Cormac Mccarthy The Road Analysis

The father does not comply with his son and leaves the naked man alone in the cold. This further shows the differences between the boy and his father. The final contrast between the two is exemplified with the ending. Throughout the book the reader is allowed to assume that if the son dies in the novel then the father would consequently commit suicide. At the end of the story when the father dies first the boy stays strong and decides to blindly follow other survivors and put his faith in them. Throughout, the story; however the father doesn't put any trust into anyone. His son, being a foil of him decides to put his faith into other survivors and takes a leap of faith and follow them their camp. This instance further shows the stark difference between the father and the son.

Cormack McCarthy’s novel, The Road, is set in a post apocalyptic world, where humanity is struggling to survive. Through his simplistic writing style and powerful symbolism, McCarthy tells a story about the human condition as well as what it truly means to be human. Though it is set in a wasteland this novel still manages to project hope through the love of a boy and his father. The following passages are quotes that spoke to me stylistically or symbolically while I was reading.

In The Road by Cormac McCarthy, the son does not display any selfish thoughts throughout his travels with his father, but rather the contrary. At the beginning of the novel, the son runs toward a little boy standing alone in hopes to help him, though he is scolded by his father. As the father and son continue on their trek, the boy does not seem to stop mentioning the little boy, “What about the little boy, he sobbed. What about the little boy?," (McCarthy 86). Despite his father’s disapproval, the son pleads that they should accompany the little boy and bring him along their journey. He fears the for the little boy’s survival since he believes the little boy to be alone without a “papa”. The son offers to split his food rations to accommodate the little boy, even though he is well aware of the scarce food supply him and his father encompass. Along with the encounter with the little boy, the son again displays his generosity and concern with an old man named Ely, “The boy took the tin and handed it to the old man. Take it, he whispered. Here," (McCarthy 163). As the boy watches the old man eat, he turns to his father to ask the same question: can we keep him? and once again the father opposes the idea. Also in

Instead of taking part in those acts of survival, the boy and the man use each other's presence to continue with the grueling journey in search of civilization and humanity. The man and the boy held on to the hope they will travel south and live a normal life, escaping their current state of living. Their ambition and belief allow them to go through every day confident that, things will change for the better. The Man encourages his son through their journey on into the unknown and tells him that for him to survive he must travel south, do what they had done throughout their endeavors, and 'find the good guys'. This is a repetitive phrase throughout that novel that means the boy should meet up without individuals similar to them who haven’t resorted to cannibalism and dehumanization because catastrophe has struck, there is distrust in the natural world, fear, and alienation. But the reassurance the father gives his son to helps him continue the journey and strengthen their bond. The boy also symbolizes strength and dreams, the reason the man is alive is that of the boy. He helps him dream of the future. The boy’s curiosity helps the man remember good memories of his childhood, and he

Both characters act completely different when confronted by another character in the story. The man is more concerned about the safety of the boy and himself. However, the boy wants to do anything and everything to help anyone that they come across. For example, during one situation in the story, a thief attempted to steal all their belongings. When the man caught him, the boy started crying, “Papa?...Papa please don’t kill the man” (McCarthy 256). In contrast, after the man caught the thief the man held him at gun point and said, “If you dont put down the knife and get away from the cart...I’m going to blow your brains out” (McCarthy 256).The man is more concerned with their safety, whereas the boy is concerned about the wellbeing and safety of the thief. The man acts in a similar manner to Ely when the boy wants to give him food, “In the morning they stood in the road and he and the boy argued about what to give the old man” (McCarthy 173). These two characters can collide sometimes when deciding on whether or not they should give food to people like Ely or “The Lightning Man”. Not only are they different when confronted by another character, they are also different on the way they look at arising situations.

Cormac McCarthy’s The Road is a novel written in 2006 about a father and a son who travel through a dystopian landscape of the United States. The book can be very compelling to read, primarily because of its unpredictable plot, but also because of several unique features it possesses. These features, including the novel’s setting, weather, and season could be explained by Thomas Foster’s How to Read Literature Like a Professor, which, because of the voluminous literary elements it explains, can also be compelling to read. Foster’s explanation of these elements can help to describe why McCarthy uses enduring quests, significant meals, and harsh weather as well as an apocalyptic setting and a cold season in The Road.

Profound in the love shared between the father and son, their sense of unity kept them pushing through the pain for “each the other’s world entire” (6). In a society painted by shades of grey, one cannot help but at times feel the desire to fade into the world full of suffering. In the father’s perspective “there were few nights lying in the dark that he did not envy the dead ” (230). However, the man is fortunate because he has a spark in his life that motivates him to keep going- the boy. Many others before the man took their own life in an attempt to rescue themselves from the doomed life ahead. However for the father, “the boy was all that stood between him and death” (29). The father possess such love for the boy that no matter what the situation is he will never take the easy route out. He will never put his own needs over the boy’s. He will never leave him to try to fend for his own. Furthermore, if the boy were to ever depart life before him he “would want to die too” (11), thus proving that the boy is the father’s incentive to carry on. With the love for his son in mind, the father is enabled to carry on with his life. During a difficult situation, love encourages one to see it to the

Papa and the boy constantly put each other’s needs before their own. All they had in their entire lives were each other, therefore they cared very much about each other’s

He tells the boy that even if they had killed someone it would not be a very bad thing because God had given the man permission to do it, to protect the boy, and it was a necessary thing to do in order to live. The biggest act to violence, however, is the scene of the discovery of the dead infant. The scene is traumatic to the boy because he had seen the woman’s belly swollen from carrying an infant earlier on, and then shortly afterward, came across the remains of the baby laid on the ashes of a fire. The man describe that what the boy had seen was “a charred human infant headless and gutted and blackening on the spit. He [the man] bent and picked the boy up and started for the road with him, holding him close. I'm sorry, he whispered. I'm sorry” (198). The man feels instant regret for letting his guard down and allowing for the boy to sight such a monstrous thing. He apologizes to the boy with the argument that he should have shielded him from how harsh the world can be. The violence is inevitable and cruel and the boy comes to this realization at this time of the novel.

The world is in desolation and every day is a struggle to live. What would seem as an impossible situation is the daily life of a man and young boy in The Road by Cormac McCarthy. The Road is a post apocalyptic story of the hardships of a man and his son. Every day the two must face starvation, bitter, cold nights, and the loss of hope. Some days are easier than other but most of them are difficult. When the world comes to an almost end and just living becomes a difficult task you have to find a reason to live for. The man’s reason was his son. Without his son the will to live and fight to live would have disappeared. The man knows this himself and so did the mother of his son. With the everyday challenges they face the hardest is simply finding

He sobbed. What about the little boy?” (McCarthy 86). He even suggests that if they find him, and the boy would split half of his food, to which the man thought foolish. The boy reminds me of my friend, Connor, who is young yet possesses an admirable and endearing character.

In the novel “The Road”, the author Cormac McCarthy shows how compassionate a child can be despite his surroundings. Through his novel, he takes us on an exploration of the experiences of The Boy and his father. He shows that The Boy, notwithstanding the environment that he has known his whole life.

In his novel The Road, author Cormac McCarthy implies that most of society is inherently selfish and ruthless, and he conveys this theme through the description of his characters, the plot, and his powerful world choice. In a bad bad world a papa and son do whatever it takes to survive. In the world, many natural disasters happen and it is very hard to find food and supplies. So some people result to cannibalism and stealing from others. In the book it uses lots of symbolism.

Without the Boy, The Road would just be a bleak story about a man trying to survive. The ingenious use of a character like the Boy, who shows the most true humanity of any of the characters in the book, the author brings the

Imagine yourself living in a barren, desolate, cold, dreary world, with a constant fear of the future. The Road, written by Cormac McCarthy and published in 2006, is a vivid and heartwarming novel that takes us through the journey of a father and a son as they travel South in a post-apocalyptic environment facing persistent challenges and struggles. McCarthy proves that love unleashes immense strength to overcome obstacles, even in times of desperation.