Name 1
Student Name
Mrs. Revers
English Block 1
10 May 2011
The Road
Cormac McCarthy’s novel The Road is a ballad describing the journey that a father and son make in a post apocalyptic world. This is a journey of survival in which a man and a boy must overcome various obstacles in which they encounter along their path. McCarthy’s path novel contains and reflects several themes such as the end of the world, the struggle for survival, the golden rule, conflict and negotiation in a shared fate, and finally honesty and truth in a deceptive world. The linchpin of this novel is the lack of honesty in reference to the relationship between the boy and his father and the boy and the rest of the world. McCarthy reinforces this theme of honesty and truth in a deceptive world through his use of authorial devices and in his narrations. However the theme of honesty, or the lack thereof, is closely linked with the theme of redemption, referring to the idea that the “boy” is the final hope for mankind and as a result his father must preserve his innocence by deceiving his son. As a result there are several differences between the man and his son. The man is forced to lie to deceive his son; he uses several types of deception to hide the truth from his son. McCarthy uses dreams to foreshadow his protagonist’s situation. All along the father tried to hide the darker side of humanity but ultimately fails as his son’s growing maturity forces him to be more open and trust worthy towards him.
There is a fine line between good and evil in McCarthy’s novel, and the father was forced to straddle this line to ensure his son’s safety many times. The quintessential good guys represent two polar opposite sides of the same faction. The father would do anything to save his son because he understood his son was possibly the last savior for humanity. The father took looking after his son as his final duty to God; he found meaning in a world where hope was generally lost. “He knew only that the child was his warrant. He said: If he is not the word of God God never spoke” (McCarthy 5). The man took it upon himself to ensure his son would be able to live through the horrible nightmarish scenes that dwell along the road because he believed his righteous son was the world’s last hope. The boy was humanity’s chance at redemption, even throughout all the corruptness the boy managed to remain without sin. He would refuse to participate in even the smallest collection of food because he believed it was not his food to take. This is where his father had to step in and occasionally cross the line and sin to protect his son because his “job was to take care of the boy. He was appointed to do that by God, and he will kill anyone who went to harm his son” (McCarthy 77).
Living in a world of death where human interaction is limited, deception becomes a necessary element of survival; even between father and son. The man did not want to lie to his child but he was forced to so to protect his son. He not only protected his son from physical death, he protected the boy from emotional death. The father had to maintain an image of hope even when their situation was dismal to ensure the boy would not give up on life. Many of times the boy would question his father’s honesty when they discussed the subject of death.
Do you think I lie to you?
No.
But you think I might lie to you about dying.
Yes.
Okay. I might. But we’re not dying (McCarthy 101).
The man would lie during these conversations so the boy would not get upset and give up on life like his mother had. The father refused to let his son find death as a lover to escape their problems in reality. An example is that the father would lie repeatedly on the amount of food they had left. (McCarthy 57) This lie helped the boy stay motivated and continue moving especially when the odds were against him.
Breaking little promises only leads into breaking bigger promises; the boy says this to his father after the father poured the hot coco in the boy’s cup. (McCarthy 34) The man broke many promises he made to the boy because they were crucial to their survival. However, there was one promise he kept throughout their entire journey; they promised to never eat another human being. This is apparent because the son became a strong advocate against cannibalism after witnessing it firsthand. On their way south they came across a human infant headless cooking over a fire. (McCarthy 198) McCarthy included this image to provide an example of the extreme measures some people have succumbed to survive. The importance of this significant gesture is the man and the boy refused to eat another human being, therefore reinforcing the boy’s position as the savior.
McCarthy’s use of dreams is important to note because dreams have been used in books as authorial devices for many years. In The Road, McCarthy uses dreams to foreshadow important events that come later in his novel. In the first section of his book McCarthy adds a small piece of narration about dreams when the man was talking to his wife about death. McCarthy wrote, “They say women dream of danger to those in their care and men of danger to themselves” (57). This is so important because as the man and boys situation worsens they begin to dream more often of death. McCarthy also specifies between the two types of dreams the man and the boy have. The man experience happy positive dreams that flashback to his life before the disaster. This is scary for the man because it becomes harder to wake up the next day. The boy on the other hand dreams of much darker dreams that symbolize the future of his father. His nightmares, in fact, are more feminine especially when compared to the description of dreams by his mother; once again proving the boy’s innocence and youth make him the last hope for all of mankind.
As their journey progressed the boy became remarkably more mature, even surprising his father. When the boy was younger he reflected an image portrayed by any young boy, a weak scared child who looks up to his father for everything. The only thing the boy knew, as a child was that he needed to trust his father to survive. He did not even begin to question his father’s honesty and integrity until he witnessed his father kills a man. An extreme act of violence was needed to stir a commotion in the boy forcing him to begin to question their good guy mentality. On the contrary he never questioned his father devoted love or duty to protect him. He understood that sometimes actions are needed be taken to survive; he just did not support those that committed sins.
Life in a post apocalyptic world is not the least bit simple especially when it comes to survival. In McCarthy’s novel The Road his protagonist set forth on a journey south trying to escape winter to survive another year. On their journey they encounter several major obstacles; finding honesty and truth in a deceptively complex world was one of their major obstacles. Dishonesty and deceitfulness were common on the father and son’s journey. McCarthy shows the boy who lives a faithful life, living by the word of God can offer humanity a chance of redemption for their growing sins. It is up to the boy to decipher between his father’s lies and miss-justices to continue his sin free life and remain the savior.
Work Cited
McCarthy, Cormac. The Road. New York: Vintage International, 2006. Print.