Violence In Cormac Mccarthy's The Road

The manmade apocalypse The concept has been pondered for decades: what would our world look like if we were to succumb to a nuclear apocalypse? The critically acclaimed author, Cormac McCarthy, devises his own interpretation of a fallout, and expresses it through his literary masterpiece, The Road. McCarthy’s novel shares the experiences of a father and son wandering through an ash-filled and decimated wasteland in a post-nuclear war scenario, and their encounters with the few remaining survivors. McCarthy depicts the end of the end of morality, and the decline of religion simultaneously with the escalation of violence. The reader is able to vividly imagine this obliterated world through McCarthy’s incredibly simplistic use of figurative language, …show more content…
The Roadis primarily an agnostic novel, some characters believe in God, and others seriously doubt his existence. Billions of life forms have perished from the nuclear war in this story, and this leads to the belief that God would not allow this to happen, therefore, many of the characters do not believe in a divine power. The father still believes in a God, but has the belief that he has abandoned Earth, and condemned all sinners to what appears to be “hell on Earth”. This idea is supported by the character Ely who states “There is no God, we are his prophets.” However, McCarthy often describes the child with religious influences, particularly biblical allusions. Not only is the boy inherently kind, innocent, and rather moral compared to the other characters, he also initiates hope in the reader. Despite all the evil and darkness surrounding the boy, he retains his good nature and connection to a higher power. There are a plethora of examples of the boy’s holiness being exhibited in the novel. One example is when the two protagonists stumble upon an abandoned bunker, and the boy finally gets to experience what life was truly like before the war and he takes the time to thank the ones who built the bunker before him. The boy then exclaims: “Dear people, thank you for all this food and stuff. We know that you saved it for yourself and if you were here we wouldn't eat it no matter how hungry we were and we're sorry that you didn’t get to eat it and we hope you're safe in heaven with God” which sounds exactly like a prayer, and it was his own idea to do so, the father had no influence on him here. Another example of this is when the pair come across Ely on their journey, the boy is one that displays compassion and acceptance to him despite his father’s hesitance. After the boy assists the wounded Ely, he learns that Ely initially thought that he had passed away and that the boy was an angel, representing that