Micro Symbolism In The Road By Cormac Mccarthy

Cormac McCarthy’s The Road, is an enticing, but soul-wrenching novel that perfectly conveys the precise conditions of a cold, desolate world, in which one feels utterly isolated. McCarthy does not hesitate to go into detail about powerful or foul events within the plot. He says exactly what he means, and can effectively incorporate forceful interactions between the characters and each other, as well as characters and their given environment. By using the literary devices of symbolism, imagery, and theme, McCarthy handcrafts a novel with such eloquence and grace that such a bleak and miserable world is perhaps a seemingly beautiful one.

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

Literature is a door that opens to an author’s past experiences and emotions. Every impactful moment that an author experiences will sneak its way into the pages of the texts. In the novel, The Road written by Cormac McCarthy, many of the events taken place correlates with poignant points of his life.

“The nights were blinding cold and casket black and the long reach of the morning had a terrible silence to it. Like a dawn before battle,” (McCarthy 129). In the book The Road, written by Cormac McCarthy, a father and a boy are traveling towards what they hope is survival. They are in a post-apocalyptic world where all is lost.

Heros… We hear on the news all the time that, this person is a hero for doing xyz, or this person is a hero of doing a different xyz; Well one author decided to write about a hero, a made up hero. This hero isn’t superman, or batman, nor does this hear even have a hero sounding name, to some people they can’t imagine this person ever being a hero because they don’t know him. This hero is Papa from the novel The Road by Cormac McCarthy.

Both for the young and old, love is vital when trying to maintain hope and faith. Love is the candel needed to shed the light required to navigate one’s life. In the novel The Road, by Cormac McCarthy, by the boy acting as the man's moral, spiritual, and motivational compass, the author depicts his belief of how love will keep one strong even in the darkest of times.

In The Road by Cormac McCarthy, a boy and a man battle the unforgiving voyage of a world where an apocolypse has occoured. They leave everything they have to go and try to find some safety and refuge. The two battle to stay alive versing hunger, dehydration, and cannibalism. There are many points in the book where I didn’t think they were going to make it, where I thought they were going to just lay down and give up. Yet they don't give up at all, they keep going until they cannot go anymore.

In Cormac McCarthy’s novel “The Road,” the world is recovering from a devastating post apocalyptic event. There are few survivors, and those who did survive the event are dying from starvation, dehydration, and lack of shelter. However, instead of banding together, most of the remaining survivors have turned on one another, with many resorting to cannibalism in order to survive. Yet, the man and the boy, although starving, only survive by using humane tactics. The man places great importance on being one of the “good guys,” even telling the boy “This is what the good guys do.

Throughout the novel, The Road by Cormac McCarthy, the protagonists have moments where their luck guides them toward food and shelter. It is also seen at very key points in the book where exactly these bits of luck occur. It would seem that these moments of great luck would be appreciated in such a ravaged world that has no resources. This relates to the basic human action that we all have, not just the son and the father, it is in times where we gain something so important that it leaves us in awe. The first thing that is immediately known from the start of the book is that the father appreciates the boy and the boy appreciates the man.

The Road” by Cormac McCarthy reveals a character, who is nameless throughout the story, is the son of the father shown also. The boy is shown to be the only light to his father as the mother wasn't in the picture, she is presumably dead as she wanted to escape the post-apocalyptic world. The boy is shown to symbolize hope for the future with compassion and cooperation throughout the journey with his father. I can relate to the boy as in one example he helps convince his father to let Ely, an old man who they came upon while traveling, join them at dinner time. “We could cook something on the stove. He could eat with us,”(pg. 85) this quote portrays how the boy compassion was viewed to his father and gave him hope to keep going in the world.

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.

Throughout the novel, The Road by Cormac McCarthy, McCarthy repetitively uses symbolism to portray several deeper themes throughout the novel. One theme of the symbolism that is mentioned many times in The Road is the fire. A significant occurrence of this is when the man is discussing the fire with the boy. '' 'Is the fire real? I don`t know where it.' 'Yes you do. It's inside you. It always was there. I can see it' "(McCarthy 279).The fire represents the hope for humanity, and the man sees the fire inside the boy. The boy shows compassion for everything, alive or dead. Not only does the fire symbolize the hope for humanity but it represents strength and the will to live. During the novel fires are lit to keep The Man and Boy safe and warm but the fire keeps them alive even in the heart of the storm.

When the mind wanders, dreams serve as a way for the human brain to create an escape from the reality of the world. In the context of the novel, The Road, by Cormac McCarthy, the man dreams often because it’s what his brain naturally does to ease the trauma that he faces every day. However, just like how his brain automatically turns to dreams for ease, the man has trained himself to mistrust those dreams. AAuthor Cormac McCarthy uses dreams, nightmares, and daydreams to show the inviting nature of death and despair in the post-apocalyptic world and how these states of mind allow the man to continue his journey, which conveys the theme of surviving hopelessness.

Cormac McCarthy’s The Road is his post-apocalyptic magnus opus which combines a riveting plot along with an unconventional prose style. Released in 2006, the novel has won awards such as the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award (Wilson). Oprah Winfrey also selected the book for her book club ("Cormac McCarthy”). The author, Cormac McCarthy, was born in 1933 in Rhode Island and is said to have wrote the novel because of his son and their relationship. The Road centers around a boy and his father while they try to survive after an unknown disaster occurs. While some people may argue that the unusual style takes away from the novel, it adds to the tone and meaning of the work.

Imagine yourself living in a barren, desolate, cold, dreary world, with a constant fear of the future. The Road, written by Cormac McCarthy and published in 2006, is a vivid and heartwarming novel that takes us through the journey of a father and a son as they travel South in a post-apocalyptic environment facing persistent challenges and struggles. McCarthy proves that love unleashes immense strength to overcome obstacles, even in times of desperation.