Self Struggles of the Road As humans, we want to be able to live a good and safe life. We want to have a good life not only for ourselves, but for our children as well. In the novel “The Road” by Cormac McCarthy, the Father and son are struggling to make it to the coast, and along the way, they are struggling for their lives as well. The author demonstrates the main theme of survival throughout their journey to the coast. The father must make do of what he has and in order to survive. He must use the remaining natural resources, protect his son at all costs, and fight his illness in his journey to the coast. Making do with what we have is an important aspect in our lives. The Father in The Road is trying to survive with his son on their …show more content…
The father’s love for his son drives him to make sure he can ensure the survival of his son. This love for his son is seen when the father threatens to shoot and kill the man who threatens his son’s life. It is said in the book “For this barren wasteland, that they call a vacuum of infinite space, they have each other”. What this means is that they have each other and will do what they can do make sure they survive. In their journey, the Father never kills out of anger or for food. The father’s intentions are to keep his son safe. We see this when father saw “a man drawing a bow on them and he pushed the boy's head down and tried to cover him with his body”. (pg.362) The father uses his body as a human shield to protect the boy from any injury. This shows that he is willing to give up his life in order to protect boy. The Father only goes after the men who attacked his son. Even when the father is just steps away from death, he tells his son “eat my share of food”. Instead of keeping it for himself in hopes of regaining his strength, he offers it all to his son. He does this to insure the survival of the boy. Parents want the best life for their children. The Father proves his son is his everything and proves it by protecting him no matter what the circumstances …show more content…
Although illnesses can greatly impact us, we do our best to fight it off. Throughout the book The Road, the Father gets very sick. This leads to the father fighting an internal battle as well as an external battle. He is fighting the external battle to survive the harsh wasteland as well as internal battle of the illness that has fallen upon him. We know that he is sick based off of what the son mentions: “In the night he woke in the cold dark coughing and he coughed till his chest was raw”. What we take away from this is that the Father is dealing with in illness which even at night prevents him from getting the necessary rest needed. Although he is fighting the internal battle of his illness, he is still doing his best to survive long enough to make it to the coast in order to save his son. Throughout their journey, day by day the man is getting closer to death. We see this as the boy explains “He'd come down with a fever and they lay in the woods like fugitives. Nowhere to build a fire. Nowhere safe. The boy sat in the leaves watching him. His eyes brimming. Are you going to die, Papa? He said. Are you going to die”? (pg.257) The father doesn't want to show the son that he is dying which is why he’s always saying “he’ll get better.” The son now has suspicion that his father might not make it out alive either. Although this haunts him in the back of his head, he still hopes for the best and that his father will
He always wants to help someone else in need before himself, whereas the father is only concerned about their own personal wellbeings. He “is the one” who worries about their ethical choices and wants to help a stranger in any way he can (259). McCarthy proves the importance of the boy’s spirit of love for other people when his dad dies and he must take the leap of faith to continue along the road with a new family. Despite all the corrupted people they encountered beforehand, the boy meets someone who is “carrying the fire” (129). This mantra by the father and son, symbolizes hope and humanity. The qualities Steinbeck labels for a writer to create in his writings can be summed up in “carrying the fire” since the two never did give up. It is the greatness of the heart and spirit Steinbeck notes that is “inside [them]. [And] [i]t [is] always there” (279). It is noteworthy that even in the midst of death and ashes, the two are able to hold onto their relationship and sanity. The “good guys” can continue to carry meaning and structure in their lives, even in a time where society turned into a battle to survive on the remnants of
When the man and boy meet people on the road, the boy has sympathy for them, but his father is more concerned with keeping them both alive. The boy is able to get his father to show kindness to the strangers (McCarthy), however reluctantly the kindness is given. The boy’s main concern is to be a good guy. Being the good guy is one of the major reasons the boy has for continuing down the road with his father. He does not see there is much of a point to life if he is not helping other people. The boy wants to be sure he and his father help people and continue to carry the fire. The boy is the man’s strength and therefore courage, but the man does not know how the boy worries about him how the boy’s will to live depends so much on his
Although finding food was a struggle for them, the man always put the boy’s health before his. The man made sure the boys thirst and hunger was always gone and that he had food to eat and drinks to drink. “He took the can and sipped it and handed it back. You drink it, he said. Let's just sit here.” (Page 27). In this quote, the man gave the boy the last of the soda but the boy got upset that the man didn’t take any, so the man took a sip and proceeded to give it to the boy. This is important because the father knows that he’s thirsty and could kill for a drink, but he knows that this is the first and last soda the boy would ever get. “He'd found a last half packet of cocoa and he fixed it for the boy and then poured his own cup with hot water and sat blowing at the rim.” (Page 18). This quote shows us too that the man always made sure that the boy got the better part of the deal. The boy got to drink cocoa but the man just drank hot water. The father does this because he got to live through his childhood without this apocalyptic world but the boy only lived a few years that he really doesn’t remember. These quotes show paternal love because they explain how the father always puts the son before him. Through all of the actions the father takes, it shows us how much he really cares about the son, and that his son is his only hope and his fire for
This story contains an almost equal balance of good and evil, though it also raises questions of what is truly good. It blurs the line between good and selfish or thoughtless. Characters’ actions sometimes appear impure, but in the long run, are good.
Through the father’s journey, it becomes clear to the reader that the father gives up in the end and does not have anything else to live for. He does not even want to talk to his own family. This allows readers to highlight the difference in the journey with the narrator in “Battle Royal”, because the narrator never gives up and always pushes himself to do better things and break all these limitations
The Road, a post-apocalyptic, survival skills fiction book written by Cormac McCarthy and published in 2006 is part of the Oprah Winfrey book club. During an interview with Oprah, McCarthy answered questions about The Road that he had never been asked before because pervious to the interview he had never been interviewed. Oprah asked what inspired the heart breaking book; it turns out that McCarthy wrote the book after taking a vacation with his son John. While on the vacation he imagined the world fifty years later and seen fire in the distant hills. After the book was finished, McCarthy dedicated it to his son, John. Throughout the book McCarthy included things that he knows he and his son would do and conversations that he thinks they may have had. (Cormac). Some question if the book is worth reading for college course writing classes because of the amount of common writing “rule breaks”. After reading and doing assignments to go along with The Road, I strongly believe that the novel should be required for more college courses such as Writing and Rhetoric II. McCarthy wrote the book in a way to force readers to get out of their comfort zones; the book has a great storyline; so doing the assignments are fairly easy, and embedded in the book are several brilliant survival tactics.
The boy constantly begs his father to be sympathetic and charitable to the drifters that they encounter on the road, but the father usually refuses or either puts up an argument before finally giving into the boy, and handing over one or two cans of food to the stranger. Although “the man” is in survival mode, he expresses no compassion for humanity and therefore represents “the bad guys”. “They came upon him shuffling along the road before them, dragging one leg slightly and stopping from time to time to stand stooped and uncertain before setting out again.”(McCarthy 49). “They followed him a good ways but at his pace they were losing the day and finally he just sat down in the road and did not get up again.”(McCarthy 49). “He was burntlooking as the country, his clothing scorched and black.” “One of his eyes was burnt shut and his hair was but a nitty wig of ash upon his blackened skull.”(McCarthy 49, 50). “What is wrong with the man?” “He’s been struck by lightning.” “Can’t we help him?” “Papa?” “No.” “We cant help him.” “The boy kept pulling at his coat.” “Papa?” “Stop it.” “Cant we help him Papa?” “No.” “We can’t help him.” “There’s nothing to be done for him.” “They went on. “The boy was crying” “He kept looking back.” (McCarthy 50). I was agitated with “the man” during this part of the novel, because I feel that he should have at least stopped and checked on the fee...
I have conflicting thought regarding Cormac McCarthy's novel The Road. My initial thoughts of the novel were that it was solely built on the complete devastation of two characters lives and the surrounding landscape and their constant search for survival. However after giving it further insight I discovered the underlying messages of the importance of good and bad people in my life, the beauty of the little things in life and constant greed showed by desperate individuals. I believe the novels successes comes from the messages of the significant value of human life and the importance of memories in our lives.
The boy comprehends the severity of the situations he is faced with, such as lack of food or water, and treats his father with the same respect and equality that the man gives him. He insists on sharing his portions with his father when they are uneven, and he remains cautious at all times, even when his father is not. The boy’s fire is fueled by his love for his father, which is shown by the boy’s priority on caring for his father’s wellbeing, just as the man does for him. This love and responsibility, manifesting in the form of self-sacrifice and compassion, lies in direct juxtaposition to the rest of the world, where selfishness and indifference reigns
While reading the novel “The Road” by Cormac McCarthy the overall aspect is pessimistic. It is about violence, hardship, death, fear, and the loss of hope. Throughout the book, the two main characters, the man, and boy face up against some of the toughest survival and life lessons. Together they face the woman’s suicide, starvation, the idea of rape, sickness, survival of the apocalypse, and in a sense being hunted like prey by cannibals who also managed to survive the terrifying possibilities that cause Earth to go to chaos. Within the novel, there are hundreds of examples to provide evidence of the pessimistic nature of the novel. Cormac McCarthy who is the author continuously writes in his novel about some of the deepest and darkest situations
(Gilbert pg. 44) The first level are the physiological needs such as food and water. This is one of the man and the boy’s most consistent conflicts. In The Road, basic resources are extremely hard to come by, as seen when the man said, “We have to find something to eat. We have no choice.” (McCarthy pg. 220) To stay alive, a huge emphasis is placed on their dependence in finding those basic needs. Nearly all of the decisions the man and the boy made were related to finding food or conserving food for basic survival.
The structure and language used is essential in depicting the effect that the need for survival has had upon both The Man and The Boy in The Road. The novel begins in media res, meaning in the middle of things. Because the plot isn’t typically panned out, the reader is left feeling similar to the characters: weary, wondering where the end is, and what is going to happen. McCarthy ensures the language is minimalistic throughout, illustrating the bleak nature of the post-apocalyptic setting and showing the detachment that the characters have from any sort of civilisation. Vivid imagery is important in The Road, to construct a portrait in the reader's mind that is filled with hopelessness, convincing us to accept that daily survival is the only practical option. He employs effective use of indirect discourse marker, so we feel as if we are in the man’s thought. The reader is provided with such intense descriptions of the bleak landscape to offer a feeling of truly seeing the need for survival both The Man and The Boy have. The reader feels no sense of closu...
With the son’s fear amongst the possibility of death being near McCarthy focuses deeply in the father’s frustration as well. “If only my heart were stone” are words McCarthy uses this as a way illustrate the emotional worries the characters had. ( McCarthy pg.11). Overall, the journey of isolation affected the boy just as the man both outward and innerly. The boys’ journey through the road made him weak and without a chance of any hope. McCarthy states, “Ever is a long time. But the boy knew what he knew. That ever is no time at all” (McCarthy pg. 28). The years of journey had got the best of both, where they no longer had much expectation for
At first the relationship between a father and his son can be perceived as a simple companionship. However, this bond can potentially evolve into more of a dynamic fitting relationship. In The Road The Man and his son have to depend on one another because they each hold a piece of each other. The Man holds his sons sense of adulthood while the son posses his father’s innocence. This reliance between the father and son create a relationship where they need each other in order to stay alive. “The boy was all that stood between him and death.” (McCarthy 29) It is evident that without a reason to live, in this case his son, The Man has no motivation to continue living his life. It essentially proves how the boy needs his father to love and protect him, while the father needs the boy to fuel ...
The Road by Cormac McCarthy, is set in a post-apocalyptic United States. A father and his son have survived the event that cause the destruction and death of so many. The two of them follow a road that will lead them to the coast where they hope to find and untouched landscape that they can live in. Through their journey they encounter others that are just trying to stay alive, one’s who will steal, enslave them, or even kill them.