Imagine being alone and trying to survive with no food, shelter, and marauders and cannibals waiting for you to cross their path. Cormac McCarthy confronts these fears in his Pulitzer Prize winning novel The Road. Released on September 26 2006, this novel has been opening the reader’s eyes to what the reality of survival looks like. An unexplained catastrophe has turned the world into bunt, sparse land that is now home to only a few humans and dogs. The main characters are an unnamed man and his young son, who are traveling south across America to reach warmer weather. The man and the son fear that they are no better than what is left from their society and McCarthy uses the motif of fire as a way to exemplify that and as a way to symbolize
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On one hand, we see the small family do anything it takes in order to survive. This includes leaving those who are going to be eaten by cannibals and killing someone in self-defense. However, we also see that some of the survivors have turned towards cannibalism in their desire to survive. McCarthy portrays that survival by any means is unacceptable, which is seen when the boy asks his father “They’re going to eat them, aren’t they?’ ‘Yes’ ‘and we couldn’t help them because they’d eat us too.’ ‘Yes,’” (87). After the characters have done their traveling for the day they face nights that are “cold [enough] to crack the stones” (13) and fire becomes essential to their survival. It guarantees that they will not freeze to death, it allows for them to cook all the canned goods that they find, which provides material comfort. Lastly, it allows for them to get some light to have some type of intellectual activity at night: “oil for their little slutlamp to light the long gray dusks, the long gray dawns. You can read me a story. Can’t you Papa?” (6). McCarthy also uses the mother as a way to represent different stereotypes if such a disaster did occur. The mother did not believe that the new world was a place in which life was worthwhile. She believed that “sooner or later [the bad guys] will catch us and kill us. They will rape me. They’ll rape him. They are going to rape us and kill us and eat …show more content…
The two characters who are never named allows for their familial relationship to be their whole identity instead of having individual traits. McCarthy also makes their relationship generalizable to any father/son relationship outside of the novel. "Then they set out along the blacktop in the gunmetal light, shuffling through the ash, each the other’s world entire." (p. 4). This quote shows that their relationship it is the central focus and driving force for their survival. Day in and day out, the duo travel in a wasteland and encounter some horrific situations like “the wall [that] held a frieze of human heads, all faced alike, dried and caved with their taunt grins and shrunken eyes” (90). The mother sensed that it would be like this before she took her life and said to the man “ [you] won’t survive for yourself” (57) but for their son. He was the only reason to survive in this world. During this time, McCarthy inserts the symbolic fire into the story, which represents humanity and it is the son who holds that fire. He is the one that would be able to keep humanity alive in their barbaric world. As long as goodness is in the son, then there will be a hope for humanity. The boy is deeply uncomfortable with leaving the other good guys behind, and ends up coercing his father into giving some food into an old blind man. The father agrees but does so begrudgingly.
On one hand, we see the small family do anything it takes in order to survive. This includes leaving those who are going to be eaten by cannibals and killing someone in self-defense. However, we also see that some of the survivors have turned towards cannibalism in their desire to survive. McCarthy portrays that survival by any means is unacceptable, which is seen when the boy asks his father “They’re going to eat them, aren’t they?’ ‘Yes’ ‘and we couldn’t help them because they’d eat us too.’ ‘Yes,’” (87). After the characters have done their traveling for the day they face nights that are “cold [enough] to crack the stones” (13) and fire becomes essential to their survival. It guarantees that they will not freeze to death, it allows for them to cook all the canned goods that they find, which provides material comfort. Lastly, it allows for them to get some light to have some type of intellectual activity at night: “oil for their little slutlamp to light the long gray dusks, the long gray dawns. You can read me a story. Can’t you Papa?” (6). McCarthy also uses the mother as a way to represent different stereotypes if such a disaster did occur. The mother did not believe that the new world was a place in which life was worthwhile. She believed that “sooner or later [the bad guys] will catch us and kill us. They will rape me. They’ll rape him. They are going to rape us and kill us and eat …show more content…
The two characters who are never named allows for their familial relationship to be their whole identity instead of having individual traits. McCarthy also makes their relationship generalizable to any father/son relationship outside of the novel. "Then they set out along the blacktop in the gunmetal light, shuffling through the ash, each the other’s world entire." (p. 4). This quote shows that their relationship it is the central focus and driving force for their survival. Day in and day out, the duo travel in a wasteland and encounter some horrific situations like “the wall [that] held a frieze of human heads, all faced alike, dried and caved with their taunt grins and shrunken eyes” (90). The mother sensed that it would be like this before she took her life and said to the man “ [you] won’t survive for yourself” (57) but for their son. He was the only reason to survive in this world. During this time, McCarthy inserts the symbolic fire into the story, which represents humanity and it is the son who holds that fire. He is the one that would be able to keep humanity alive in their barbaric world. As long as goodness is in the son, then there will be a hope for humanity. The boy is deeply uncomfortable with leaving the other good guys behind, and ends up coercing his father into giving some food into an old blind man. The father agrees but does so begrudgingly.