Paternal Love In Cormac Mccarthy's The Road

McCarthy’s The Road exemplifies the struggle to survive throughout the entire novel. In the most trying times, during the longest stretches without food, the father’s persistence and confidence

In Passage A, McCarthy uses ambiguous and foreboding dialogue in order to generate narrative suspense. At the beginning of this passage the father and the son come upon a house at the edge of an old town’s remnants, and the boy asks his father where they are (105). The father ignores the

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.

Mccarthy creates a bleak post apocalyptic society through the use of imagery. He describes a world where there is no wildlife and all that’s left are the ashes. “The road was gullied eroded and barren. The bones of dead creatures sprawled in the washes. Middens of anonymous trash”(177). While the man and the boy travel the road, they rarely come across other living things. The boy even shows a lack of knowledge about animals, constantly asking his father questions about them. They always have to keep moving due to the constant threat of danger. Their nomadic lifestyle prevents them from becoming attached to anything. This gives the feeling of absolute isolation. Throughout the novel, the man often has dreams of life before. His dreams are described in vivid colors, "walking in a flowering wood where birds flew before them he and the child and the

The Road” by Cormac McCarthy reveals a character, who is nameless throughout the story, is the son of the father shown also. The boy is shown to be the only light to his father as the mother wasn't in the picture, she is presumably dead as she wanted to escape the post-apocalyptic world. The boy is shown to symbolize hope for the future with compassion and cooperation throughout the journey with his father. I can relate to the boy as in one example he helps convince his father to let Ely, an old man who they came upon while traveling, join them at dinner time. “We could cook something on the stove. He could eat with us,”(pg. 85) this quote portrays how the boy compassion was viewed to his father and gave him hope to keep going in the world.

During this scene, the friendship between the boy and papa is shown when the boy asks his papa questions about what he would do if he dies. One night while papa and the boy were camping on the road and getting ready to go to sleep the boy turned to his papa and they had a conversation about death. The boy asked his papa “‘What would you do if I died?”’ (McCarthy 11) and his papa responded ‘“If you died I would want to die too”’ (11). The boy then asked ‘“So you could be with me?”’ (11)

The love between the protagonists in the times of hardship is the most profound relationship in the book and the strength of it raises the standard of the novel. The relation of the father and the son is very strong and symbolizes protection to the child. They take the initiative to struggle and live in an apocalyptic place which has been completely destroyed. The father is like the soul of his son and the very last hope for the son to survive .The son finds support in his son when he goes through the stages of loneliness and despair. It is a natural way for people to rely on others for support and by survival instincts; it is deeper when there is such a close relationship between a father and a son. McCarthy in terms of characterization makes the buy very innocent as he does not know how to differentiate between the “good guys” and “bad guys”. He wants to help everyone and on the other hand the father is very strong and is wise. He lives each and every day as a normal day so that he can keep his son strong as well. The father is very intelligent as he responds to his son questions thoughtfully to keep his son’s hope up. The father is very optimistic even when they are facing a hard time moving forward. To quote, “The lay listening, Can you do it? When the time comes? When the time comes there will be no time. Now is the time. Curse God and die. What if it doesn’t fire? It has to fire. What if it doesn’t fire? Could you crush that beloved

True love is not beautiful; in fact, it is the complete opposite of beautiful. It is messy, ugly, and frightening. To truly love, and be loved, is one of the bravest things a person could do. The paternal love that the man offers to his child is deep-rooted to the core. He puts his child’s well-being before his own, and wants to give him the best life possible despite the constant privation they must deal with. He is the child’s protector, lover, and companion. McCarthy writes in a way that embodies the complex concept of love in its purest form. He handcrafts a piece of literature so beautifully, that it proves that love can still be salvaged under horrific conditions. This passage is pertinent to the story’s plot since it does divulge paternal love in its most unconcealed form, and finally give the reader insight into the intricate workings of the relationship between the man and the boy. It reveals the man’s

Cormac McCarthy’s The Road intensely reflects on the importance of relationships as a survival tactic and the struggle to exist as a good person in an immoral world. The relationship between the father and the boy is heavily amplified as the father tries to give his son an understanding of the world he was born into. The father abandons his retelling of history or the past to his son. He struggles to decide if he wants his son to intellectually understand the world or rather survive in it? Their relationship can be compared and contrasted to Rick and Carl from The Walking Dead; both father/son groups relate to being the “good guys” in the new world. However, Rick has full-on moral discussions with Carl, while the father in The Road tends to argue with the boy about moral decisions. After the mother takes her life away, the father is forced to take on the role of a single parent. Demonstrated in modern post-apocalyptic fiction, women are commonly seen as empowering rather than helpless. In The Road, the few female characters are tragic and temporary. The Walking Dead and The Hunger Games demonstrate women as fighters and include female characters that reflect maternal instincts while the women in The Road are viewed negatively by committing actions against motherhood. Female characters in modern post-apocalyptic fiction are quite often independent while The Road female characters seem to have a choice as well, but it is argued that they are portrayed as weak and

He tells a man that was a threat to them in the forest the following: “You think I wont kill you but you’re wrong. But what I’d rather do is take you up this road a mile or so and then turn you loose” (65). In this quote it is evident that nothing is going to come in between the man and his son, even if it involves taking a life. A second quote McCarthy uses to reiterate the man’s protective nature is as follows: “My job is to take care of you. I was appointed to do that by God. I will kill anyone who touches you” (77). The man tells this to the boy to make him feel safe as well as to explain to the boy why the man must be so serious. McCarthy effectively utilizes these quotes to convey to the reader that the man is protective of his

Early on in the novel, the reader begins to learn that the The Man and The Boy have a very close and intimate bond. Rather than causing a strain on the their relationship, the isolation that constantly follows the pair on The Road actually made their bond as father and son stronger . Traveling along The Road by themselves causes The Man and The Boy’s relationship to become extremely codependent. The Boy relies on The Man like any child would rely on their father. The Boy completely counts on The Man for everything, including food, shelter, clothes, and everything else that is needed to survive on The Road. The Man keeps them safe from the “bad guys” and keeps them alive and as healthy as he can. The Boy’s needs are always put before The Man’s needs. However, The Man depends upon The Boy just as much as The Boy depends on him. If it weren’t for The Boy, The Man would have been dead a long time ago. The only reason that he has survived this long is because of The Boy. Making sure The Boy survives is the only meaning that The Man has to his life. The Boy’s continued existence is the most influential motivation

In the novel, The Road by Cormac McCarthy (2006), a boy and his father have to learn how to survive in an apocalypse. However, the father was fortunate enough to grow up in a so-called normal life, which means, no apocalypse, and now he is watching his son suffer through this horrible life, that he himself, as a child, never went through. Papa watches as his son is hanging on to hope by a string and starts realizing that he needs him more than ever, which then has him decide to show him love in the darkest of times.

The encounters and interactions the man and boy had while on the road help develop McCarthy’s larger theme of humanity losing its selflessness when it’s in danger. For example, while the man and the boy are traveling to the coast they come across a burnt man, half-dead lying in the road. After some observation, the boy asks the man if they could “help him” but is continuously shot down by his father who repeatedly tells him to “stop it” (McCarthy 50). The Road’s setting is one of the strongest over the weak, those who can’t survive for themselves they simply won’t. This burnt man, who was struck by lightning, is an example of that as he is now in no condition to scavenge for food and medical supplies and will probably just die where he currently sits. The boy, realizing this, wanted to do something to give the man even a small chance at survival, but the man knew he was a lost cause and should be left to die. The boy and his overwhelming desire to help the dying man is representative of old society and its pressure to help those with lesser than you, ideals that were result of religious codes and churches. But in a world where none of that matters or is present, the man is what humanity has become, selfish being whom only care about

In a desolate world ravaged by fire, a boy and his father trudge across the countryside. They encounter people in their most desperate times where their motives are unpredictable and noone can be trusted. The boy and his father try to maintain their morality while facing starvation and having to deal with unpredictable people they encounter on the road. Cormac McCarthy in his novel The Road, uses the theme of hope to demonstrate the human trait that purpose is essential to survival.

I watched my father as he hides the pain he felt, after long hour of work, from me with a simple question, “How was your day?” I never understood why. Why is it necessary to create a wall between us that leaves me hanging? Was this because this is a norm of being a parent? Was this because I wouldn’t be much help as I did not possess enough insight nor experience to lead a hand, leg, ear, or heart? What am I then, if not their child? That they won't confined with me. Or is it because I am their child that they won’t let me in? One day, after I watched them slowly endure the pain of not being able to do anything as one by one the people the love slip away from their fingers, I decided to asked, “What were your wishes?” and they never answered but they looked at me and smiled. This notion of parental bond and responsibility resides in the novel, The Road by Cormac McCarthy, as the father and his child relies on each other to survive through the cold and dark lands that holds no hope