Cormac Mccarthy On The Road Analysis

Cormack McCarthy’s novel, The Road, is set in a post apocalyptic world, where humanity is struggling to survive. Through his simplistic writing style and powerful symbolism, McCarthy tells a story about the human condition as well as what it truly means to be human. Though it is set in a wasteland this novel still manages to project hope through the love of a boy and his father. The following passages are quotes that spoke to me stylistically or symbolically while I was reading.

As one is put through times of strife and struggle, an individual begins to lose their sense of human moral and switch into survival mode. Their main focus is their own survival, not of another's. In the post-apocalyptic novel, The Road by Cormac McCarthy, a father and son travel along the road towards the coast, while battling to survive the harsh weather and scarce food supply, as well as avoid any threats that could do them harm. Throughout their journey along the road, the father and son are exposed to the horrid remnants of humanity. As a result, the father and son constantly refer to themselves as “the good guys” and that they “carry the fire”, meaning they carry the last existing spark of humanity within themselves. By the acts of compassion

The Road by Cormac McCarthy takes place in a post- apocalyptic world where a man and his son are trying to survive, one arduous day at a time; however starvation, sickness, and death stare them right in the face. No one knows what happened to the world, or why it is now a barren wasteland. All animals seem to be extinct. This man and his son seem to be somewhere north because throughout the book they talk about going south. The boy says, “And we’re still going south.” And the man answers, “Yes.” (10). The man had a wife but she left. She says “I’ve taken a new lover. He can give me what you cannot.” and he replies “Death is not a lover.” (56) She ends up leaving them and she is depicted to of died. The story begins with this man and his son sleeping in the woods. When they awake, they begin to go south because apparently it’s warm there. These two wander the roads of the long forgotten cities looking for food and warmth. They push a cart carrying some of their salvaged goods and blankets. The blankets are essential because the only thing keeping them warm is a parka and worn out pants. They continue on their journey

“I survived because the fire inside me burned brighter than the fire around me” says Joshua Graham, who, although a video game character, speaks words of wisdom on the subject. Cormac McCarthy’s The Road develops characters who frequently utilize fire on their post-apocalyptic Earth for warmth, cooking, and protection. These usages are evidently essential for endurance, but the story also presents this element in a more significant manner. The boy and his father consistently mention the phrase “carrying the fire” throughout their incessant journey. Contributing to an insightful meaning of the entire novel, the fire is a symbol of humanity’s residual hope in survival and morality.

Throughout the novel “The Road by Cormac McCarthy, it displays the tale of survival, a world infested with murder, crime, and despair. However, the author conveys that although cruelty may arise in the world, love overcomes violence and that humanity has not been completely lost. Within the book, violence is shown in a great depth, thus because humans are thrown into a world filled with thievery, murder, and cannibalism as the result of a post-apocalyptic landscape. Despite the crimes that occur, altruism has been explored within the novel. Altruism is best described as the “willingness to do things that bring advantages to others, even if it results in disadvantage for yourself” (Dictionary Cambridge, 2017) Furthermore, two lessons that McCarthy conveys to his readers is that although one may help

Throughout the world, animals have protected and cared their young from the dangers they must face or encounter such as how humans must protect their children in order to thrive. This is how life is for the protagonist and his son in the book, The Road, written by Cormac McCarthy that introduces us to a man and his son trying to reach the south of the U.S. in order to find salvation. During their journey, they must survive in the wasteland against cannibals and other survivors along the way. Thus, illustrates how they must fight in order to survive throughout the wasteland they wander. Although the Father and Son live in a world of great depravity and hardship, the Father has imparted “The Fire” because his Son is the only person in this wasteland willing to help others rather than scavenge them.

The Road, by Cormac McCarthy, describes the journey to the southern United States taken by a young boy and his father after an unnamed catastrophe has struck the world both of which travel through the rough terrain of the southeastern United States. The conditions they face are horrific: rotted corpses, landscapes devastated by fire, abandoned towns and houses. The father and his son struggle to survive in the harsh weather with little food, supplies, or shelter. Despite their struggles, the man and the child survive, convincing themselves that they are the "good guys". However, the father's health worsens as they travel, and by the time they reach the ocean, he is near death. He continually coughs up blood, and the two are forced to move at ever slowing rates each day. Finally, he dies in the woods lying next to his son in the middle of the night. The boy remains by his side for several days after his death, but eventually the boy meets a kind family who invite him to join them. The boy must say goodbye to his father and embark on a new journey with this family. Mankind has two meanings, the first being “the fact or condition of being human; human nature.” and the second being “humaneness;

“The Road”, by Cormac McCarthy, is undoubtedly an extremely sad and depressing story. It explores how the destruction of civilization might bring out the evil in men and how our morals might disappear if we find ourselves in a place where there is no one or nothing to stop us. However, it also shows the good in humanity (Specifically with the boy). How even through all the evil, there would still be people that were inherently good. The question is, does this book paint an overall positive or negative view of humanity?

People tend to group themselves into cliques with other individuals that share beliefs, traditions, interests, or experiences. Authors use the familiar segregation to expose the contrast in values between groups, generally through alienation from that particular group. In The Road, a novel written by Cormac McCarthy, this technique is demonstrated through the isolation of The Man and The Boy from the rest of society and each other to illuminate the principles of the post-apocalyptic world.

This excerpt from The Road by Cormac McCarthy makes the notion that life must go one, but it will be a struggle. The city itself is corroding and the whole world is depreciating. People need to do anything they can to survive. McCarthy makes the feeling of tension very prominent. She does by her use of diction to make a depressing and ominous tone.

The world is in desolation and every day is a struggle to live. What would seem as an impossible situation is the daily life of a man and young boy in The Road by Cormac McCarthy. The Road is a post apocalyptic story of the hardships of a man and his son. Every day the two must face starvation, bitter, cold nights, and the loss of hope. Some days are easier than other but most of them are difficult. When the world comes to an almost end and just living becomes a difficult task you have to find a reason to live for. The man’s reason was his son. Without his son the will to live and fight to live would have disappeared. The man knows this himself and so did the mother of his son. With the everyday challenges they face the hardest is simply finding

In the novel “The Road”, the author Cormac McCarthy shows how compassionate a child can be despite his surroundings. Through his novel, he takes us on an exploration of the experiences of The Boy and his father. He shows that The Boy, notwithstanding the environment that he has known his whole life.

In the wake of the World Trade Center attacks on September 11, 2001, America’s new world view became entrenched in fear and insecurity. The very core of America’s belief system was rocked. This new mistrust of humanity is similar to one reflected in Cormac McCarthy’s novel The Road, and is especially evident in the views of the father and his millennial generation son as they travel through a vast wasteland and explore the theme of good versus evil.

Colorless, alarming, and cannibalistic. This is the life in which a father and his son have to live through each and every day. They only have each other, family, to make life worth living for. In Cormac McCarthy’s book The Road family is the most important thing in one’s life. For example, the father’s capability to do anything to protect his son, giving his son the gun to end his life from any further suffering, and always putting his son’s life first before anything else.

The world is a very unique place with unique rules. The world doesn’t think a lot about what it would look like without laws. The Road by Cormac McCarthy is a novel about a post-apocalyptic world, and what is takes to survive. There is a man and his son within the story, trying to survive after a nuclear attack. There aren’t any laws or standards left in the world, after the bomb destroys everything.