| Title | Author | Created | Published | Tags | | --------------------------------- | ---------------------------- | ------------- | ------------- | -------------------------------------------------- | | Peer Response - Online Discussion | <ul><li>Jon Marien</li></ul> | July 21, 2025 | July 21, 2025 | [[#classes\|#classes]], [[#LITT25892\|#LITT25892]] | # Peer Response Eeman, your post strongly highlights how McCarthy’s vision of a world “covered in ash and destruction” isn’t just environmental but also moral, as you show through powerful scene choices. I especially agree with your analysis of the characters’ persistent fear and the loss of trust, which seems to redefine what it means to be human in a fallen world. Building on your point, Hannah Stark argues that “the novel’s repeated motif, of the man and the boy looking up and down the road… reveals their anxiety about their future and their guilt about their past” (Stark 74). The act of constantly scanning for danger, as you noted, isn’t just survival—it's also a metaphor for our shared fears in an uncertain world. McCarthy’s minimalist style traps us in this uncertainty, making readers witnesses to loss, not just storytellers. For me, the fact that McCarthy never specifies what caused the apocalypse is deliberate—it universalizes the warning, showing that collapse could come from any direction if we ignore the everyday signs of decline. Lydia Cooper calls _The Road_ a “witness text,” refusing easy closure so that we’re forced to bear the discomfort personally (Cooper 229). Your response draws out these layers of warning and witness, showing how dystopia threatens not just landscapes but our sense of connection and ethics—a reminder, as you say, that the future depends on our choices now. Nice work!