1. A feeling of expectation and desire for a particular thing to happen.
2. A person or thing that may help or save someone.
3. Grounds for believing that something good may happen.
These are the definitions of the word “Hope” as given in The Oxford Dictionary and at first sight we might think that The Road doesn’t even come close to having a single ray of hope in it. How could there be hope in a novel that begins with a bleak picture of a burnt, dead world and ends with the death of one of the “good guys” who promised and gave his son hope that he would not leave him? But we don’t have to look too close to see that the novel can actually be, all about hope. Not losing hope, carrying on even when the odds seem to never be in your favor, even …show more content…
They all hope the road will lead them towards hope for something better. So even though they all have nothing to go on, they still continue living. The character of the mother is especially in contrast here. She commits suicide very early on in the catastrophe because for her it all proves to be too much and she loses any and all hope for not just a brighter future but any future at all for herself and her son and she would go as far as to take the son along with her to embrace the tranquility of death. “As for me my only hope is for eternal nothingness and I hope it with all my heart.” (McCarthy:23). She takes death as a means of escape from a situation that she cannot handle and sees no reprieve from and so suicide is the only option that comes to her mind. Living on, taking each day on its on, is something that she cannot comprehend in a place where she thinks she faces imminent death and also the imminent death and torture of those she loves and pays no heed to her more level headed husband who begs and pleads to her in the name of a God he doesn’t even believe in himself.“You can think of me as a faithless slut if you like. I've taken a new lover. He can give me what you cannot. Death is not a lover” (McCarthy:22)
Her …show more content…
They all wish for a better life in which they don’t have to scavenge for food and live like animals, in fear of someone stronger than them to take what they have worked hard for or to take their lives. Because in the end everybody wants to live and see another day even if it means seeing another day in which they don’t really know whether it is day or night or whether this new day will bring anything different from the day before. It is just like what Ely says “Nobody wants to be here and nobody wants to leave.” (McCarthy:64). Ely comes across as a wise character at some points and at others it seems as if he is talking gibberish. From someone as old as him, who has seen so much in life and who admits to the Man that he had even seen this coming and had believed in it, it is a surprise to hear that he did not prepare for it at all and does not believe in God. This is probably due to the fact that he has seen too much hopelessness around him. But even his beliefs regarding God are mixed up and leave us somewhat confused as he says “There is no God and we are his prophets.” (McCarthy:64). So in one thought he expresses his disbelief in the existence of God but refers to all of us as His prophets. This could be a cynical statement though and mean that each person is a prophet and through their continuous existence in such a world where they know they don’t have much time to live and they keep
2. A person or thing that may help or save someone.
3. Grounds for believing that something good may happen.
These are the definitions of the word “Hope” as given in The Oxford Dictionary and at first sight we might think that The Road doesn’t even come close to having a single ray of hope in it. How could there be hope in a novel that begins with a bleak picture of a burnt, dead world and ends with the death of one of the “good guys” who promised and gave his son hope that he would not leave him? But we don’t have to look too close to see that the novel can actually be, all about hope. Not losing hope, carrying on even when the odds seem to never be in your favor, even …show more content…
They all hope the road will lead them towards hope for something better. So even though they all have nothing to go on, they still continue living. The character of the mother is especially in contrast here. She commits suicide very early on in the catastrophe because for her it all proves to be too much and she loses any and all hope for not just a brighter future but any future at all for herself and her son and she would go as far as to take the son along with her to embrace the tranquility of death. “As for me my only hope is for eternal nothingness and I hope it with all my heart.” (McCarthy:23). She takes death as a means of escape from a situation that she cannot handle and sees no reprieve from and so suicide is the only option that comes to her mind. Living on, taking each day on its on, is something that she cannot comprehend in a place where she thinks she faces imminent death and also the imminent death and torture of those she loves and pays no heed to her more level headed husband who begs and pleads to her in the name of a God he doesn’t even believe in himself.“You can think of me as a faithless slut if you like. I've taken a new lover. He can give me what you cannot. Death is not a lover” (McCarthy:22)
Her …show more content…
They all wish for a better life in which they don’t have to scavenge for food and live like animals, in fear of someone stronger than them to take what they have worked hard for or to take their lives. Because in the end everybody wants to live and see another day even if it means seeing another day in which they don’t really know whether it is day or night or whether this new day will bring anything different from the day before. It is just like what Ely says “Nobody wants to be here and nobody wants to leave.” (McCarthy:64). Ely comes across as a wise character at some points and at others it seems as if he is talking gibberish. From someone as old as him, who has seen so much in life and who admits to the Man that he had even seen this coming and had believed in it, it is a surprise to hear that he did not prepare for it at all and does not believe in God. This is probably due to the fact that he has seen too much hopelessness around him. But even his beliefs regarding God are mixed up and leave us somewhat confused as he says “There is no God and we are his prophets.” (McCarthy:64). So in one thought he expresses his disbelief in the existence of God but refers to all of us as His prophets. This could be a cynical statement though and mean that each person is a prophet and through their continuous existence in such a world where they know they don’t have much time to live and they keep