue in the larger context of our humanity/current societal human condition.
conclusion: The novel is a realization that there is a balance in the world where good and evil are opposites but always together (yin yang). Or maybe the definite term good or bad isn’t true. There are good and bad parts to everything in the world (that’s where balance comes into play).
^That is a very rough draft that you can change if it doesn’t match the essay.
*I will link the assignment instructions that has an outlined (simple) example*
*I ask linked the book. The passage I want to use is on page 80 in the pdf, but on page 129 in the copy I have.