Cormac McCarthy’s contemporary novel The Road questions the American Dream real worth. McCarthy’s other works also revolve around different aspects of the American Dream. However, The Road focuses on the damage an individual takes to fulfill the dream. He chooses a nameless post-apocalyptic setting to best explore how the relationship and roles between the nameless Man and Son change. The father and son’s journey on the post-apocalyptic “Road” illustrates the identity crisis of living in the shell of destroyed world to explore the effects of death and isolation on the human spirit. McCarthy’s novel themes of self-preservation and destruction are further analyzed to question the source of morality in Jingjing Guo’s,” McCarthy’s The Road and
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In comparison the Man and Son of the Road share a similar relationship. They only have each other to trust and their main goal is to survive. None of the characters in question from either novel disturb the worldly order - or disorder. For having Pearl out of wedlock, Hester and therefore Pearl are shunned and excluded from the society. Nevertheless, the pair must interact with the society whether they have to fight it or transverse it for their personal need. For example, Hester must confront the authorities of society when they threaten to take Pearl away from her. The pair live far off from the rest of the people yet by reputation they accuse Hester of being a bad mother. Although she maintains caution …show more content…
The children represent the innocence and more vulnerable side of the adults’ identity. Traveling the Road brings the Man closer to death every day and his son becomes the only thing that prevents him from going the way of his wife. The man’s thought reveals early on the importance of the boy when he thinks, “He held the boy close to him. So thin. My heart, he said. My Heart. But he knew that if he were a good father it might well be as [his wife] had said. That the boy was all that stood between him and death.” (29) The man may tell the boy they carry the fire of hope and humanity but the Man sees his own within the boy, which is why his love for the boy and his wellbeing comes before his
In comparison the Man and Son of the Road share a similar relationship. They only have each other to trust and their main goal is to survive. None of the characters in question from either novel disturb the worldly order - or disorder. For having Pearl out of wedlock, Hester and therefore Pearl are shunned and excluded from the society. Nevertheless, the pair must interact with the society whether they have to fight it or transverse it for their personal need. For example, Hester must confront the authorities of society when they threaten to take Pearl away from her. The pair live far off from the rest of the people yet by reputation they accuse Hester of being a bad mother. Although she maintains caution …show more content…
The children represent the innocence and more vulnerable side of the adults’ identity. Traveling the Road brings the Man closer to death every day and his son becomes the only thing that prevents him from going the way of his wife. The man’s thought reveals early on the importance of the boy when he thinks, “He held the boy close to him. So thin. My heart, he said. My Heart. But he knew that if he were a good father it might well be as [his wife] had said. That the boy was all that stood between him and death.” (29) The man may tell the boy they carry the fire of hope and humanity but the Man sees his own within the boy, which is why his love for the boy and his wellbeing comes before his