Fear In The Road By Cormac Mccarthy

Penelope Word once said, “Love cannot exist without fear.” In other words, when an individual experiences the power of love, they are almost guaranteed to face the fear that comes along with it. One can perhaps argue that love and fear are the of the two most powerful emotions, and their ability to influence one's actions is like no other. Cormac McCarthy considers this idea in his novel The Road and reveals the twisted relationship between love, fear, and desperation in a dystopian society. Throughout the novel, it is clear to see that McCarthy attempts to portray love as an all-powerful emotion that leads to desperation and fear based on an analysis of the man’s relationship with the boy and his wife.

McCarthy illustrates that love can lead

For example, during one of the flashbacks that the man has near the beginning of the book, it is clear that the wife’s choice to kill herself is solely an act of fear. She cannot bear the thought of seeing the two people she loves most waste away in such an odious world. This is confirmed during an argument between the man and the wife when the wife asserts: “Sooner or later they will catch us and they will kill us. They will rape me. They’ll rape him. They are going to rape us and kill us and eat us and you won’t face it” (56). The wife loves the man and the boy so much that she would rather kill herself than face her fear of seeing them die. In this case, love leads to a fear stronger than any other: the fear of death. Additionally, McCarthy’s argument about love is further supported during the same flashback when the wife refuses to say goodbye to the boy before killing herself. In the flashback, the man requests for his wife to say goodbye to their son; however, it soon becomes clear to the reader that she chooses not to do so when the narrator explains how the boy was left to infer his mother’s death: “In the morning the boy said nothing at all and when they were packed and ready to set out upon the road he turned and looked back at their campsite and he said: She’s gone isn’t she?” (58). While the reason that the wife does not say goodbye to the boy is

For example, when looking at the death of the man at the end of the novel, we see the man break his biggest promise to the boy: never leaving his side. As the man is dying, the boy laments, “You said you wouldn't ever leave me” (279). This gives the boy all the more reason to hate the man for his lies. However, following the man's death, the boy “sat there a long time weeping… he knelt beside his father and held his cold hand and said his name over and over again” (281). While the boy had every reason to be mad at his father for leaving him to fend for himself in this hideous world, he is loyal to the man and stays by his cold, dead body for three days, promising to never forget him. This clearly illustrates that no matter how devastating or traumatic an experience may be, love continues to conquer all other emotions. It is easy to see how some people would consider this to be McCarthy’s central argument about love and relationships; however, it is simply illogical. While love does appear to prevail in this particular situation, this is not the case throughout the rest of the novel. In many cases, we see that love does not win, but rather it creates an excess of fear in any given individual. For instance, we can see this when analyzing the actions of the man. The man is constantly telling the boy not to trust anyone,