A post apocalyptic world, humanity gone awry, gore and guts, and a loving relationship between father and son -- all of these elements culminate in Cormac McCarthy's The Road to generate a gripping and compelling story that instantly became an American classic. 

Despite the book's premise and setting, I found the themes, motifs, and messages highly relevant and relatable. Oftentimes while reading I caught myself drawing connections between the Man and the Boy's love and my own personal relationships; I also found the breakdown of humanity and civilization surprisingly understandable and realistic. 

Many aspects of The Road also formed clear connections to other literature and media. I knew I wanted to focus my response on one of these connections, as I think such projects are the most interesting, engaging, and relevant. I weighed my options carefully. Of course, one cannot discuss famous apocalyptic/dystopian literature without mentioning 1984 -- and, indeed, there are plenty of links between McCarthy's and Orwell's prose. While 1984 was tempting, I wanted to think a little more outside the box (See? This class really has pulled my out of my comfort zone...). I played around with the idea of incorporating pop culture since readers and audiences today are really eating up the whole "post apocalyptic" thing, from Divergent to The Hunger Games to my personal favorite, The Walking Dead. I eventually rejected them all, simply because they weren't different enough to juxtapose against The Road. As I sat in my room trying to jog my brain for ideas, incessantly repeating The Road... The Road... in my head, it finally hit me. My favorite poem, similar in title but completely different in its words and message, was a perfect fit. 

I considered incorporating quotes and textual evidence from The Road to compare and relate to each verse from The Road Not Taken, but I ended up deciding against it. I didn't want my video to be bogged down by words and analysis; rather, I wanted viewers to interpret my piece with little guidance so they could form their own individual opinions and perspectives. Instead, I incorporated clips from the movie that visualized the textual passages I had selected. Then I mixed in some audio collaging to evoke pertinent emotions from each scene as well as underscore important ideas from the literature (this is most evident in the crackling fire sounds at the end of the piece while the Man and the Boy's loving relationship is highlighted). Here's what I produced in my first draft:

Looking back at all of my work in my portfolio, I think my growth in terms of both analysis and mastery of technology is quite evident. I believe the culmination of this is best represented in this assignment. From an analytical side, I successfully compared two contrasting literary classics with minimal words and without explicit explanation. As for mastering technology, I used all the strategies I had picked up from creating my ePoem in Camtasia and utilized them as much as possible. I also took a few artistic risks and twists I hadn't previously considered, such as splitting one long video into multiple chunks that played simultaneously. I also discovered the power of opacity in creating effective and symbolic transitions, which was especially helpful when trying to visually compare The Road and The Road Not Taken. Overall I sincerely enjoyed this assignment; it strengthened my own understanding of the novel, forced me to challenge myself, and allowed me to demonstrate my growth and knowledge from the entire semester.