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The Road Videos 11 videos
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The Road Part 6: Alone 10384 Views
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Description:
Beware of the anti-prophets. And of like...wasps, and fire, and stuff...just exercise caution in general, okay, Shmoopers? We worry. Once you’re done buying a protective bubble to live in, hit play to learn more about Ely the Anti-prophet.
Transcript
- 00:01
We speak student!
- 00:05
[ scream ]
- 00:06
The Road
- 00:07
Alone
- 00:07
a la Shmoop
Full Transcript
- 00:10
[ bird caws ]
- 00:12
Who is Eli?
- 00:15
Eli's actually the only
- 00:16
person in the entire story with a name.
- 00:18
He is a guy,
- 00:20
a very old man, who they run into along the road.
- 00:23
His name maybe isn't actually even Eli.
- 00:25
He says, "My name's not Eli, but that's what people call me."
- 00:27
But he is one of these
- 00:31
characters who the boy questions how they should treat him.
- 00:34
The man says, "We don't need to do anything for him.
- 00:36
We don't need to give him food. We don't need to help him.
- 00:37
We're on our own here. We're protecting ourselves."
- 00:39
And the boy says ,"No, no, no. Give him food.
- 00:41
Help him. Let's do things for him."
- 00:43
So it kind of shows, highlights,
- 00:46
the boy as having the most humanity of anyone in the book.
- 00:49
Even the father is there just to protect the boy,
- 00:52
and the boy still kind of holds onto this
- 00:53
goodness that we think of
- 00:55
that maybe that can be brought back into the world.
- 00:58
But Eli also plays an important role because he is
- 01:01
the prophet of the book.
- 01:03
If you think about the prophet Elijah,
- 01:05
- Eli, they have similar names. - He would be Morgan Freeman.
- 01:08
Exactly. He totally would be.
- 01:09
Except Morgan Freeman doesn't play him in the movie.
- 01:11
So, yeah, he's this kind of prophet type guy,
- 01:14
but he speaks --
- 01:15
He says things that are completely incomprehensible.
- 01:18
And we kind of wonder
- 01:20
if he's an anti-prophet.
- 01:22
And it's kind of the idea that
- 01:23
there's just no such thing as a prophet
- 01:25
in a world that has gone so dark
- 01:27
like in The Road.
- 01:28
So the character who is the would-be prophet
- 01:31
can't actually help them or give them any sage advice.
- 01:35
[ pen writing ]
- 01:37
Who is Eli and how did they meet him?
- 01:40
How does Eli bring out the goodness in the boy?
- 01:43
Is Eli crazy?
- 01:45
What is the novel's stance on prophets and God?
- 01:52
Anyone prophecy the winning lotto numbers here?
- 01:54
We could use some help.
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