IN A DEAD WORLD, FIRE SURVIVES
“Where all was burnt to ash before them no fires were to be had and the nights were long and dark and cold beyond anything they’d yet encountered. Cold to crack the stones. To take your life” (McCarthy 14). Cormac McCarthy writes of an apocalyptic world in The Road. In a world collapsing from an explosion; a man and his son fight to survive with fire on their side. Fire is not only used to give them hope of survival, but also represents their ethics, knowledge, and even life and death.
Fire stands for hope as it is used to encourage survivors to carry on. A critic of The New York Times said, “Much of its impact comes from the absolute lawlessness of its backdrop as it undermines the father’s only remaining …show more content…
In the mythological story of Prometheus, fire originally belonged to the gods. “Prometheus gave men fire so they could survive in a primitive, undeveloped world” (Hagen, UWF Student). Fire serves as a connection between the gods and men. The father in McCarthy’s The Road is similar to Prometheus because as they are living in a broken world, the father gives his son “fire.” The fire representing the son’s good values, enforces the idea the son is like a god. “He watched him stoke the flames. God’s own firedrake” (McCarthy 31). The father’s plea “You have to carry the fire” (278), is encouragement to the son to stick to his values through the journey. The son believes in helping other people and not resorting to cannibalism. The father sees his son as “glowing in that waste like a tabernacle” …show more content…
During their journey, fire was used to provide warmth. They start their journey towards the north, and are trying to find their way south before the harsh winter begins. Whenever it got cold the father would build a fire; so him and his son would not freeze to death. The father and son’s clothing often got wet: which would cause them to get colder. To dry their clothes, they would take them off and set them by the fire. The fire was also used to cook food. As they were scavenging they came across food that was questionable to eat. They used the fire to thoroughly cook the food to prevent food poisoning. Along their journey the father stops by his childhood home. Seeing the fireplace brought back memories of life before the apocalypse. Throughout the journey, the father scopes out the horizon in search of other fires. “In the past when he walked out like that and sat looking over the country lying in just the faintest visible shape where the lost moon tracked the caustic waste he’d sometimes see a light. Dim and shapeless in the murk. Across a river or deep in the blackened quadrants of a burned city. In the morning sometimes he’d return with the binoculars and glass the countryside for any sign of smoke but he never saw any” (McCarthy 188). Any sign of light or fire in the distance could mean there are living humans. The light the father thought he saw symbolizes the hope that there
“Where all was burnt to ash before them no fires were to be had and the nights were long and dark and cold beyond anything they’d yet encountered. Cold to crack the stones. To take your life” (McCarthy 14). Cormac McCarthy writes of an apocalyptic world in The Road. In a world collapsing from an explosion; a man and his son fight to survive with fire on their side. Fire is not only used to give them hope of survival, but also represents their ethics, knowledge, and even life and death.
Fire stands for hope as it is used to encourage survivors to carry on. A critic of The New York Times said, “Much of its impact comes from the absolute lawlessness of its backdrop as it undermines the father’s only remaining …show more content…
In the mythological story of Prometheus, fire originally belonged to the gods. “Prometheus gave men fire so they could survive in a primitive, undeveloped world” (Hagen, UWF Student). Fire serves as a connection between the gods and men. The father in McCarthy’s The Road is similar to Prometheus because as they are living in a broken world, the father gives his son “fire.” The fire representing the son’s good values, enforces the idea the son is like a god. “He watched him stoke the flames. God’s own firedrake” (McCarthy 31). The father’s plea “You have to carry the fire” (278), is encouragement to the son to stick to his values through the journey. The son believes in helping other people and not resorting to cannibalism. The father sees his son as “glowing in that waste like a tabernacle” …show more content…
During their journey, fire was used to provide warmth. They start their journey towards the north, and are trying to find their way south before the harsh winter begins. Whenever it got cold the father would build a fire; so him and his son would not freeze to death. The father and son’s clothing often got wet: which would cause them to get colder. To dry their clothes, they would take them off and set them by the fire. The fire was also used to cook food. As they were scavenging they came across food that was questionable to eat. They used the fire to thoroughly cook the food to prevent food poisoning. Along their journey the father stops by his childhood home. Seeing the fireplace brought back memories of life before the apocalypse. Throughout the journey, the father scopes out the horizon in search of other fires. “In the past when he walked out like that and sat looking over the country lying in just the faintest visible shape where the lost moon tracked the caustic waste he’d sometimes see a light. Dim and shapeless in the murk. Across a river or deep in the blackened quadrants of a burned city. In the morning sometimes he’d return with the binoculars and glass the countryside for any sign of smoke but he never saw any” (McCarthy 188). Any sign of light or fire in the distance could mean there are living humans. The light the father thought he saw symbolizes the hope that there