Man And Death In The Road By Cormac Mccarthy

The Road by Cormac McCarthy is about a father and son who are surrounded by an apocalyptic world where they are trying to survive. Many of McCarthy’s books are about negative or violent times like Blood Meridian and All The Pretty Horses. McCarthy enjoys writing about the terror in the real world. When writing literature, he avoids using commas and quotation marks.. Many works of literature have a plethora of themes throughout them, in The Road, the theme that sticks out the most is paternal love. The boy is the only thing that stands between the man and death. Aside from that, the father doesn’t kill anyone for food, he only takes the life of people who threaten the boy. Lastly, the man allows the boy have the last of their supplies, food,

Most people wouldn’t think before killing someone in this world, even if they were a child, or even an elderly, just so they could cure their starvation. The man and the boy are different. They aren’t like this. The man will only kill people who threaten the boys life, even if this means that it’s harder for them to get food. “I don't think you should touch him. Maybe we could give him something to eat. He stood looking off down the road. Damn, he whispered. He looked down at the old man. Perhaps he'd turn into a god and they to trees. All right, he said.” (Page 78). “No you can't. If you look at him again I'll shoot you.” (Page 31) In both of these quotes, the man and boy come across someone who they don’t know and they don’t know the ability of these people or what their intentions are. In the first quote, the boy tells the man to not touch the old man but to help him. The man contemplates it and agrees with the boy. The man does this to keep the boy from having to see the horrifying event of his own father killing someone. In the second quote, the father is threatening to shoot an unknown man because he was just looking at the boy. The man only cares about killing people if they have any chance of hurting the boy. Both of these quotes support the idea of paternal love because they show that the man risks not only his life but their starvation just to make sure no one hurts the boy. When there isn’t much food left,

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