Cormac Mccarthy The Road Analysis

Throughout history, women have fought for gender equality economically, socially, and opportunity wise. Women have tried to show that, in a multitude of occasions, females are just as capable of being successful and heroic like their male counterparts. The book The Road, by Cormac McCarthy, demonstrates feminist literary criticism by portraying women as property and puppets of men. The book, about a boy and his father who undergo obstacles after the destruction of civilization show through Feminist Criticism, the lowest form of feminist criticism. Thus, allowing us to see how male-dominated the book is and how minimal women were portrayed. Feminist literary criticism allows us to decipher and describe ways in which literature portrays male …show more content…
It is interesting to note the poor female roles in the book regardless of how important women actually are. Since the book is settled in a post-apocalyptic world human survival is crucial however, women are essential to reproduction. In the book the importance that women play in the world is not recognized as they seem to only be badly portrayed. For example, in the book women are attributed to destruction and death. When the boy's father dies he eventually meets a family. The women however, was a mother who was following his husband along with their children in order to survive. The book revolves around a man and a boy who's name is not identified that have to go through a journey full of many hardships. This all occurs in an post-apocalyptic American. Both the men and the boy set off towards an interstate located in the east and south. They had thought that if they remained at the north another winter might kill them. To make matters worse the Dad appears to be very ill of course complicating the journey. It is interesting to point out that often this journey is related back to the conquest of the American West with the pioneers and this idea helps us understand what the setting would look like.. Throughout the whole book we are able to see how the relationship between the father and the son grows. Even when they are facing unbearable weather, illness, hunger, and fear they hold onto the last piece of hope they have. As previously stated feminist literacy allows us to identify the oppression by patriarchy whether it is politically, socially, or economically. For a long period of time women have been expected to follow the male figure of the household and simply ensure that the house is clean and the children are cared for. In some cases women become a symbol for sex. For example, aside from the women being viewed as baby producers the dad seems to only miss her for sexual purposes