What I think of "The Road"

"In those first years the roads were peopled with refugees shrouded up in their clothing.Wearing masks and goggles, sitting in their rags by the side of the road like ruined aviators........Look around you.Ever is a long time. But the boy knew what he knew. Ever is a long time."

The Road - Cormac McCarthy

These are just few of the many lines that gave me chill on my spine. Post-apocalyptic ideas are common talk these days. But before I begin my main intention to write this blog I have to tell each one of you to definitely go and grab this book. Its probably worth reading a few times.

I am not quite a reader. I was forced into reading this book by my English professor (Dr. Berry) at UT. She just couldn't stop raving about this book. After some point I was like ..yeah whatever...lemme just read it and get over with it.

I would say that McCarthy has left readers to interpret the book in many ways. Some get awed just by the father and son relationship, and some get scared by fierce post-apocalyptic world. To me it could be the most important and effective environment book ever. As one of the critics said, "It contains no graphs, no tables, no facts, figures, warnings, predictions or even arguments. Nor does it carry a single dreary sentence, which, sadly, distinguishes it from most environmental literature. It is a novel.....and it will change the way you see the world."

Here are my initial thoughts/questions:

- Is all this global warming issue, mass animal and plant extinction, hurricanes, floods, etc can we actually change any of it just by getting to " Use Paper, Avoid plastic" drives. I certainly believe that they do make a huge impact. They help make our environments clean, make us responsible citizens etc etc. But again, will they make a bigger impact. Sometimes I fall in between these debates that this whole environmental issue is a political gimmick and sometimes I support like an ardent environmentalist.

- How far we can go to protect it. This is the way I see it. We all should definitely play a big role and do all things we can to protect our immediate surrounding. If each one of us take care of that then blame higher authorities and politics to have not taken care of bigger issues when we took care of the small ones.

Certainly McCarthy has inspired me to take my drive to a next level. Under this thread I hope to post all the ways we can make a small difference. I will only recommend try and tested methods by myself and hope it helps each one of you.