First Chapter extract from 'The Road' by Cormac Mccarthy

An extract from 'The Road' describing a dream of seeing a creature inside a cave:

''When he woke in the woods in the dark and the cold of the night he'd reach out to touch the child sleeping beside him. Nights dark beyond darkness and the days more gray each one than what had gone before. Like the onset of some cold glaucoma dimming away the world. His hand rose and fell softly with each precious breath. He pushed away the plastic tarpaulin and raised himself in the stinking robes and blankets and looked toward the east for any light but there was none. In the dream from which he'd wakened he had wandered in a cave where the child led him by the hand. Their light playing over the wet flowstone walls. Like pilgrims in a fable swallowed up and lost among the inward parts of some granitic beast. Deep stone flues where the water dripped and sang. Tolling in the silence the minutes of the earth and the hours and the days of it and the years without cease. Until they stood in a great stone room where lay a black and ancient lake. And on the far shore a creature that raised its dripping mouth from the rimstone pool and stared into the light with eyes dead white and sightless as the eggs of spiders. It swung its head low over the water as if to take the scent of what it could not see. Crouching there pale and naked and translucent, its alabaster bones cast up in shadow on the rocks behind it. Its bowels, its beating heart. The brain that pulsed in a dull glass bell. It swung its head from side to side and then gave out a low moan and turned and lurched away and loped soundlessly into the dark.

With the first gray light he rose and left the boy sleeping and walked out to the road and squatted and studied the country to the south. Barren, silent, godless. He thought the month was October but he wasnt sure. He hadnt kept a calendar for years. They were moving south. There'd be no surviving another winter here.

Read more: http://www.oprah.com/oprahsbookclub/Read-an-Excerpt-from-The-Road-by-Cormac-McCarthy#ixzz2MIjGYAJn

The imagery is very strong and produces mystery around the child and the ancient lake where a creature lay. I like the dark, mystic tone which I wish to create to reveal that there might be spiritual activity controlling given events. In particular I like the way the creature was introduced:

''Until they stood in a great stone room where lay a black and ancient lake. And on the far shore a creature that raised its dripping mouth from the rimstone pool and stared into the light with eyes dead white and sightless as the eggs of spiders...''

I imagine that the creature is across the lake, revealed by a beam of light which then slowly moves back into the darkness. This idea could possibly aid the visual look to the beginning of my story. I want to start of with what seems like a dream- a women and creature standing across the a small stream staring back at Mazikki. It would add a sense of mystery and a clue to the events of come which is the essences of a 'flashback'. This would then lead to the true beginning of the tale to reveal how the characters got there. This will work well as long as the 'flashback' or dream sequence doesn't reveal too much, rendering the rest of the story useless. 

I like the idea of 'light and darkness' because it adds a sense of loneliness. Initially, I want my character to feel isolated and alone, and when struck with is idea of light and dark I also think of black and white. They both share a link. I also imagine Mcarthy's description of the dream to be black and white especially when he uses other words such as grey, dark and dull adding a very isolated tone. 

All in all it is a compelling first chapter to an interesting story which engages the audience and makes them want more. This ideal is something I want to take and put into my piece to give it that compelling nature.

Read more: http://www.oprah.com/oprahsbookclub/Read-an-Excerpt-from-The-Road-by-Cormac-McCarthy#ixzz2MIiu0A2v