Cormac Mccarthy The Road Analysis

In The Road by Cormac McCarthy, a man and the boy live in a post-apocalyptic world in which fire has destroyed much of the landscape leaving forests and cities in ash and ruins. They spend a majority of their days trekking a southbound road, and throughout their journey on the road, they are unremittingly challenged by their environment. The threat of cannibals capturing them, the possibility of hypothermia, and imminent starvation are constant terrors. Each trial they face is met with the man’s constant attempts to encourage the boy. Due to the troubles they face and the security they lack, it is difficult for the man to keep the faith to continue on their journey. Because of the many mentions in the novel, the man and boy’s recognition of an omniscient being is proof they rely on a god to be their motivation and the man’s hope for the future is fueled by a higher power acting as their guiding light. In McCarthy’s novel The Road, the protagonists’ actions are governed by an unspecified moral code. Morality is the understanding of right and wrong behavior, and, due to its universal meaning, it is an idea that has not been created by humans. Morality is best justified as a spiritual connection to a higher power. It is this higher power that has instilled in the man and the boy what is

The man is crying out to “God,” desperate for him to intervene (McCarthy 12). In the third line of his song, Dias explains to the listener that “he’ll let you bend but not break.” If the higher being that Dias is writing about is the same that governs the moral code in the man’s world, then the god that exists in the man’s universe is allowing for the man and the boy to experience trial but is protecting them from being crippled or torn down by the same