Desolation Fosters Hope for Mankind Setting is one of the most important factors in the shaping of a story; it shapes the plot and characters while also establishing the atmosphere. In Cormac McCarthy’s The Road, the setting is pivotal because it is the backbone for which the story is based upon. Set in post apocalyptic America, The Road is a story of a boy and his father’s journey as they travel south to the coast to stay warm from the impending winter. Due to the condition of their environment, a desolate wasteland, the two characters form a special bond that compels them to be very protective of each other. Because of the isolation, the boy learns everything he knows from his father. The man teaches him simpler things like how to read but …show more content…
They simplify things so that children can easily digest them. That is what the man attempts to do for his son, but the son is already too mature. Having been born into this post apocalyptic time, the boy has never known the “old” world. His life has been absent from any sort of life and joy, nature and animals, playmates and games. Instead he lives in a world where they have no food to eat, no clothes to wear, nothing to entertain them. However hard the man tries to pass off their situation as not as bad as it really is, the boy has quickly grown accustomed to the reality of his surroundings. In a flashback the man remembers when his wife, and the boy’s mother, leaves them to kill herself. This happens towards the beginning of their journey, perhaps when the boy was only a few years old. She leaves without saying goodbye and in the morning, noticing his mother’s absence, the boy says, ‘She’s gone isn’t she? And [the man] said: Yes she is” (58). He may be in shock, but the boy is not surprised to find his mother gone; it is almost as if he expected it to happen sooner or later. From the time he is young, the boy has always had to expect suffering and also danger from the “bad guys”. Later in the story when they are hiding from these bad guys, the boy says something that would be alarming for any parent to hear from their child’s mouth, ‘If they find us they’ll kill us, won’t they Papa” (115). Estimating …show more content…
Although this helps the child to have good morality, perhaps better than the father, he does feel a burden of guilt. The father says, “You’re not the one who has to worry about everything…[The child] looked up into his wet and grimy face. Yes I am, he said. I am the one” (259). The boy feels responsible for what is going on in the world; he feels like it is his responsibility to take care of everything, continuing with the religious aspect of the child and almost paralleling him to Jesus. The father sees him as his religious savior, but the boy still believes in some God as he prays for thanks, “Dear people: thank you for all this food and stuff...we hope you’re safe in heaven with God” (146) The boy continues to act as a symbol of hope in a desolate world that has none, though he does not realize. The man tells him when he is dying how important the child is not only to him but to the world, “[The fire] is inside you. It was always there. I can see it” (279). Although the boy wants to die alongside his father, the man encourages him to persist, to survive, and carry the fire. This fire, the one the boy finds within himself, is the symbol of everlasting hope and human resilience. Instead of succumbing to the circumstances and resorting to
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
He has endured and overcame many fears and struggles, but during this section, we truly acquire an insight of what the little boy is actually like – his thoughts, his opinions, his personality. Contrary to his surroundings, the little boy is vibrant and almost the only lively thing around. I love him! He is awfully appalled by the “bad guys” and shockingly sympathetic toward dead people. For example, when the father raided a house and found food, the little boy suggested that they should thank them because even though they’re dead or gone, without them, the little boy and father would starve. My heart goes out to him because he is enduring things little boys should never go through, even if this novel is just a fictional
It’s the year 2028, and the world we used to know as bright and beautiful is no longer thriving with light. A disease similar to the plague broke out and caused great havoc. Although it may seem like forever ago, sickness spread only a few years ago. The Road by Cormac McCarthy is about a man and his son who fortunately survived this sickness; although they made it, the struggle to keep going is tough. Before most of the population became deceased, people went insane. They started to bomb houses, burn down businesses and towns, and destroy the environment. Anyone who had the disease was bad blood. Many saw it as the end of the world, which in many cases was true.
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
It is often said that a dog is a man’s best friend. In Cormac McCarthy’s novel, The Crossing, a deep affection and fondness are established between man and animal. In a particular excerpt from the novel, Cormac illustrates the protagonist’s sorrow that was prompted from the wolf’s tragic death. As blood stiffens his trousers, the main character seeks to overcome the cold weather and fatigue with hopes of finding the perfect burial site for the wolf. McCarthy uses detailed descriptions and terminology in his novel, The Crossing, to convey the impact of the wolf’s death on the protagonist, a sad experience incorporated with religious allusions and made unique by the main character’s point of view.
The father often uses the phrase “carrying the fire,” to suggest the knowledge the son must inherit from his father in order to one day continue the father's legacy. The father tries to educate his son in goodness, survival, and decency even though all such humanity has been extinguished. His efforts to preserve civilized manners reflect his nurturing and give purpose to his existence. Before the father dies he tells his son that all this fire—warmth, instinct for good, and knowledge—lives inside him: “You have to carry the fire. I don't know how to. Yes, you do. Is the fire real? The fire? Yes, it is. Where is it? I don't know where it is. Yes, you do. It's inside you. It always was there. I can see it” (McCarthy 278-279). The fire has multiple symbolic meanings for the man and the boy. For the man the fire represents the love he has for his son because his son is his reason for continuing. It is also the man’s moral code, his way to refrain from turning evil and committing murder or cannibalism. For the boy the fire symbolizes the kindness he carries even when he has been exposed to evil. Since the boy was born after the catastrophic event, he embodies a sense of purity, an untainted fire within him. Consequently, the son is more naïve and trusting of others than his father. McCarthy's “carrying the fire” functions as a metaphor of knowledge and hope for humanity, the natural instinct to keep going and hope for something better along the
father compares the boy to the stars..." (Toone 91), the boy has been represented as a ray of hope. Hope is something that seems impossible to have in this world, but the boy sees the world in a different perspective than most. In the book, the boy is described as one of the last remaining traces there is of goodness and faith. The man wants to give up since is he exhausted of what the world has become, but he keeps going for his son, who is his only ray of sunlight in the gray earth they inhabit. The child was not born before the destruction happened, yet he is not like the rest of humanity. All of the adults are now in a state of peril because there is so control, there is no human nature left in many people. The adults that are still living are confused and have become violent. Everyone is scared so they do what every human would do in a time of panic, they listen to their human instincts. Every human's basic instincts are to do whatever they must to survive, even if it means being greedy and unforgiving.
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.
I perceive the value of human life as invaluable. Your text enables me to envision how life would be without the comfort and security of civilization. The man’s views on life are judged by his experiences and his sole objective is to keep him and the boy alive. The father repeatedly promises himself and the boy that he would do anything for him. “My job is to take care of you. I was appointed to do that by God. I will kill anyone who touches you.” (pg 80).The boy returns the act of concern that the man has for him. The boy puts a large emphasis on that the man also must eat and drink ‘you to’. His compassion and willingness to help others in need brings conflict between him and his father. “Cant we help him? Papa? No. We cant help him.” (pg 51) The difference of the father’s practicability and the boy’s compassion is predominant. The text reinforces the idea that all life is sacred and important.
...s son live by seven rules that make them the good guys. They do what they have to do to survive, without compromising their morals. They are the epitome of a light shining in the darkness. The conflict of the father and son’s polar opposite personalities is exemplified when looking at how they feel about the rules. The child has ease with following every rule but number six, whereas the father has trouble with every rule but number six. This shows that maybe the characters complete each other. This also shows that maybe the son is better cut out for living in this kind of world than his father is. That fact shows that the father taught the child correctly.
The persona begins to think about how he cannot take both paths and be the same “traveler”
The afternoon was slowly fading into the evening and I had gone the whole day without the figure of my aspiration, my father. I impatiently paced the floor in front of the door like a stalking cat waiting to pounce on its prey. The thoughts of wrestling my father and hear those words of affirmation, “You got me! Mercy! I give up!” filled my head. My father was obviously faking it but there was something about his words that have such power over a young boys life. Mothers are sources of comfort and safety for a young boy but it is the father that defines the identity of a young boy, the father bestows manhood on the boy.
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 ...
Adam, a corporal officer, starts as man who works everyday to catch the ‘villains’ of society, but is not spending enough time with his family, especially his son. He favors his nine year old daughter over his fifteen year old son. Adam views his daughter as a sweet child, and his son as a stubborn teenager who is going through a rebellious stage. However, when his daughter is killed in an accident, his perspective of family changes. In his grief, he states that he wishes he had been a better father. His wife reminds him that he still is a father and he realizes that he still has a chance with his son, Dylan. After his Daughter’s death, he creates a resolution from scriptures that states how he will be a better father. Because of the resolution he creates, he opens up to and spends more time with his son. By th...