The book, The Road, by Cormac McCarthy, explores the perseverance in a man and his son trying survive in an obliterated world. The novel is a modern quest demonstrating faith in man’s power to rejuvenate himself through trust and perseverance. The bitter, hostile setting of the novel is set in a gray world without meaning, without color, reflecting the grave hopelessness of modern times. The novel takes place in the aftermath of an unknown catastrophe: the skies grey, the rivers black, and color only a memory. Perpetual ash falls from the sky, already covering the ground. The only possessions worth having are food and clothes. This destroyed world coincides with the traits of the father and the son; it is difficult for the characters to find purpose in a world with no color or light leading them. The father is an active representation of hopelessness for the future.
In this bleak environment, the hope in God or a higher being is hard to find. The father can only question why this God has not killed him; if this God had a heart, why is he still living? The lack of punctuation and dialogue between the man and the boy makes some reading difficult, yet it bolsters the confusion of the described world and the loss of identity. The neglecting of commas, apostrophes, quotations, and even names often makes the reading confusing, yet it adds to the uncertainty of the journey. The continuation of the language of the novel emphasizes the continuation of the journey. In this father-son relationship for survival, there isn’t much time for small talk. They discuss deep topics in short choppy sentences: I wish I was with my mom. He didn’t answer. He sat beside the small figure wrapped in the quilts and blankets. After a while he said: You mean you wish that you were dead. Yes. You mustn’t say that. But I do. I can’t help it. I know. But you have to. How do I do it? I don’t know. In this passage, the dialogue between the man and the boy can become confusing, as are their thoughts. The man often says “I don’t know” or “Okay” when he speaks to his son. It’s this vast emptiness that allows the reader to focus on the relationship of the two characters. These short phrases and fragments emphasize a poignant fatigue in the characters.
This description of the fish, after the death of the father and a new family for the boy, reiterates the existential beliefs. The world, most likely destroyed by humans, cannot “be made right again.” Nameless characters that still maintain a civil virtue in The Road reveal the necessity of maintaining identity in a dying world. The characters are described as “the boy” and “the man” throughout the novel—names are never mentioned. The one man who actually tells the man and the boy his name is “Ely,” yet he later claims this isn’t is name. He told them “I couldn’t trust you with it. To do something with it. To say where I was or what I said when I was there.” This so-called Ely is not capable of giving his identity to strangers, showing the distrust of human to human interaction.
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Although names are a thing of the past, the father and son are still able to maintain an identity as they “carry the fire.” In fact, one of the only aspects of color in this world is fire. In the father’s final conversation with his son, he requires him to “carry the fire.” The boy claims he doesn’t know how, yet the father tells him, “yes you do. It’s inside you. It was always there. I can see it.” Although neither of these characters has a name, the boy can still maintain his internal goodness and lack of savagery. In fact, the son is what kept the father from becoming savage throughout their journey. The father’s savage actions for survival depict the aimlessness of the journey in a universe without any moral values. In this world without morals, it is clear that cannibals, who make humans and fetuses suffer a slow, painful death, have lost a sense of human goodness. These actions convey the individual responsibility of existentialism.
In addition to the struggle of maintaining identity, the man and the boy, these nameless people, create an “everyman” hero type and quest. This uncommon hero, devoid of specific traits of individuality, allows readers to imagine themselves in the same situation, while still possessing the same very human flaws. One flaw, such as the sickness that the father suffers with (which ultimately brings his death), creates this abnormal hero. The father does not have any super powers or abilities; he simply struggles to live and, more importantly, keep his son from seeing the danger of the world. The father apologizes to his son when they encounter “a charred human infant headless and gutted and blackening on the spit.” The father cannot bear to let his son see and experience this savage, unnatural behavior. The father, this hero, is trying to protect his son from the world; he does not want to fail as a parent or protector. He is not trying to save the world; it is already destroyed.
With only one direction of travel and a remote meaning for the journey, an ambiguous goal for the father and son on their quest of survival is created. The only direction for the quest is “south,” there is no specific destination. And when the two characters reach the southern coast, there is not much to be thankful for. The gray sea was “like the desolation of some alien sea breaking on the shores of a world unheard of.” There was a “gray squall line of ash” along the horizon. The father “could see the disappointment in his face. I’m sorry it’s not blue, he said. That’s okay, said the boy.” After the innumerable struggles of the son and the father: the pain, the cold, the lack of food, there was not much at the end of their journey. The beach was “Cold. Desolate. Birdless.” But, at the true end of the quest (when the father dies), there is hope for the future. A new family that “doesn’t eat people” and that may have been following the man and the son, has agreed to let the boy travel with them.
Although the quest of the father has come to an end, the boy still has the chance to finish his life and create his own path. The unknown completion of the quest and the future life of the son questions the point of the seemingly meaningless journey. Yet, maybe this complete destruction could bring about a fertile breeding ground for change; everything that once seemed impossible could now happen on a daily basis. The world would be free of rules, limits, and preconceptions, allowing any individual to shape his own path.
