Nothing in the world can match the amount of love that a mother holds in her heart for her children. However, that affection hardly appears in Cormac McCarthy’s disquieting, yet poignant novel The Road. Within its pages, it brings to life a post-apocalyptic world occupied by a resolute father and his young compassionate son as they try to survive in an ash covered wasteland. In The Road, women have been reduced to mere vessels only capable of reproducing; however, they hold no other compelling role in the restoration of humanity. McCarthy’s negative connotations of women strengthen the argument that humanity will be rebuilt by men with evidence provided by the idealized role of women in society, the contrast between both the mother and the
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According to Blackstone’s article, “Gender Roles and Society”, a woman follows “the traditional view of feminine gender roles that prescribes that [they] should behave in ways that are nurturing” (Blackstone). Therefore, one would assume, especially in a dystopian-style novel, that the women will strongly take this position. McCarthy presents the majority of women as stoic, moving vessels. The only two women in the novel who did display such traits were both briefly mentioned, making their presence equally insignificant. Their presence acts as a way to show that not all women in the novel are hard-hearted, but their sole existents holds very little importance in the reconstruction of mankind. Instead, the women become “possession of men” (Åström) and involuntarily become pregnant. They are practically treated like cattle. When a person becomes custody of someone they are no longer a person. One can consider them slaves, but slaves will fight back. In this case, these women are just empty shells that their owners only see value in their reproductive system. If they become infertile, just like cattle, they are food. In like fashion, when the father and son were being followed by “three men and a woman… he could see [that the woman is] pregnant” (McCarthy 195). Later in the book the father and son discover that the infants are used as a source of food. Mothers are seen as “bearers of life”, but in this situation a mother symbolizes a “bringer of death”. Only a woman who has thrown away the meaning of being a mother can do this to their child. Humanity cannot be rebuilt under those unseemly standards; therefore, women will not aid in restoration of
According to Blackstone’s article, “Gender Roles and Society”, a woman follows “the traditional view of feminine gender roles that prescribes that [they] should behave in ways that are nurturing” (Blackstone). Therefore, one would assume, especially in a dystopian-style novel, that the women will strongly take this position. McCarthy presents the majority of women as stoic, moving vessels. The only two women in the novel who did display such traits were both briefly mentioned, making their presence equally insignificant. Their presence acts as a way to show that not all women in the novel are hard-hearted, but their sole existents holds very little importance in the reconstruction of mankind. Instead, the women become “possession of men” (Åström) and involuntarily become pregnant. They are practically treated like cattle. When a person becomes custody of someone they are no longer a person. One can consider them slaves, but slaves will fight back. In this case, these women are just empty shells that their owners only see value in their reproductive system. If they become infertile, just like cattle, they are food. In like fashion, when the father and son were being followed by “three men and a woman… he could see [that the woman is] pregnant” (McCarthy 195). Later in the book the father and son discover that the infants are used as a source of food. Mothers are seen as “bearers of life”, but in this situation a mother symbolizes a “bringer of death”. Only a woman who has thrown away the meaning of being a mother can do this to their child. Humanity cannot be rebuilt under those unseemly standards; therefore, women will not aid in restoration of