ShmoopTube

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We speak student!

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[ scream ]

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The Road

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Imagine

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a la Shmoop

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[ bird caws ]

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What is setting in The Road?

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I mean, the setting is the road.

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It's the title. It's the setting.

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- It's the main character. - And where are they going to?

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Roads imply you go from point A to point B usually.

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- Yeah, yep. - Where are they heading?

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So in theory, they're heading to the coast.

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They're trying to basically

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reach the southeastern coast of the United States.

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We never really get a sense

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of exactly where they are in the book.

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We can kind of tell that they're in the southeastern United States.

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There is one indication in the book that they're in Tennessee,

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because it says, "Welcome to Rock City,"

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which is a place in Tennessee.

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But it could be that they are seeing that sign

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from miles down the road.

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That could be in Cleveland.

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Yeah, but they're somewhere in the U.S.

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It's supposed to be a familiar place to us.

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But they're heading toward the coast.

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There is an end goal.

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And, we'll talk in a few lessons, once they reach the end goal,

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what's there.

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But, yeah, the road is supposed to be taking them somewhere.

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But the road is also the only constant they have.

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Everywhere they go, they don't know what they're gonna come across.

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They don't know if there's gonna be cannibals

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or if they're going to get killed,

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or if they're gonna get sick or die or whatever.

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But they know that the road will still be there.

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So the road kind of serves as the one

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constant in the book.

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Other than that, the setting is just bleak.

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That is the only way to describe it.

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Everything's grey. Everything's covered in ash.

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There's no light anywhere.

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So there are moments in the book,

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like when they come across the bunker with all this food in it,

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where it's like this bright moment

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in the book and it just feels really weird.

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You're like, "Something's off."

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Because it's like the one time where there's

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electricity and coffee and Coca-Cola.

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And you're like, "'This isn't good.

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Something terrible is about to happen."

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So you kind of come to expect that barren, ashen landscape.

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[ pen writing ]

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What is the setting?

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Where are they headed?

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Why is the road so important to the characters?

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Does the setting ever change and why?

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[ singing ] On the road again.

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