The Mandatory Failure In The Road

Plot: An apocalypse destroyed civilization as man has known it. The world now ashy, grey, and desolate. A man and a boy walk a long, winding road. The boy will never know the world before, as the man--his father--and him do not speak often during the story. Walking the road, the ocean becomes their destination. Many dangerous scenes unfold on their journey as well, either finding them, or they finding it. When starving, they take extreme risks that they would normally not, such as breaking into houses that do not look completely unoccupied, or running into evil groups that try to kill them to take their supplies. Although they come out unscathed during the first half of the book, the man obviously suffers from respiratory failure. They keep …show more content…
Throughout the entire book, not one physical description of the man exists. Descriptions of the boy scatter the pages, but the man does not have a face (figuratively). Even without the physical details, McCarthy has carefully cultivated the man’s personality and demeanor: “Gray as his heart” (McCarthy 27). He describes his own heart as gray, but throughout the book, he demonstrates how much love his heart actually holds toward the boy. He would do anything for the boy, including saving only one bullet for the boy in case of an accident: “If they find you you are going to have to do it.[...] You put it in your mouth and point it up” (McCarthy 113). He cares enough for the boy to not teach him how to use the gun until the last possible moment, when he absolutely needs it. The man does not even save himself a bullet, all go to the boy in case. His character has an intense range of emotion, ranging from violent anger toward bad guys to soft devotion for his son. He does not willingly interact with another person, acting constantly on edge in case of an emergency. His only purpose is protecting his son, yet the reason why he feels the undevoted love towards him comes from his wife’s suicide, who he could not stop. Her death caused him to act harsh, but he softens up as he travels with his son. Although a truly complex character, acting harsh and unlikable during the beginning, the man melted hearts when he took his last …show more content…
For one, the setting for half of the novel is in fact the road itself. It literally signifies that the novel has something to do with the actual road. The road also has symbolic meaning toward the man and the boy, the main characters using the road to reach their destination. The road they walk on, all while representing a literal road, represents their relationship and journey together as father and son. Not only long and winding, both have ups and downs, broken pieces, and bridges along the way. Although it may not look as if either has a happy ending, the relationship and the road stay strong during the entire novel, considering the beating that both have taken. The man and boy’s relationship struggles at points, such as when the man turns to violence when a thief attempts to steal the shopping cart full of their belongings and food. The man aims the gun at the thief, and asks him to strip down and leave all the belongings, which the boy strongly disagrees with: “Oh Papa, he sobbed. Stop it” (McCarthy 258). Many times the man and boy argue whether or not they did the right things, but they always come back to each other, as they are the only people that they can trust. The road symbolizes this also, because as a road, it connects every street back to itself, just as the man and boy always connect back to each