A Depressing World

In The Road, a bleak and desolate landscape is set before us. There seems to be no hope whatsoever. Ash covers the lands, the sky is dark, the trees are rotten and dead, there seems to be earthquakes, and everyone seems to be dying or battling to survive. The story focuses on two people, a son and a father, who trek their way to the south, seeking refuge and warmth from the bitter cold. The father and son travel along a road, using a map as their guide and a cart for their food and supplies. They avoid the gangs that have formed and continue to travel, but the question that bothers me is what happened to cause this. I came up with two theories that could plunge the world in such a depressing manner. My first guess was that it was a volcano that erupted, maybe the Ring of Fire, or the Volcano that resides in Yellowstone Park. If that volcano erupts, it could signal the end of the world. The sun will be blotted out from the immense amounts of ash spat into the air. Nearly all living creatures would be wiped out, and basically any plant would whither and die. Ash would continuous rain down from the sky, and the volcano erupting could cause the tectonic plates to shift, causing earthquakes. This would mimic the landscape of the burned America McCarthy lays before us. My second theory was that possibly a massive meteor struck Earth, and did basically the same thing as volcanoes. When it slammed into Earth, massive amounts of dirt was blown up into the sky, going to space possibly, and covered the blue skies, creating the gray sky in The Road. The burning meteor caused massive fires and ashes, as well as its impact messing up the tectonic plates and making them move. This would possibly leave more survivors than the volcano erupting, but it would have the same effect, wiping thousands of people out. This may be what shaped the macabre environment.

Meanings behind the Names

The language of The Handmaid’s Tale is odd, as in the words and phrases that are used. There are “Marthas,” “Commanders,” “Wives,” “Handmaids,” “Guardians,” “Eyes,” and many more. Each name has some significance to them, and when I looked up what Martha meant, it came from the Old Testament story of Martha and her brother, Lazarus. Lazarus was sick and Martha tended to him, like a servant. Not only that, but Martha was the one who did all the chores, while her sister, Mary, sat and listened to the teachings of Jesus, another similarity between being a servant in the household of a Commander and the Biblical Martha. The rest of the names are fairly obvious to what they mean, Commanders being the heads, Wives being the original wives of the Commanders. Handmaid is a more clever name because it name just means, from the two definitions, “something that is necessarily subservient or subordinate to another,” and “a female servant or attendant.” Handmaids are meant to be subservient and subordinate, Handmaid is also used within the Bible, meaning just plainly as servant. “It is probable that Hagar was Sarah's personal attendant while she was in the house of Pharaoh, and was among those maidservants whom Abram had brought from Egypt.” This actually relates to the beginning of the book, or rather before the book even starts. Three quotes are on one of the first pages of The Handmaid’s Tale, and the first quote is about how Rachel could not give birth so she sent Jacob to her servant, Bilhah to bore her a child. With Sarah, she gave her servant, Hagar, to Abram to have a child, and that child was Ishmael. The language with the names held interesting information as to how they were given the names.