Topic 1: Analyze a character from your novel whose mind is pulled in conflicting directions by two compelling desires, ambitions, obligations, or influences.

Ambresha Bennett  1st period

In the novel The Road, the author Cormac McCarthy, uses vivid diction to portray a conflicting situation between what is obligated to do in life and the hardships that interfere with those obligations. Food was scarce, and the father and his son were starving. “Just tell me. We wouldn’t ever eat anybody; would we? No. Of course not. Even if we were starving? We’re starving now.” The father was obligated to feed his son, but it was hard to find food. Other people in the world chose to become cannibals. “When he woke in the woods in he dark and the cold of the night he’d reach out to touch the child sleeping beside him.” He slept light at night to make sure his son stayed alive and safe. He also carried a gun to protect his son from cannibals. “He dove and grabbed the boy and rolled and came up holding hi, against his chest with the knife at his throat.” He used the gun to protect his son from being killed. Being a parent takes a lot of responsibility with feeding the child and protecting them at all cost. The father in The Road did what he was obligated to do and he overcame the hardships to take care of his son.