Survival In The Road, By Cormac Mccarthy

The Road, a post apocalyptic novel,written by Cormac McCarthy, tells the story of a father and son traveling along the cold, barren and ash ridden interstate highways of America. Pushing all their worldly possessions in a shopping cart, they struggle to survive. Faced with despair, suicide and cannibalism, the father and son show a deep loving and caring that keeps them going through unimaginable horrors. Through the setting of a post apocalyptic society, McCarthy demonstrates the psychological effects of isolation and the need to survive and how these effects affect the relationships of the last few people on Earth.

The sense of survival is a factor of the natural way of life. Every living being is conditioned to think that one must do whatever it takes to maintain their own physical well-being at any certain point in time. This is immensely apparent with the character development in Cormac McCarthy’s novel, The Road. The father and the son share a special bond that makes them inseparable. The strong father and son relationship is a conduit of hope that helps convey the idea that survival is vital in the apocalyptic world they live in.

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

In Cormac McCarthy’s “The Road,” the fire is an allegory for purity, hope, humanity, and the drive to survive without turning into the malicious monsters that the people around them have become. The father is very hopeful and convinced that “nothing bad will happen to them because we’re carrying the fire”(83). He also convinces his son that the fire isn't around them but is “inside of you. It is always there. I can see it”(234).

Cormac McCarthy’s The Road portrays a gripping tale of survival of a father and son across a post-apocalyptic world that is devoured by marauders and cannibals who have abandoned all of their beliefs, morals and values and do anything to survive. In contrast, the two protagonists are portrayed as the ‘good guys’ who carry the ‘fire’, and try to survive in the obliterated world. They are challenged to maintain their own beliefs, morals and values as they enter their quest. As a young adolescent who has witnessed the harsh environments of a war torn country such as Afghanistan, and has prior experiences of being a refugee. The novel effectively

● Show how the weakest suffer, with slavery a possibility, and human life is cheap.

Violence is defined as a behavior involving physical or mental force intending to hurt, damage, or kill someone. In the words of Zak Ibrahim, peace is defined as the proliferation or the increase in the existence of Justice. But where does love fit in to these conversations? Violence cannot necessarily transform into love, but the presence of it is surely important. Violence involving our most loved ones, helps us find love and compassion in the toughest of situations, and leads us toward paths of peace. In this essay, examples will be drawn from Zak Ibrahim 's keynote presentation, The Road by Cormac McCarthy, Beautiful Boy; a film directed by Shawn Ku, and Harrison Bergeron by Kurt Vonnegut.

Good moral is what makes a good person. Why would you want to be good when everything around you is bad? How can you want to be the better person when the only a reason to live is to avoid death? Morality is a principle concerning the distinction between right and wrong or good and bad behavior. The road is a novel written by Cormac McCarthy that tells the story of a boy and a man fighting the dead society. The world has been destroyed, cities have burned, and more than half of the population has died. They are fighting to keep their good ethics and morality while still not trying to die. In an apolitical world the only reason to listen to morality is to believe the world will change and that being good will one day make a difference.

“Hope… Sometimes that’s all you have when you have nothing else. If you have it. You have everything .” In The Road by Cormac McCarthy a recurring theme in the story is gaining or losing hope. Throughout this story there are numerous instances and events that occur in which all seems lost at a dead end, but in those moment hope carries through and thrives. In this dystopian post apocalyptic world the man and boy are fighting to stay alive while keeping their humanity as well as searching for what humanity is left in this kill or be killed cannibalistic planet. As their time journeying down the road increases so do the dangers and obstacles they face to survive. The more they overcome the more hope thrives in them showing that in even in the most catastrophic events having hope helps them get closer to finding the light at the end of the tunnel and not being consumed by the darkness.

In Cormac McCarthy’s The Road, the father presents to the reader three distinct characteristics that shapes his personality through novel. When the man mentions of “carrying the fire” to his son, meaning that his son carries the load of civilization, compassion, and sympathy, the father expresses multiple times that he lives for his son, and only for his son. The world of The Road is a complete anarchy, and the man displays extensive amounts of bravery while trying to face the struggles and hardships that is presented to them. Whether the challenge is to be hiding from cannibals, or wandering into dangerous abandon houses, the man always exhibits ample amounts of bravery.

2. The Road is a novel written by American author Cormac McCarthy. Although born in the North East, McCarthy was driven to the South West later in his life where he has since based most of his novels, including The Road. The Road tells a story of a man and his son in post apocalyptic America where the weather is winter-like and the ground is barren. Such post apocalyptic ideals relate to the views of many American citizens of the tine period in their belief that the world will soon be coming to an end. People of that time believed that when the Mayan calendar ended its last cycle in 2012, the world would come to an end. Although such apocalyptic ideas have hushed in recent years, many continue to believe that the end of the world is in the near future.

Civilization is the basis of life, driving human interaction in everyday life. The texts, Frankenstein by Mary Shelley and The Road by Cormac McCarthy, depict civilized and uncivilized situations, which reflect on and elaborate characterization. This can be seen explicitly with the creature (Frankenstein) and the boy (The Road). Both novels address the civilized and uncivilized in different approaches, however similarly emphasize the significance of the character’s traits and development. The ways that each character approaches civilized and uncivilized situations and behaviours, relate to the character’s experiences and emotions directly in the case of the creature, contrary to the inverse relationship in the case of the boy. The

The Road is a story where is set in a post-apocalyptic world, where the date and location is unnamed. The author of the novel Cormac McCarthy doesn 't describe why or how the disaster has demolish the earth. But after reading the novel, I can sense that the author wanted to present a case of mystery and fear to the unknown to the reader. By the author 's exclusion I think that the story gains a better understanding of what the author wanted to express to the reader. An expression of a man and his son surviving in a post-apocalyptic setting.

Have you ever noticed that in almost any book, there is survival part? Well, if you have, you may also notice that the theme of those books is about survival. The theme of “survival” could be related to any books. The book Lost Boy, Lost Girl: Escaping the Civil War in Sudan is about 2 kids, John, and Martha tried to escape the war and get to an UN camp in Ethiopia but there are dangers on the way. The theme of “survival” relates to this book because John and Martha used all the resources to help them from dying. Furthermore, this is how the theme of “survival” relates to the book, Lost Boy, Lost Girl: Escaping the Civil War in Sudan.

Conflict, pain, and struggle compose the gritty truth that walks beside everyone in life and opens the door to death. Many will succumb to this unnerving truth, while others will fight with a passion to survive. In most situations, survival may sound like the only reasonable option. However, survival has proven itself to be both a primitive instinct and a tenuous dream. The immensity at which this struggle occurs, makes it a very real and predominant issue that is transparent in many artistic works such as Man’s Search for Meaning, Shawshank Redemption, and The Book Thief. The characters in these works survived their many perils of imprisonment by finding meaning, grasping hope, and having a will to live on.