Natural decay directly influences the moral decay in Cormac McCarthy's The Road and John Hillcoat's film adaptation of the same title. The end of the world in this narrative is so severe because of the loss of nature. When humans see the end of their natural environment, something in them changes; by severing their ties to the natural world, they subsequently lose their ties to humanity as well. This is evident in the contrast between the man and boy and the gangs of cannibals. The writing tool of setting is especially important for this topic because McCarthy often describes where the man and boy are based on the natural setting. Throughout the novel we read descriptions of gray skies, fallen trees, and dark oceans, all signs of the earth's decay. Some scholars have called McCarthy's novel the first to write from an environmentalist perspective; while there have been other post-apocalyptic novels and films before The Road, McCarthy's is one of the first to include the decay of the earth as well as the decay of humanity. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay The dialogues scattered throughout the novel are perhaps a visual representation of the dying world; just as the earth has been stripped of its natural beauty and elegance, so too has human conversation. The scarcity on the page visually represents the scarcity of the world. The film adaptation of John Hillcoat's novel also focuses on the depiction of a world in environmental decay. Using real devastated locations, Hillcoat represents how the real environment and nature have been affected. The locations on the set are particularly impactful. The visual depiction of American devastation accurately represents McCarthy's novel. On screen we see the destruction of Mount St. Helens in Washington, the damage caused by Hurricane Katrina in Louisiana, abandoned highways and old steel mills in Pennsylvania, and blighted parts of Pittsburgh. Abandoned shopping malls, stranded semi-trucks, and ruined stadiums all visually represent the impact that man-made neglect and destruction has had on our nation. Abandoned ships, dark landscapes and a lake full of fallen trees from Mount St. Helen disturbingly reveal how natural disasters have destroyed parts of our society. There's also a shot where Hillcoat chose to insert real footage of the 9/11 smoke cloud. All of these representations on screen communicate the devastation that can occur in our world. Additionally, Hillcoat makes use of dark landscapes and matching lighting. The grays and browns in the landscape correspond to the behavior of the characters; from the clouds in the sky to the burned trees, Hillcoat ensures that every scene matches the story. Both McCarthy's novel and Hillcoat's adaptation are warnings to their audiences: take care of your families; keep your morals; enhance the natural world. Don't let destruction like this happen to you. A likely response to this novel and film would therefore be to spend time with your family while seeing families torn apart and a father/son come closer than ever to survive; explore what it means to be the “good guy” and “bring the fire” in today's society; and spend time appreciating the value of our natural environment, realizing how vital it is to our survival. By examining the setting of the novel and the staging of the film, we will discover how natural decayleads to moral decay. In the film and in the novel, nature is somehow connected to morality. When nature decays and is destroyed, so is our morality. Although natural disasters are beyond human control, humans continue to suffer during them. During these natural disasters, human morality is tested; we hear of theft and looting, but we also hear of heroic rescues. Even in The Road we see two sides: those who are the "good guys", who try to maintain morality and "bring the fire", and the bad guys, those who have abandoned their life.morality and have turned to violence and cannibalism. The novel depicts many scenes of nature decay. The second sentence of the novel reads: “Dark nights beyond darkness and days each grayer than the ones before” (McCarthy 3). From the beginning, our characters Man and Boy find themselves in a very dark and bleak world. As we continue, there are more signs of destruction: “The city has largely been burned. No sign of life” (McCarthy 12). It is important to note that “no signs of life” includes animal and plant life as well as human life. In this post-apocalyptic world not even animals and plants have survived. Later in the book we learn that the Boy does not believe birds exist in real life; he only saw them in books. The most disturbing aspect of this world is its sterility; it is completely lifeless. Countless times as man looks out over the landscape, all he sees is “everything fades into darkness” (McCarthy 4). He looks “among the dead trees” hoping to find “something colorful. Any movement. Any trace of stagnant smoke,” but found nothing (McCarthy 4). The nature of this world is dead trees, cloudy skies, and desolation. There is no bright sunlight, only gray and lighter gray. The earth is deteriorating and, at the same time, the humanity of the people still alive. In addition to hunger and hypothermia, the ruthless gangs of cannibals are the Man and the Boy's worst enemy houses several times in the book. Halfway through the novel it is said: “The world will soon be largely populated by men who would eat your children before your eyes and the cities themselves are held by gangs of blackened looters who dig tunnels among the ruins and they crawl out of the white rubble of teeth and eyes carrying charred, anonymous food cans in nylon nets like shoppers in the police stations of hell” (McCarthy 181). even every kind of morality. Cannibals are seen eating a child over a fire and spitting it out in the woods, keeping starving naked humans in a basement as a food supply, and stealing from anyone who might benefit. These people are ruthless and heartless. They are not the good guys, as the novel depicts, and in fact there are very few good guys left. The film also addresses these themes. The setting plays an important role in John Hillcoat's adaptation. Design elements, as described in Looking at Movies, are very important in this film. To convey the sense of decadence and desperation, Hillcoat made sure the setting was as bleak and bare as possible. One aspect of staging is lighting, and Hillcoat used lighting to his advantage. In Looking at Movies, it is said about light: “Often, much of what we remember about a film is its expressive style of illuminating faces, figures, surfaces, settings, or landscapes” (Barsam 185-6). In the opening scene of The Road, the lighting portrays emotions to the audience. As the film begins, we see a well-lit outdoor shot of a house and flowering trees..