In the novel The Road, by Cormac McCarthy, a young boy and his father travel along a stretch of roadways amidst a post-apocalyptic wasteland that was once the United States of America; with the goal of making it to the coast to establish what they hope to be a better and safer life. The journey to the edge of what was once a peaceful and prosperous nation is a long and grueling trek. Along the way the duo encounter fiends that threaten their safety and well being. Though life of any kind is rare in this barren land the few humans that still remain are no longer civilized; they have fallen victim to their primitive instinct to survive by whatever means necessary. The unnamed father and son used their limited resources and knowledge to elude
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Several years prior to the time period in which this novel takes place a natural disaster of biblical proportions had taken place; “The clocks stopped at 1:17. A long shear of light and then a series of low concussions. He got up and went to the window. What is it? she said. He didnt answer. He went to the bathroom and threw the lightswitch but the power was already gone. A dull glow rose in the windowglass” (McCarthy 52). The light and jolts from the Earth would suggest a catastrophe similar to that of a volcanic eruption. The land that remains after the disaster is bare, lifeless, and burned. Animals are practically extinct, vegetation has been destroyed, and the humans that remain will either die of starvation or live with insanity. In the beginning the father did not know if life was better elsewhere, “Once in those early years he’d wakened in a barren wood and lay listening to flocks of migratory birds overhead in that bitter dark. Their half muted crankings miles above where they circled the earth as senselessly as insects trooping the rim of a bowl. He wished them godspeed till they were gone. He never heard them again” (McCarthy 53) He held onto hope that maybe this birds found a place full of vegetation and life, and that pushed him to move south in search of peace. The birds that are never heard again show that life is gone; the few things that …show more content…
The father and son had to live without hygiene products, proper clothing, shelter, and at most times very little food. They had simple worries when compared to ours today, “Mostly he worried about their shoes. That and food. Always food. In an old batboard smokehouse they found a ham gambreled up in a high corner. It looked like something fetched from a tomb, so dried and drawn” (McCarthy 17). Most people would have thrown out food in the condition of that ham, but this man and his child happily ate it because they knew it would help them survive another day. While scavenging through an abandoned supermarket the father makes a discovery, “By the door were two softdrink machines that had been tilted over into the floor and opened with a prybar. Coins everywhere in the ash. He sat and ran his hand around the works of the gutted machines and in the second one it closed over a cold metal cylinder. He withdrew it slowly and sat looking at a Coca-Cola. What is it, Papa? It’s a treat. For you.” (McCarthy 23). The boy has never tasted a Coca-Cola or even experienced carbonation, a delight that today is just overlooked as another part of our daily lives. We as humans in a first world country overlook simple things and many things we consider necessities in reality are not even
Several years prior to the time period in which this novel takes place a natural disaster of biblical proportions had taken place; “The clocks stopped at 1:17. A long shear of light and then a series of low concussions. He got up and went to the window. What is it? she said. He didnt answer. He went to the bathroom and threw the lightswitch but the power was already gone. A dull glow rose in the windowglass” (McCarthy 52). The light and jolts from the Earth would suggest a catastrophe similar to that of a volcanic eruption. The land that remains after the disaster is bare, lifeless, and burned. Animals are practically extinct, vegetation has been destroyed, and the humans that remain will either die of starvation or live with insanity. In the beginning the father did not know if life was better elsewhere, “Once in those early years he’d wakened in a barren wood and lay listening to flocks of migratory birds overhead in that bitter dark. Their half muted crankings miles above where they circled the earth as senselessly as insects trooping the rim of a bowl. He wished them godspeed till they were gone. He never heard them again” (McCarthy 53) He held onto hope that maybe this birds found a place full of vegetation and life, and that pushed him to move south in search of peace. The birds that are never heard again show that life is gone; the few things that …show more content…
The father and son had to live without hygiene products, proper clothing, shelter, and at most times very little food. They had simple worries when compared to ours today, “Mostly he worried about their shoes. That and food. Always food. In an old batboard smokehouse they found a ham gambreled up in a high corner. It looked like something fetched from a tomb, so dried and drawn” (McCarthy 17). Most people would have thrown out food in the condition of that ham, but this man and his child happily ate it because they knew it would help them survive another day. While scavenging through an abandoned supermarket the father makes a discovery, “By the door were two softdrink machines that had been tilted over into the floor and opened with a prybar. Coins everywhere in the ash. He sat and ran his hand around the works of the gutted machines and in the second one it closed over a cold metal cylinder. He withdrew it slowly and sat looking at a Coca-Cola. What is it, Papa? It’s a treat. For you.” (McCarthy 23). The boy has never tasted a Coca-Cola or even experienced carbonation, a delight that today is just overlooked as another part of our daily lives. We as humans in a first world country overlook simple things and many things we consider necessities in reality are not even