Paper 2: The Road by Cormac McCarthy - Essay Example

The paradox of the technological developments has become a historical issue. Thus this issue finds place in history texts like “inventing America: The History of United States” (Pauline Maier, Merrit Roe Smith, Alexander Keyssar, Daniel J. Kevles).This text takes innovation as a theme to analyze the history of the United States. The authors excitingly point out the development of maize/corn as the most important technological achievement in plant breeding. The discovery of stable staple food crop, according to the authors fed the development of the civilization.

Skyscrapers, bridges, underground complexes and other architectural advancements, Medical technological developments from early hygiene to the genetic engineering, advancement of transportation technologies like the development of roads to automobiles and aircrafts, the aggressive growth of information technology are all things the human race can always be proud of. These developments led to material advancement of human life. Comforts of life as well as the span of life got increased. On the other side, as the world became more and more materialistic, spiritual hollowness grew with in the human mind.

Tolerance and concern for the other got reduced. Men became more conscious of self defense as he lost the faith in the other totally. This is where the arms race comes. And it is where the technological advancements become destructive. McCarthy in The Road hints about the “Bad guys”. May be they are the war mongers and the terrorists of this century, the one who causes the destruction and one who runs around the debris of destruction. The emergence of these “bad guys” and the support they got from the advanced technology is very clearly described in “Inventing America”.

“Inventing America” presents very keen insight into how the technology helped military affairs and confrontational diplomacy. Wars of consequences are covered in detail with detailed