Thesis Proposal

Introduction:

            My thesis’ focus is on the novel The Road by Cormac McCarthy. Specifically in the novel I am hoping to analyze the role and portrayal of the only named female character, known as The Woman. Through my research I hope to be able to demonstrate that while traditionally this female character is read as being a weak figure who is only included to show the strength and heroics of the main male character, The Man. I hope to show through my data and research that the Woman is actually a very strong and insightful female character who’s strengths are generally read as weaknesses only because of the readers preconceived notions of what being a mother and female means.

Literature Review:

The novel The Road, by Cormac McCarthy tells of the grueling struggles of a father and son in a post-apocalyptic world. Throughout the entire novel there is a surprisingly few number of female characters. The only female character who is highlighted at all throughout the novel is “the Woman”, who like the rest of the characters in the novel remains unnamed besides this descriptive title. The Woman is the wife to “the Man” and mother to “the Boy”. Many scholars argue that the role of the Woman in this novel is to represent weakness and defeat, and that she is a feeble, uncaring, and selfish character. But after reading the novel and many scholarly articles about the novel I believe that the women serves a much larger purpose. The Woman is a character who is willing to do whatever it takes to save her child and although, in the end is unsuccessful she does not leave before assuring that her child will be cared for.

            In Berit Astrom’s article “Post-Feminist Fatherhood and the Marginalization of the Mother in Cormac McCarthy’s The Road” Astrom argues that throughout the novel “the man is both the better father and the better mother” (Astrom 121). The main argument of this article is that “In The Road, the mother refuses to fulfil such expectations. Interestingly, this challenge to normative constructions of mother hood is represented as wholly negative within the novel” (Astrom 115). After reading the novel I would argue that the Woman should not be read as an entirely bad or weak character. Astrom argues that the Woman is only included in the text briefly to demonstrate that  she has “been absent from the boy’s life even before she left physically” (Astrom 122) because of her fall into despair and then her suicide. While the Woman does leave the Boy she does this because she believes that death is the only and best option left for her family. The Woman sees no way to survive long term in the environmental landscape which the novel takes place. Readers only read the Woman as being a weak character because of readers’ tendency to read her character as being a direct foil to the Man. Many read the Man’s fight for survival as noble and as a critique of the Woman’s actions. Astrom tries to convey to readers that the Man represents everything that the Woman fails to be for the Boy.

            Astrom argues throughout the article that the Woman is portrayed “as callous and heartless” (Astrom 120) in the novel and this leads readers to interpret the character to be a fail as representation of a mother figure. But just because the Woman does not fit into the traditional mold of the pure and virtuous mother does not mean that she is a bad mother or is being used to depict women in the novel as being less virtuous than the male characters. In The Technology of Gender by Teresa De Lauretis the author discusses the role of gender and how those roles are outwardly portrayed. De Lauretis acknowledges “that gender is not sex, a state of nature, but the representation of each individual in terms of a particular social relation which pre-exists the individual and is predicated on the conceptual and rigid (structure) opposition of two biological sexes. This conceptual structure is what feminist social scientists have designated “the sex-gender system” (De Lauretis 716). This sex-gender system is made clear throughout the novel. Astrom also argues that the Woman is used as the direct foil to the Man, who is portrayed as a strong, virtuous father figure. In this article De Lauretis holds that “where sexual division refers to the two mutually exclusive categories of men and women as given in reality: “In terms of sexual differences, on the other hand, what has to be grasped is, precisely, the production of differences through systems of representation; the work of representation produces differences that cannot be known in advance” (De Lauretis 717). Asserting that the Woman is the foil character to the Man is problematic because it is based on the assumption that the Woman fails to conform to her prescribed gender role as mother. I would argue that the Man’s foil character is not the Woman, but instead another character known as the Gang Member. Many would argue that the Woman fails as a female character because she does not fit the traditional definition of a good mother. Through her suicide they would argue she fails at protecting her young child, but the discussion between the Woman and the Man show that her suicide was not a selfish decision, but the only way she could see to escape the brutal reality she and her family were facing. This novel presents the reader with an extremely graphic representation of the end of the world and the way each person responds in times of crisis varies. The Woman and the Man responded differently to the world and in the end the Man failed as well.

One of the main issues with the argument presented by Astrom is that throughout the article the Woman character is constantly compared to the Man character. Astrom’s analysis of the Woman is based on comparing the two characters and finding sexual differences. In “The Practice of Feminist Theory” by Elizabeth Grosz the author discusses what she believes to be the current state and issues that feminist theory in literature faces. Grosz holds that “feminist theory is the labor, the practice, of thinking and locating what is other than patriarchy, what is more than it or beyond it, known and active, able to act and be acted on. Feminist theory is the labor of producing new thought beyond patriarchal concepts, above all, elaborating the thought of sexual difference where it has been foreclosed – in all knowledges up to now, in all forms of thought that pretend to universal and perspectiveless relevance” (Grosz 105). Throughout Astrom’s article the author reads the Road as providing a commentary on patriarchal concepts that is based on sexual difference and literary foils. The idea of sexual difference is highly problematic because it is based on the idea that there is a standard for sexuality and gender and then there is the difference. Astrom analyzes the Woman character as if all female literary characters are the same and that they all conform to all established patriarchal concepts of what it means to be a good mother and strong female character. Throughout Astrom’s article the author holds that the Woman is the foil character to the Man character. In this foil Astrom is holding that the Man is the strong character and fills the void that is created by the Woman in the Boy’s life.

            Another issue that arises from Astom’s traditionalist analysis of the role of the mother and how the Woman plays this role is that this role was created in a hierarchical structure that is based on masoginistic ideals. In “Maternal Encounters: The Ethics of Interruption” by Lisa Baraitser the reader is introduced to the idea that “feminist mothers challenge patriarchal and heteronormative concepts of mothering, creating alternatives that transform the lives of mothers and children, and in the process changing the meaning of both mothering and feminism” (Baraitser 701) and the idea that “feminism and motherhood have often been thought of as incompatible” (Baraitser 703). Motherhood is not and should not be viewed as a universal experience. Astrom desires to categorize all motherhood and what it means to be a “good” mother. Although the Woman does not fit into the traditional mold of what Astrom considers to be a “good” mother she does fit the feminist mold of what it means to be a good mother in the post-apocalyptic, violent world that the novel is set.

Another important theme and plot point in The Road is cannibalism. In this post-apocalyptic world most food sources are gone so survivors have turned to cannibalism in order to survive. In Capital by Karl Marx the author discusses commodities and the process of commodification. Marx argues that “A commodity is, in the first place, an object outside us, that by its properties satisfies human wants of some sort or another. The nature of such wants, whether, for instance, they spring from the stomach or form fancy, makes no difference” (Marx 268). In the novel, before the Woman decides to commit suicide she discusses her fears of being eaten. It is important to analyze the reasons for the Woman’s suicide because in the novel the characters have been placed in an unimaginable position. The commodification of the human body as a food source drove the woman to her decision. Astrom argues that because she left her son she is a selfish and a bad mother. But the Woman understood that the human body was now a highly valuable commodity for many different reasons and knew that her family and their bodies would be victims of the cannibals that surrounded them.

In “Eating at the Empire Table: Cormac McCarthy’s The Road and the Anglo-Irish Gothic” by Lydia Cooper the author argues that “McCarthy paints a viciously dark picture of utter loss” (Cooper) throughout the novel. This article argues that “The Road is replete with images of consumption, from evocations of a fossil fuel-driven economy to depictions of cannibalism, the form of consumption most commonly employed as a shorthand for unchecked cultural depravity or the breakdown of civilized society altogether” (Cooper). This “unchecked cultural depravity” is part of the reason the Woman felt that there was no hope for either her or her family, especially the Boy. The novel presents a world that is so forsaken and destroyed that people have turned on each other and actively hunt each other down for food. Throughout the novel the reader sees many people that have been driven to cannibalism and sees how hard the Man and the Boy fight against cannibalism. The reader sees the Woman struggle with accepting this new world reality and how much strongly she wishes for her son to not have to experience the horrors around him.

Method:

My only source of data was the novel The Road by Cormac McCarthy. I first read this novel as assigned reading my Sophomore year of high school and before collecting data for my thesis I re-read the novel. After re-reading I chose my overall thesis argument and then skimmed the novel again to find supporting evidence. When skimming the novel I focused on finding scenes and quotes that related to the Woman character as my thesis argument focuses on the way she is portrayed throughout the novel. I used these quotes to support my argument that the Woman was, in fact, a good mother who only did what she believed to be best for her child. I also skimmed the novel for quotes that related to the new state of the world in the novel. Finding quotes about the devastation of the world helped to support my argument that the Woman’s state of mind and actions in the novel were reasonable given her circumstances. Finding quotes about the violent, awful world that surrounded the Woman helped to support my argument that the Woman believed an awful, horrific death for the Boy was inevitable and she only wished to save him from the horror that surrounded him and that was his fate. After reading the novel I was surprised by the number of times the word grey was used to describe the setting and so I chose to count and then chart the number of times this word is used. I decided to include this data to reinforce the idea that the world has become a truly terrible place that the Woman wishes to save her child from.

Analysis:

So far in my data research I have used several important quotes from the novel to support my proposed thesis. There are any significant quotes in the novel but one of the most important quotes I have included in my data is “Sooner or later they will catch us and they will kill us. They will rape me. They’ll rape him. They are going to rape us and kill us and eat us and you won’t face it. You’d rather wait for it to happen. But I can’t. I can’t” (McCarthy 56). This quote is dialogue spoken by the Woman and expresses to the reader the internal thoughts and feelings that the Woman was experiencing in the novel before committing suicide. This quote is significant because it demonstrates to the reader that before her suicide the Woman was thinking about what was best for both her child and herself. The Woman knew the fate that awaited her family if they continued on in the harsh cannibalistic environment that surrounded them and she did not want to have to witness that horrific fate befall anyone that she loved. In this passage the reader learns that the Woman wants to take the child with her but after discussion with the Man who does not agree with her decision she leaves without the child. After this passage the reader learns that the Woman has decided to take her own life because she knew she would be unable to bear to witness and endure the possible horrific end that she believed awaited the family. Many argue that the Woman made a selfish decision to leave her family, but this passage shows that in this extremely violent and hopeless environment that surrounded her she believed that this decision was the only decision that could save her son from being the victim of rape and cannibalism and was in fact a decision that the Woman made by having her child’s best interest in mind. Although many critics read the Man as the true hero and strong character in the novel because of his drive to fight for his son’s survival throughout the novel the reader comes to understand that the Man’s desire to keep the Boy alive is made out of selfishness. At one point in the novel the Boy asks his father “What would you do if I died?” (McCarthy 11) and the Man responds by saying “If you died I would want to die too” (McCarthy 11). This shows that really the Man just doesn’t want to be without the Boy. Later in the novel the Woman tells the Man “The one thing I can tell you is that you won’t survive for yourself. I know because I would never have come this far. A person who had no one would be well advised to cobble together some passable ghost. Breathe it into being and coax it along with words of love. Offer it each phantom crumb and shield it from harm with your body” (McCarthy 57). In this passage the Woman is telling the Man that she knows that he is only insisting on the Boy living because to be able to survive in this environment you need to have someone else to survive for. The Woman states that she knows this to be true because she “would never have come this far” (McCarthy 57). The Woman knows that the Man needs the Boy to live in order to continue on his hopeless quest to survive. Without the Boy the Man would be unable to find the drive to continue existing.

Conclusion:

            Through my literature review and my analysis I hopefully have been able to demonstrate that there is enough evidence to support my thesis. As I continue to work on my thesis in the future I will hopefully be able to find more evidence from the novel and from outside resources to support my argument. I am currently working on researching more feminist theories that will hopefully be useful in analyzing the Woman character.

Works Cited

Berit Astrom (2018) Post-Feminist Fatherhood and the Marginalization of the Mother in Cormac McCarthy’s The Road, Women: A Cultural Review, 29:1, 112-128, DOI: 10.1080/09574042.2018.1425539

Cooper, Lydia. “Eating at the Empire Table: Cormac McCarthy’s The Road and the Anglo-Irish Gothic.” MFS: Modern Fiction Studies, vol. 63, no. 3, 2017, pp. 547-570. EBSCOhost, bulldogs.tlu.edu:2048/login?url=http;//search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=mzh&AN=2017400380&site=eds-live&scope=site.

De Lauretis, Teresa. “The Technology of Gender”. Pp. 713-721.

Grosz, Elizabeth. “The Practice of Feminist Theory.” Difference: A Journal of Feminist Cultural Studies, vol. 21, no. 1, 2010, pp. 94-108. EBSCOhost, bulldogs.tlu.edu:2048/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=msh&AN=2010641280&site=eds-live&scope=site.

Longhurst, Robyn. “Maternal Encounters: The Ethics of Interruption. By Lisa Baraitser and Feminist Mothering in Theory and Practice, 1985-1995: A Study in Transformative Politics. By FIONA JOY GREEN and Feminist Art and the Maternal. By ANDREA LISS.” Hypatia, vol. 25, no. 3, Summer 2010, pp. 696-703. EBSCOhost, bulldogs.tlu.edu:2048/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=lfh&AN=66399461&site=eds-live&scope=site.

Marx, Karl. “Capital”. Pp. 268-275.