① I added The Road to my top ten list. I read it at home and nearly cried in front of my roommate. I read harrowing and tender passages of such craftsmanship, beauty, and sorrow that I choked up. This is a dark and terrifying book. It is a work of art.

I dare not attempt to address larger compositional issues, not after reading Michael Chabon’s superb NYT review. Is The Road science-fiction or literature? What possible outcomes are there in an apocalyptic novel, and how does the reader’s understanding of the limited number of resolutions affect their reading? These issues and many more were addressed by Chabon, so I direct you there. As far as Oprah selecting The Road for her book club, my coworker Adam said it best: “I want those people to feel like I did.”

How did I feel? I felt like someone close to me died. Over and over and over again, with every turn of the page.

The following scene follows a description of a ruined landscape in which the father watches gray snowflakes fall on his hand and “expire there like the last host of christendom:”

“From daydreams on the road there was no waking. He plodded on. He could remember everything of her save her scent. Seated in a theater with her beside him leaning forward listening to the music. Gold scrollwork and sconces and the tall columnar drapes at either side of the stage. She held his hand in her lap and he could feel the tops of her stockings through the thin stuff of her summer dress. Freeze this frame. Now call down your cold and your dark and be damned.”

This is some of the most masterful writing I’ve ever read. This is a stand-alone creative writing lesson.

A burned, winter landscape transitions easily and swiftly into a pleasurable memory of music, summer, and love. Then it slams the reader back with one of my favorite lines in any book, “Now call down your cold and your dark and be damned.”

That line is pure English. Monosyllabic pentameter, pure poetry of the English tongue. The alliteration of “down, cold, dark, damned.” The beautiful vowel sounds of “now, down, your, dark, and, damned.” Everything works, and it works together. Immediately following the bliss of memory, it is a crushing, emotionally devastating statement that ties two people in love into the dualities of past and present, have and have not, happiness and sorrow, civilization and wilderness. More, it subtly supports one of the central themes of the novel, that of a father’s love for his son.

These dualities run throughout the scene. Take, for example, “seated/theater,” “tops/stockings,” thin/stuff/summer/dress” – evocative pairings of S and T sounds again mirroring the two lovers, the pleasure of memory with harsh reality.

Or, look how well the syllables of “gold scrollwork and sconces” compare to “tall columnar.” The letters of “tall columnar” almost resemble the physical objects the words describe, with the vertical stems of the L’s and the rounded bowls and stresses of the C, O, and U. Say “gold scrollwork and sconces” and you also find that the sounds resemble the letters.

McCarthy chose every word with the utmost care. It is spare prose to match the subject and it is beautifully crafted. Nothing is wasted, overwrought, or unnecessary. A casual reader will read it with ease, without an awareness of craft, and that is, perhaps, for the best. Too much awareness of the writer’s work spoils the stew – and this is heavy stew.

Yet, despite the weight of its subject matter, The Road is a hopeful novel. The father’s love for his son, his unwavering efforts to protect and provide for his son, and his hope for his son’s future make even the bleakest moments bearable, and sometimes, uncomfortably familiar. Although McCarthy has shown us a world where the living exist with “Borrowed time and borrowed world and borrowed eyes with which to sorrow it,” he also shows that beauty and happiness also exist in borrowed time, in a borrowed world, through borrowed eyes.

第一句运用了rhetorical question 设问

第三句darling buds, darling 意为亲爱的可爱的，含有情感色彩，用来形容buds花蕾用了personification 拟人

第四句lease原意租约租期，这里指life time 作用了metaphor 隐喻的手法

第五句第六句将太阳拟人化the eye of ...his gold complexion(面色)也用了personification。

第七句第一个fair指具体的美的人或事物，第二个指抽象意义美本身，运用了pun一语双关，也用了alliteration头韵。

第九句the eternal summer 比喻永恒的不朽的青春，用了metaphor,同时eternal 永恒的这个词也用了夸张hyperbole 的修辞手法, 因为没有什么是永恒的。

第十和十一句运用了倒装inversion 的修辞手法，同时第十一句death brag(吹牛，自夸)也用了拟人personification 的修辞手法。

一、定义

1、alliteration指安排两个以上首字母相同的词相邻。

2、assonance安排两个以上的有相同元音发音的词相邻。

3、consonance安排两个以上的有相同辅音发音的词相邻。

二、区别

（一）含义不同

1、alliteration指头韵，单词开头读音的重复。

2、assonance指类似的音，谐音，类韵，修辞上用于指相同元音发音的词相邻。

3、consonance指调和、和音，修辞上指相同辅音发音的词相邻。

（二）用法不同

1、alliteration修辞上指单词开头读音的重复。如：

Finally friends find Friday fun.(句子每个单词都是字母 "F" 开头）

最后朋友们发现星期五很有趣。

2、assonance有相同元音发音的词相邻。如：

A mad bat circled the room.（mad bat中都有字母a）

一只疯蝙蝠在房间盘旋。

3、consonance有相同辅音发音的词相邻。例：

The uncertain rustle of noise caused my poise.( noise和poise都有辅音 "S" )

不确定的沙沙声使我镇定下来。

三、和中文联边体的区别

（一）含义不同

1、联边体：是诗句中的每个字都用偏旁部首相同的字组成，形成特别整齐的形式美。

2、英语alliteration, assonance, consonance三种修辞则是英文单词中同首字母、韵母发音相同、辅音相同。

（二）表现方式不同

1、联边体是以汉字的偏旁部首相同，构成字形上的结构整齐。

2、英语alliteration, assonance, consonance三种修辞则是以读音押韵为主要表现形式。

（三）用法不同

1、联边体是以汉字的偏旁部首相同。如宋黄庭坚《戏题》：

逍遥近道边，憩息慰惫懑。晴晖时晦明，谚语谐谠论。

草菜荒蒙茏，室屋壅尘坌。僮仆侍伶侧，泾渭清浊混。

内容是写士大夫“一肚皮不合时宜”的孤愤清贫。首句写行路。字皆从“走之”；次句写情绪，皆从“竖心”；三句写天气，故从日；四句写剧谈，字皆从言；五句写荒草，字皆草头；六句写蜗居，字皆土底；七句写身边僮仆，字皆从“立人”；末句写贤愚混杂如泥沙，故字皆从点水。。

2、英语allitera

1，后缀-on = 人，物、物质、化学名词

①用作非金属元素名称的词尾。carbon 碳， boron 硼、silicon 硅，argon 氩、neon 氖；

②用于基本粒子名称的词尾。 electron 电子。

2，ion后缀表示某一动作过程、结果与状态

alienation n. 疏远,离间,割让；

alimentation 营养；

allegation n. （无证据的）指控；

alliteration n. 头韵；

Alliteration：头韵，也叫nitial rhyme，或head rhyme，指两个单词或两个单词以上的首字母相同，形成悦耳的读音。它是英语文学中的重要修辞手法之一，它蕴含了语言的音乐美和整齐美，使得语言声情交融、音义一体，具有很强的表现力和感染力。其实我们学了很多使用了头韵的日常用语，比如：first and foremost（首先），Wild West Wind（狂野的西风---雪莱《西风颂》。许多英语绕口令更是把头韵法用到极致，比如：while we were walking, we were watching window washers' wash washington's windows with warm washing water. （当我们走路时，我们看着清洁窗户的人用暖水清洗华盛顿的窗户。）