Beneath the austerity of McCarthy’s language endures a gradual waning of convention from humanity. In addition to establishing association with the audience, the namelessness of the characters in McCarthy’s novel depicts the stripping of humans from their sophistication in the natural world, thereby equating the once exceptional species with the innominate insignificance of a lowly amoeba. On several occasions, McCarthy limns the man and the boy in a rather subhuman light with elucidations such as, “he trudged out through the drifts leaving the boy to sleep under the tree like some hibernating animal” (98). Eternally removed from the affluence of civilization, the man and the boy dwell in a barren wasteland that was once populated by beautiful
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While the man ultimately meets his end, the boy’s fate may be ceaselessly contested. Concluding on a rather confounding note, McCarthy’s failure to establish a concrete ending, while troublesome for his audience, behaves as a revivifying glimpse of hope for humanity after his barrage of perpetual dejection upon the audience. The uncertainty that remains at the end of the novel, as it cannot be decisively proven that the family who rescued the boy is in fact also carrying the “fire”, epitomizes the uncertainty of life McCarthy conveyed throughout the duration of the novel, as demonstrated in the constant contingency of demise for the man and boy. Additionally, McCarthy, in suggesting that the road never ceases, emphasizes the malleability of one’s path and the importance of adaptation, as portrayed by the man in all of their endeavors. The boy, having vigilantly examined his father’s moral determination and physical dexterity for the entirety of his existence, may likely serve as a continuation of his father’s divine mission with him, however in a different context. While his father strived to uphold normalcy and goodness within the boy alone, the boy, having no recollection of the world before him and thus less despair than his father, could potentially extend his father’s mission to the rest of humanity. However, the boy could also execute the antithesis of this notion. Yet, it is this division of potential outcome that McCarthy establishes for the boy that demonstrates to humanity the existence of
While the man ultimately meets his end, the boy’s fate may be ceaselessly contested. Concluding on a rather confounding note, McCarthy’s failure to establish a concrete ending, while troublesome for his audience, behaves as a revivifying glimpse of hope for humanity after his barrage of perpetual dejection upon the audience. The uncertainty that remains at the end of the novel, as it cannot be decisively proven that the family who rescued the boy is in fact also carrying the “fire”, epitomizes the uncertainty of life McCarthy conveyed throughout the duration of the novel, as demonstrated in the constant contingency of demise for the man and boy. Additionally, McCarthy, in suggesting that the road never ceases, emphasizes the malleability of one’s path and the importance of adaptation, as portrayed by the man in all of their endeavors. The boy, having vigilantly examined his father’s moral determination and physical dexterity for the entirety of his existence, may likely serve as a continuation of his father’s divine mission with him, however in a different context. While his father strived to uphold normalcy and goodness within the boy alone, the boy, having no recollection of the world before him and thus less despair than his father, could potentially extend his father’s mission to the rest of humanity. However, the boy could also execute the antithesis of this notion. Yet, it is this division of potential outcome that McCarthy establishes for the boy that demonstrates to humanity the existence of