The Road Lesson Plan

Cormac McCarthy's career in literature has been long and varied, but it was The Road, his first foray into apocalyptic storytelling, that earned him international acclaim and the 2007 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. The novel's bleak future and everyman protagonist have inspired near-universal praise from critics, academics and the general reading public. Many readers are captivated by the bond between "the man" and "the boy" who serve as the novel's nameless heroes and fight to keep their lives and values intact. McCarthy says that the book was inspired by a trip to Texas with his young son; some of the conversations between the book's protagonists are...