Hope And Redemption In The Road Cormac Mccarthy

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In the novel The Road Cormac McCarthy depicts the struggle for survival of a father with his son in the gray and broken world after the doom of almost all creatures. However in this post-apocalyptic world, the worst part of the calamity is not only the damage it brings but the situation it puts human beings in: lacking any kinds of edible food and many survivors becoming cannibals. However, hope plays a significant role on their road seeking survival. The father and the son educate, influence, remind and encourage each other all the time in order to keep faith in life and themselves. The author repeatedly points out that they are carrying the “fire” in heart. What is that fire? To some extents, the “fire” symbolizes the hope they have. How does the hope lead the redemption? Hope brings redemption in …show more content…

It’s the hope, which leads the father and the son to the redemption of life, heart and civilization of human being. Hope rescues their lives. Differently from the people who give up their lives, such as the man’s wife, who is completely despairing and walks out of the house to death of her own accord, the father and the son choose to seek for survival, because they have hope inside. Actually at first, there is a time that the father has an idea to end their lives, and he teaches the son how to put the gun into his mouth. “If we were going to die would you tell me? I don’t know. We’re not going to die.” (p94) The boy is the father’s fire in heart, his hope. We can see the inner struggles of the father by the contrasts of the dreams and the reality. The first paragraph of the book shows the depression and fear of the father. However, there is still a little peace and hope when he sees that the

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