Cormac Mccarthy The Road

During times of crisis people depend on each other for help and being with each other can help you strive to survive. The man is only living for one reason and that is for the boy. The boy is keeping the man going because the man needs to help him and show him how to survive. “The father's responsibility is to save the son--to scavenge for food and supplies, to fend off murderers and worse--while the boy's is to preserve their humanity (NEED IN TEXT CITATION SOURCE 1).” The man has taught the boy how to kill himself with the gun if the cannibals get to him. They have two bullets in the beginning of the novel and it is for defending themselves and possibly using it on themselves. “Yet this road trip is like a nightmare from which the father

Over the course of multiple scenes in The Road by Cormac McCarthy the author conveys to the audience about a barbaric charred wasteland where a father and son trek across searching for humanity and hope. Early on in the book McCarthy writes a scene where father kills a man. Papa had just woken to a noise, he saw a truck coming down the road with many men and guns. He woke the boy and sprinted into the trees to hide. Shortly, a man came into the trees where then Papa took his pistol to the man's head. The boy silent stays behind his father. After a anxious conversation Papa does what is necessary to him for his only son and his lifeline to survive.“Leveled the pistol and fired from a two-handed position balanced on both knees at a distance of six feet. The man fell instantly and lay with blood bubbling from the hole in his forehead.”. He imparts on the idea that when violence is just around the corner, for survival it is necessary to be quick witted and be questionable about everything which often replaces peace with chaos and desperation

The ability to paint beautiful ideas on a canvas of dark events and imagery is an essential skill in the arsenal of an accomplished writer. In his novel The Road, Cormac McCarthy demonstrates his understanding of this skill. A reviewer from the San Francisco Chronicle described The Road saying, “[McCarthy’s] tale of survival and the miracle of goodness only adds to McCarthy’s stature as a living master. It’s gripping, frightening, and, ultimately, beautiful.” These descriptions of the tale are true throughout the novel, but particularly at the ending of the story. In the final pages of the book, McCarthy continues to engage the reader with gripping and frightening moments, to emphasize the theme of survival, and to reveal beauty and “the miracle of goodness.”

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

On page 172, the Boy and The Man have met the “Old Man”. Only because of the boy and his consistent whining do they share some of their rations with him. Even though The Man has told him multiple times, the boy cannot let another human who looks to be in need alone this time. As they question the Old Man and vice versa, he says “…I like a animal. You don’t want to know the things I’ve eaten” (McCarthy 172). Based on the fact we know multiple groups in this apocalyptic dystopian world have turned to cannibalism of

It is these extreme behaviours, which challenge and contradict the values that most individuals have been taught from the very beginning. The values the boy must carry into the future. After the mother’s death, all that stands between him and death is his father’s light. It is this light at the end of the tunnel, which allows the man to continue his quest. Despite all the wrong deeds occurring around the world, the boy progresses through his quest whilst also upholding his values such as dignity, perseverance, justice and faith. But it is a greater story of survival, it is the story of the world surviving with the morals, beliefs and laws that are at risk of losing. This concept of the story profoundly confronts my values and how others reject them for their own survival at any cost. Having experienced the environments of a refugee camp, if people were to abandon their values and beliefs just as the characters in The Road, then there would be no hope or future left for them to look forward to.

In the story The Road, there are two main characters. One is The Man and the other character is The Boy. The Man is the father of The Boy, who was born in a post apocalyptic world. The Man constantly faces many conflicts throughout the story, such as man against nature, man against man, and man against self. However, throughout the entire story he is able to overcome these conflicts for his sake and that of his son. One of the most difficult tasks the man has throughout the story is taking care of his son. The author reveals the death of the boy’s mom in many flashbacks. For example, when the boy tells his father, “I wish I was with my mom,” and the dad responds, “You mean you wish you were dead,” (McCarthy 49). The mom was not able to cope with the situation and committed suicide. This was very tough on The Man, however he was strong for his son. The man believes God appointed him to get his son through the tough times. He says, “ I was appointed to do that by God,” (McCarthy 66). The Man is shown to be very brave for himself and his son in every circumstance. He is able to cope very well with the setting. Overall, The Man is shown as a brave, loving, and compassionate

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 father and son come across a house where people are locked in a cellar in which will suffice as food for the cannibals. The son believes it was a good decision to leave without letting them out because the cannibals would have eaten them if they were found, which draws the conclusion that the son has no hope that they can overcome any obstacle to instill the morals of humankind. The corrupted world that they live in changes the ethics of all of it’s people to endangering the lives of others. The father tries to uplift the boy’s hope, but cannot seem to do so because he cannot find the hope within himself. The son’s innocent views on the people that he comes across is changed after the father’s death because he believes that just as his father he should not trust others so easily.

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

Cormac McCarthy’s novel “The Road” reveals a constructed world as utterly hopeless to live within. The author presents dark and grotesque themes and unimaginable realities that position humans and their condition to its limits. Immersed in a burnt and dead world, following a nuclear explosion, the world hosts cannibalistic blood cults and road rats that would kill, rape and eat innocent children. The novelist emphasises that the very idea of living in such circumstances seems utterly hopeless. “The cold relentless circling of the intestate earth, darkness implacable” is revealed as a place of agonies in which one can either turn to suicide or become the ‘bad guy’.

(McCarthy 72) This is the father’s way of connecting with his son and family and creating an unbreakable family bond. Although it is obvious that the father loves his son it is also apparent that the father fears losing his son and family so he attempts to invoke conservative ideology. As Bryan M. Satin examines, “The Road dramatically augments the fear and uncertainty as well as the family loyalty with the United States after the attacks. In many ways, the father is an allegorical figure for the neoconservative response to this kind of post-9/11 world.”

For ages, people have been debating the idea of human morality and whether or not at its core humanity is good or bad. This philosophy is explored in Cormac McCarthy’s novel, The Road. The road is the story of a man and boy living in a post-apocalyptic world. Some cataclysmic event has crippled Earth’s natural ecosystem, leaving the skies engulfed in ash and the ground devoid of much life. The duo aim to journey south as a way to escape being frozen to death in the oncoming winter. During their journey, the boy and man come across different people and places that give them a better understand of what humanity has become and where they stand on that spectrum. Throughout The Road, McCarthy revisits the idea of being the “good guy” when there is no longer a need to, “carrying the fire” as it’s detailed in the book. The dichotomy between the boy’s moral conscience and the man’s selfish ideals helps develop McCarthy’s idea of humanity losing its selflessness in the face of danger.

In his novel The Road Cormac McCarthy uses a post-apocalyptic setting to help broaden the debate over moral good and evil. Not only do the main characters in his novel display either good or evil in their actions, but so do the people they encounter on their journey. These encounters are shaped by the moral decisions each individual makes. In this novel’s setting it is hard to define good and evil, but the choices made can still be applied to a non-apocalyptic world. McCarthy uses the experiences of the main characters to demonstrate that no matter what the scenario good will overcome evil.

What makes Cormac McCarthy’s post-apocalyptic novel The Road stick out from most dystopian works is that The Road takes place not before or during but after the end. The novel follows a man and his son as they survive the dangers of what once was the United States after an unspecified calamitous event. There is not much left of the world: no food, no animals, and no hope. Many readers will ponder how someone could still be motivated to keep moving forward under such circumstances. If we were living in the same conditions as the man and the boy, this question might seem more imperative. But arguably it is a question that can be applied to today: what, if anything, makes human life valuable or worthwhile? Through the dialogue between the characters, the novel provides two conflicting arguments that serve as potential answers for this question. The first argument is hope, which is associated with the Christian religion, while the other argument is futility, which has a nihilistic outlook of the ravaged world. This paper will examine the Christian imagery and nihilistic arguments contained in the novel and how the moral systems of the two conflict. While at first The Road might present itself as a powerful challenge to both Christian and nihilistic views of the world, in the end, the novel never explicitly reject either worldview.