The Road: Sympathy in a World that Offers None
Cormac McCarthy’s novel The Road is a tale of a father and son’s journey of survival in a post-apocalyptic holocaust world full of marauders and cannibals. The father’s animalistic behavior throughout the novel reflect the intentions of most of the society around them, while the son represents sympathy in a world that has no more to offer. In The Road, whenever the father and son encounter others on their journey the boy shows more sympathy toward them, while his father displays more concern over the survival of them both. As a result, it’s the son who is able to help the man show kindness to others. In the novel, McCarthy separates the society into two categories, “The good guys” and “The …show more content…
After being by their fire, the father and son return to their camp only to realize that someone had, “took everything” (McCarthy 253). The father and son begin to go after the stranger following foot prints and cart trails and soon approach him; the father removes his pistol and says, “get away from the cart” (McCarthy 255). Seeing the pistol, the man backs up however still holding his knife, the father cocks his weapon saying, “If you dont put down the knife and get away from the cart, . . .I’m going to blow your brains out.” (McCarthy 256). The thief, “laid the knife on top of the blankets and backed away and stood.” (McCarthy 256). The son pleading to his father, “Papa please dont kill the man.” (McCarthy 256). The father then demanded the thief remove his clothes as well as giving them the cart, leaving the thief with nothing. As the father and son set out the boy cry’s uncontrollably, the father says to his son, “You have to stop crying,” the son replies, “I cant.” (McCarthy 258). The father finally submits to his son’s wishes and they turn back with intentions of returning the man’s clothes, with no avail they, “piled the man’s shoes and clothes in the road.” (McCarthy 260). Although the thief had left the father and son with nothing the son still …show more content…
You could see them standing in the amber current where the white edges of their fins wimpled softly in the flow. They smelled of moss in your hand. Polished and muscular and torsional. On their backs were vermiculate patterns that were maps of the world in its becoming. Maps and mazes. Of a thing which could not be put back. Not be made right again. In the deep glens where they lived all things were older than man and they hummed of mystery.” (McCarthy 287). The trout in this quote help to emphasize the beauty of memory despite the loss, that what McCarthy is trying to evoke is a human longing for what once was (variegation, landscape) the confusion that was once life. It seems to be a reflection of the remembrance of the old world. However, this poem betrays what we would say is the immeasurable love that the father had for his son, his whole being that he would do anything even put themselves in danger in order to hold on to
Cormac McCarthy’s novel The Road is a tale of a father and son’s journey of survival in a post-apocalyptic holocaust world full of marauders and cannibals. The father’s animalistic behavior throughout the novel reflect the intentions of most of the society around them, while the son represents sympathy in a world that has no more to offer. In The Road, whenever the father and son encounter others on their journey the boy shows more sympathy toward them, while his father displays more concern over the survival of them both. As a result, it’s the son who is able to help the man show kindness to others. In the novel, McCarthy separates the society into two categories, “The good guys” and “The …show more content…
After being by their fire, the father and son return to their camp only to realize that someone had, “took everything” (McCarthy 253). The father and son begin to go after the stranger following foot prints and cart trails and soon approach him; the father removes his pistol and says, “get away from the cart” (McCarthy 255). Seeing the pistol, the man backs up however still holding his knife, the father cocks his weapon saying, “If you dont put down the knife and get away from the cart, . . .I’m going to blow your brains out.” (McCarthy 256). The thief, “laid the knife on top of the blankets and backed away and stood.” (McCarthy 256). The son pleading to his father, “Papa please dont kill the man.” (McCarthy 256). The father then demanded the thief remove his clothes as well as giving them the cart, leaving the thief with nothing. As the father and son set out the boy cry’s uncontrollably, the father says to his son, “You have to stop crying,” the son replies, “I cant.” (McCarthy 258). The father finally submits to his son’s wishes and they turn back with intentions of returning the man’s clothes, with no avail they, “piled the man’s shoes and clothes in the road.” (McCarthy 260). Although the thief had left the father and son with nothing the son still …show more content…
You could see them standing in the amber current where the white edges of their fins wimpled softly in the flow. They smelled of moss in your hand. Polished and muscular and torsional. On their backs were vermiculate patterns that were maps of the world in its becoming. Maps and mazes. Of a thing which could not be put back. Not be made right again. In the deep glens where they lived all things were older than man and they hummed of mystery.” (McCarthy 287). The trout in this quote help to emphasize the beauty of memory despite the loss, that what McCarthy is trying to evoke is a human longing for what once was (variegation, landscape) the confusion that was once life. It seems to be a reflection of the remembrance of the old world. However, this poem betrays what we would say is the immeasurable love that the father had for his son, his whole being that he would do anything even put themselves in danger in order to hold on to