Essay Cormac Mccarthy The Road

McCarthy’s The Road exemplifies the struggle to survive throughout the entire novel. In the most trying times, during the longest stretches without food, the father’s persistence and confidence

Louisa Hansen Mr. Davis Honors English 10 25 February 2024 Maturity Changes Over Time In Cormac McCarthy's 2006 post-apocalyptic novel, The Road, he focuses on a father and son traveling south. They traverse a grim, broken, ashen America with a cart holding blankets, food, a few toys, and a motorcycle mirror attached to the handle. As they make their way to the coast, they encounter cannibals, thieves, and death, ranging from flames, starvation, and outright murder. Alongside these horrors, the pair struggle to find food, quite often going hungry for days on end with nothing but water to sustain them.

He was constantly holding his son close to him and worrying about what would happen if the boy was lost. McCarthy recalls, “They squatted in the road and ate cold rice and cold beans that they'd cooked days ago. Already beginning to ferment. No place to make a fire that would not be seen. They slept huddled together in the rank quilts in the dark and the cold.

The people are not starving, and though they missing some previous amenities, the population is physically sound as to be capable of civilized thinking. There is order established that is lacking in The Road, evident as “People stare at him until he anxiously gathers his laptop up and slips away. Not that anyone would steal it. They just don’t want to be reminded…” This reestablishment of human civilization stems from the outlook of the characters in the story. Quentin is an optimist, who believes that civilization can be recovered and restored after the apocalypse. His purpose centers on his hope, for a better situation for everyone there. The girl, serving as the narrator, believes that simply living to try and improve their own lives isn’t enough. “We need a chronicler, a town recorder, a church Bible full of births and deaths... a bit of incidental knowledge for whoever comes along next.” Not only does she want to help the current generation to succeed, she wants to help future generations, and believes that doing so would boost the people’s morale. The result of this shared attitude of helping everyone is that people come together to work things out. Resources are pooled and people’s minds are more at ease as they no longer have to deal with the threat of other humans, which all serve to instill a sense of optimism in the people and push them to work harder. The girl says, “Who has time

Archetypal criticism follows a basic rule of categorizing or relating any work of literature into a set framework. It works from a subjective basis, it is used to determine and grasp the ideas of universal truths messages through literary work. The universal truths and messages are determined by identifying patterns like character types, storylines, settings, symbols. The Road by Cormac McCarthy is a novel that accurately exemplifies the principles of archetypal criticism. This narrative account associates the characters of a young minor and his father to encapsulate the ideas of archetypal criticism. McCarthy presents the novel by setting the scene of a death-defying journey through a post-apocalyptic wasteland of America. The young lad

Cormac McCarthy’s apocalyptic novel, The Road, conveys many hidden themes relating to sustaining morality in a time of despair. The story depicts a man and his son struggling to stay level-headed in an abandoned world with no food, water, or light. The boy symbolizes kindness and benevolence while the man contrasts him, prioritizing reality and survival. The man does everything in his power to ensure that the boy is kept safe and alive in the world, even when it comes to things that may question his morality. However, the boy does the opposite of what the man wants, such as lending food to scavengers, staying hopeful, and believing that people are good.

“No plants grow, no sun shines through the ash-plagued sky and, save a single dog, no animals survive. The dead outnumber the living in shocking proportion, and of those few living humans, most are barely human at all,” stated by Ashley Kunsa in her essay, “Maps of the world in its becoming: post-apocalyptic naming in Cormac McCarthy's The Road.” No one knows exactly what event caused this tragedy, but life turned upside down for the few survivors. McCarthy focuses on two characters: a father and son duo and shares their experiences in this new world. Throughout the novel, they each share different life lessons with each other.

The story takes place in a post-apocalyptic setting. Therefore, there is hardly any food available to The Man and The boy throughout the story. The Man is constantly sacrificing his food for his son throughout the entire story. In addition they endure harsh weather conditions. For most of the story it is very cold and finding warmth is a task the man faces for his son and himself. These two problems are shown in one sentence of the story. “They ate a poor meal and lay down in the cold,” (McCarthy 12). Being able to cope with these circumstances really shows the determination of The Man. The Man is a fighter in tough times and does not give up. He is always concerned for his son. The Man is a truly loving and determined

Early on in the novel, the reader begins to learn that the The Man and The Boy have a very close and intimate bond. Rather than causing a strain on the their relationship, the isolation that constantly follows the pair on The Road actually made their bond as father and son stronger . Traveling along The Road by themselves causes The Man and The Boy’s relationship to become extremely codependent. The Boy relies on The Man like any child would rely on their father. The Boy completely counts on The Man for everything, including food, shelter, clothes, and everything else that is needed to survive on The Road. The Man keeps them safe from the “bad guys” and keeps them alive and as healthy as he can. The Boy’s needs are always put before The Man’s needs. However, The Man depends upon The Boy just as much as The Boy depends on him. If it weren’t for The Boy, The Man would have been dead a long time ago. The only reason that he has survived this long is because of The Boy. Making sure The Boy survives is the only meaning that The Man has to his life. The Boy’s continued existence is the most influential motivation

In the novel, The Road, Cormac McCarthy illustrates the expressions, settings and the actions by various literary devices and the protagonist’s struggle to survive in the civilization full of darkness and inhumanity. The theme between a father and a son is appearing, giving both the characters the role of protagonist. Survival, hope, humanity, the power of the good and bad, the power of religion can be seen throughout the novel in different writing techniques. He symbolizes the end of the civilization or what the world had turned out to be as “The Cannibals”. The novel presents the readers with events that exemplify the events that make unexpected catastrophe so dangerous and violent. The novel reduces all human and natural life to the

The encounters and interactions the man and boy had while on the road help develop McCarthy’s larger theme of humanity losing its selflessness when it’s in danger. For example, while the man and the boy are traveling to the coast they come across a burnt man, half-dead lying in the road. After some observation, the boy asks the man if they could “help him” but is continuously shot down by his father who repeatedly tells him to “stop it” (McCarthy 50). The Road’s setting is one of the strongest over the weak, those who can’t survive for themselves they simply won’t. This burnt man, who was struck by lightning, is an example of that as he is now in no condition to scavenge for food and medical supplies and will probably just die where he currently sits. The boy, realizing this, wanted to do something to give the man even a small chance at survival, but the man knew he was a lost cause and should be left to die. The boy and his overwhelming desire to help the dying man is representative of old society and its pressure to help those with lesser than you, ideals that were result of religious codes and churches. But in a world where none of that matters or is present, the man is what humanity has become, selfish being whom only care about

The boy asks the man, “Can I ask you something? Yes. Of course you can. What would you do if I died? If you died I would want to die too. So you could be with me? Yes. So I could be with you. Okay” (10-11). McCarthy points out that the man’s love for his son is what makes the man want to survive in the post-apocalyptic world. In the novel, before attempting suicide, the man’s wife criticizes him for using the boy as a reason to survive. The wife tells the man “The only thing I can tell you is that you wont survive for youself” (57). The quote explains that in the world, where landscapes devastated by fire, the weather conditions are getting harsh, the town and houses are abandoned, little food, no supplies, and no shelter left, no want to live there, but the man wants to continue living the life, so he can always be with his son.

Cormac McCarthy’s brain child “The Road” is a postapocalyptic novel that illustrates the harsh reality of the world. This story serves as a truth that humans, when stripped of their humanity will take desperate measures in order to survive. The reader learns; however even when it seems all hope is lost good can still be found in the world. The son character of this story illuminates this philosophy. He is a foil of his father and shows how even a person never accustomed to the luxury of a normal life can still see goodness.

He conveys through the innocent boy’s optimism that even in a collapsed, dark, futureless world, hope and goodness are still unrelenting. The juxtaposing flickers of hope against despair forge in us a sense that the world is indeed worth saving, motivating us to take action and make a positive difference for our world; through the complexity of McCarthy’s message, the reader is despaired by what the world has become, yet simultaneously inspired and hopeful for the world to be saved. A disturbing yet intensely beautiful "love story", as McCarthy himself

Other than the boy the father has hope in very few things. But one thing which is shown throughout The Road is the father’s sense of morals. The father always reassures the boy and himself that they are the good guys which gives them the hope to keep persevere because they are, to the father, keeping goodness in the world alive, “carrying the flame.” Cormac McCarthy presents the cannibals as a lost hope in The Road. They are almost only referred to as the “bad guys” and are described as if they are animals with no hope other than to survive.