Implications of The Post-Apocalyptic Anxieties Naturally, a person who is facing anxiety might pull away from conditions that have triggered similar feelings in the past. Anxieties are of different types including existential anxiety which results from facing an existential crisis, angst, and nihilistic feelings. Other categories of anxiety are test anxiety, stage fright, stage fright, and somatic anxiety. Stranger anxiety and social anxiety occur when a person is around a strangers (Karam 193). Such anxieties are evident in The Road, and McCarthy illustrates this in a verbose way. Anxieties in the road are both short term and long term. Unlike trivial anxieties in the day to day world, those of a post-apocalyptic situation are long lasting and some never end and require only love and family to heal.
Love As Remedy. The unnamed father in the road takes care of his son with a lot of love. The young boy and his father love and care for each other all the time to cover for the anxiety. The author remarks that the boy hangs on to him all the time in fear of the unknown. The small boy seeks refuge and love from his father. When the father attempts to leave the boy to go and look for firewood, the boy cries and claim that he is afraid to be left alone. This depicts the fear he feels, especially if he is left alone. The young boy keeps clutching on his fathers coat for safety (McCarthy, 2006, p.34). The father carries the boy across the field, stopping to catch a breath
A father is a son’s first hero. A strong father figure is vital for a man to be able to mature into a man of strong character and a reputable individual. In Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, the outcome of the complete absence of parental guidance is demonstrated. Without a nurturing atmosphere, the creature has no understanding of a moral compass. Frankenstein exemplifies the unchanging circumstance of an abused and neglected “child” growing up to mimic those actions. Comparable to an abused animal, the creature lashes out to those around him, by harming fellow human beings. Contrarily, Cormac McCarthy’s The Road, exhibits the other side of the spectrum, where the father is persistent on instilling fundamental values in his son. In a gloomy, barren land, there is an abundance of beauty in the manner in which the father protects and displays affection for his son. The man supports his son and has complete faith that he will decide to travel down the right path. There is a certain unconditional element that is present in their relationship. In both, Frankenstein and The Road the significance a father figure plays in modeling the life of his son is emphasized; both novels lack female roles, however differ in the fashion in which the void was filled. The education of the son, and his means of receiving it, greatly impacts the decisions he will make through the course of his life, which will ultimately decide the fate of both father and son or creator and creation.
Several types of anxiety disorders are discussed in this film. General anxiety disorder is described as a constant feeling of worry and fear for at least six months. A person suffering from general anxiety may experience panic attacks, cold sweats, heavy breathing, and may withdraw from social interactions. It is regularly treated with medications and cognitive behavior therapy, which is a psychotherapy that focuses on helping patients understand the feelings they are experiencing and how those feelings may be contributing to their issue. Post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD, is another anxiety disorder discussed in this film. People develop PTSD after experiencing an emotional shock or major trauma. Someone with PTSD may have issues sleeping and controlling their anger; they may experience feelings of detachment, numbness, and may have flashbacks of the traumatic experience causing their PTSD. Like general anxiety disorder, PTSD patients are often treated with medication and cognitive behavior therapy. Recently a new therapy, eye movement desensitization and reprocessing therapy, has been used in PTSD patients. This therapy requires the patient to rapidly move their eyes while recalling the traumatic experience. The third type of anxiety disorder discussed in this film is obsessive compulsive disorder, or OCD. OCD is described
The author Wes Moore recounts the time in chapter one, “Is Daddy Coming With Us?” , when he met his father who at the time was just a strange man. Wes states that “[he] looked at his mother… [moving] closer to [her] hip” (Moore 25). He continues by telling the reader that he automatically felt safer next to her. The reason for this text is to help the reader understand how many families can help with the development of a person. The author describes this event in full detail to show how Wes’ family provided him with a sense of feeling safe and sheltered.
In his own childish way, the boy is still loyal to his father, and still sees him as a parental figure, even though he’s being activilt hurt by him, the boy seeks out his abuser for comfort.
Thesis: In Cormac McCarthy’s The Road, the idea that someone cannot experience goodness before they discover evil is strengthened by the dynamic between the cautious father and the naive and innocent nature of the boy.
Though the death of a parent can create deep bruises or permanent scars, that time of agony is often seen as a time of realization. The loss of a parent will help the child to come to realize their love for them. In “A Wall of Fire Rising”, Little Guy cries this tender line from a school play after he witnesses his father’s death: “‘At night I relive once more the last caresses from the hand of a loving father, a valiant love, a beloved friend’” (66). Little Guy’s father was consumed by his yearn for freedom, and he gains his freedom through death at the expense of his wife and only child. Pain that Lili, the wife, and Little Guy experience is a price he was willing to pay because he loved his family and wanted to prove to his son that freedom is
As the man and boy travel on the road in the post apocalyptic, the boy is the only source of light in his father's life. Similarly, the man is all that the boy has, and the boy doesn't want to live unless his father remains with him. The boy is strong, gullible and very resilient, but also sensitive and compassionate. When the man and boy encounter other survivors on the road, the boy shows more sympathy towards them,
We cant help him. There’s nothing to be done for him.” (McCarthy 50). In The Road, the son is the voice of hope and aid, while the man does only what needs to be done for survival for himself and his son; he does not care for any other travelers on the road. McCarthy purposefully puts his readers into the mind of this man to make them see the way
In the middle of Tobias Wolff’s short story “Powder,” The father says, “I’ll tell you what I want, I want us all to be together again,” (35). We are left to wonder, how far a father will go to save his relationships with his family after being stuck on the top of a snowy mountain. Wolff portrays the father as an inconsiderate man with little care for the well-being of his marriage and relationship with his son. However, when his wife calls for a split, his efforts to save his relationship with his son increase. As the son notices his father putting in effort to keep his promise to get him home, he develops respect, trust, and appreciation for his father for taking risk.
In order for a child to live in a complete and happy family, the paternal love plays a major role in a child’s life, especially the love of a father which is as much important as a mother’s love. Moreover, a father’s love is one of the greatest influences on the child’s personality development throughout his/her life. A father’s love brings a sense of protection of security in a child. In the novel The Road, Cormac McCarthy present the great example of paternal love. The novel deals with a post-apocalyptic story about an unnamed man and his unnamed child as they move toward the south to find a better place to live after the catastrophic event. The son is the only reason for the father
This story also paints the picture of a father who would not give up on regaining his time with his son. It shows the father desperately trying to rectify the mistrust issues he created because he stated to the boy when they were sitting in the diner after the highway patrol redirected them away from the snow-covered route home that she would never forgive him if he did not get the boy home for
Raising a child is considered by many people to be one of life’s greatest challenges. A parent must teach his or her son or daughter about manners, morality, safety, and daily activities, such as washing hands or tying shoes. The pressure of raising a child successfully is difficult to manage in a decent society; however, doing so in a post-apocalyptic world brings on an entire new set of obstacles. In Cormac McCarthy’s novel The Road, the man displays sacrifice, protectiveness, and wisdom when dealing with his son.
One thing that remains constant in the ever-changing world of Cormac McCarthy’s dystopian novel The Road is the relationship between The Man and The Boy. The father and son’s bond is extremely close, especially due to the isolation they face on The Road, but it is filled with love and endearment, like someone would expect any relationship between a father and son to be.
In the novel, The Road by Cormac McCarthy (2006), a boy and his father have to learn how to survive in an apocalypse. However, the father was fortunate enough to grow up in a so-called normal life, which means, no apocalypse, and now he is watching his son suffer through this horrible life, that he himself, as a child, never went through. Papa watches as his son is hanging on to hope by a string and starts realizing that he needs him more than ever, which then has him decide to show him love in the darkest of times.
The year 2017 has been deemed as the year many natural disasters have occurred. From hurricanes to floods, earthquakes to landslides, all of these natural disasters have impacted the lives of many (CDC, 2013). We all have watched the news and seen how people have come together to aid one another, from one side of the globe to another, yet we have not seen any help for families who can not locate their loves ones who have been impacted from these natural disasters. What happens to them? The relatives of those who experienced a natural disaster are burdened with a heavy doubt of whether their family members were injured by the catastrophe, or worse, perished in the disaster. The focus tends to be on those impacted directly by the natural disaster; the survivors receive immediate medical attention, and most might also require psychological therapy for the traumatic event they just endured. The individuals who are often neglected in this catastrophic event are the close relatives of those who were affected by the calamity. A relative is left ruminating with the lingering question of their family member’s condition or whereabouts. This pain is intensified when their family members are far in proximity because they may be unable to travel, whether it be due to legal status, financial limitations or obligations one tends to have.