Childhood In Cormac Mccarthy's The Road

Cormac McCarthy’s novel, The Road, shows how a young boy grows to be independent. This makes me believe that McCarthy’s novel is a coming-of-age story. Through various aspects of his novel, McCarthy shows how humans are hybridized; we are a mix between dependency and autonomy and that determines our identity. As we learn, grow, and mature, we must find a balance between the spectrum of independence and community. In The Road, the boy was depicted as dependent on the father. If the boy needed food, shelter, love, or security, he looked to the father. As the story progresses, the man’s health deteriorates due to the road, and the roles switch. The boy then begins to care for the man, which is teaching him how to live independently of his father. At the beginning of the novel, the boy would not have been able to take care of the father, but because of his circumstances he is making the transition into independence. …show more content…
The dreams are either good or bad. Throughout The Road, the dad expressed his dislike of good dreams. He felt that meant the person was losing touch with reality because, in their world, there was not much good. At the beginning of the book, the boy had mostly good dreams. On the contrary, the man had bad dreams. As the man got sicker and the boy matured, their dreams reversed. The man started having good dreams and the boy began having bad dreams. The boy over time was slowly losing his innocence and naivety and discovering the world for what it is: a terrible place. Part of making that transition into adulthood is learning that the world is not the same one that was once seen through rose-colored