THE ROAD AND THE HAUNTING MEMORIES IT BRINGS
Survival is the main essence of The Road and Cormac McCarthy reveals a lot about his characters and their will to survive amidst the uncertainty that has befallen them. By delving into their pasts and examining the dreams they continue to have about their lives before the desolate present. The man in The Road is an outstanding example of this: The man is constantly haunted by his past life and is always trying to forget about the memories that torture him. His wife’s suicide plagues him and her admission to him that she regretted having their child haunt him. He tried to forget about his life by throwing away his wife’s photo, not wanting to take his son into his old home and by never revealing anything personal about himself to anyone not even his own son. …show more content…
These memories he regains from his past life would distract him from the road because revisiting these memories would be like ripping a bandage off of a not yet healed wound. Most likely causing the man to have PTSD, which would be an even larger burden to carry in their cart and they don’t have time on the road to stop, sit and wait for the man's PTSD to calm down. So on pg 64 when the cannibal asks him” Are you a doctor ?”. The man tells him “ I’m not anything.” he keeps himself from opening himself up to the cannibal making him more vulnerable and susceptible to a PTSD attack for saying “yeah I’m a doctor” and having past life memories open up. So by not revealing information about himself he further alienates himself from his past life making him more hardened and a more likely candidate for survival on the
Survival is the main essence of The Road and Cormac McCarthy reveals a lot about his characters and their will to survive amidst the uncertainty that has befallen them. By delving into their pasts and examining the dreams they continue to have about their lives before the desolate present. The man in The Road is an outstanding example of this: The man is constantly haunted by his past life and is always trying to forget about the memories that torture him. His wife’s suicide plagues him and her admission to him that she regretted having their child haunt him. He tried to forget about his life by throwing away his wife’s photo, not wanting to take his son into his old home and by never revealing anything personal about himself to anyone not even his own son. …show more content…
These memories he regains from his past life would distract him from the road because revisiting these memories would be like ripping a bandage off of a not yet healed wound. Most likely causing the man to have PTSD, which would be an even larger burden to carry in their cart and they don’t have time on the road to stop, sit and wait for the man's PTSD to calm down. So on pg 64 when the cannibal asks him” Are you a doctor ?”. The man tells him “ I’m not anything.” he keeps himself from opening himself up to the cannibal making him more vulnerable and susceptible to a PTSD attack for saying “yeah I’m a doctor” and having past life memories open up. So by not revealing information about himself he further alienates himself from his past life making him more hardened and a more likely candidate for survival on the