Isolation In Cormac Mccarthy's The Road

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Love can be beyond language. In the novel of The Road written by Cormac McCarthy examines father and son’s relationship in isolation. The writer portrays destruction and distinction between survival and death through the experiences of travelling on the road. The father and son’s love are the support that motivates one another. In this paper, the theme of hope can be recognized through the motivation and inspiration of the characters’ connection. The father, who is unnamed and also the narrator of the novel, values his son as sacred and willing to make sacrifices to allow him to live on. During the moment of walking through the town, the father encounters danger and immediately “[grabs] the boy” and “[pushes] the boy’s head down [as trying] …show more content…

As the boy has no one to trust and believe in except his father, he is only willing to live if his father remains with him. When the man realizes he is unable to keep on the journey with the boy, he refuses to leave the man by answering “you’re going to be okay, papa. I want to be with you” when he asks him to “keep going south [and] do everything the way [they] did it” (278). From an adolescent perspective, he fears the uneasiness of being without his father who is the only support of him. As his father is the only person whom he can depend on and receive love from, he is incapable to imagine how to survive in loneliness. Even though the father and son are the essential for each other, they are divergent in terms of personality. The son is a resilient, as well as sensitive and compassionate character compares to his father. In many circumstances, he often shows sympathy towards others while the father is being protective and concerns about keeping alive from danger. Moreover, his priority is to be kind and provide comfort to others other than being harmful. The boy constantly inquires and ensures “[they] wouldn’t ever eat anybody” despite the condition (128). This performs innocence and examines the perspective of being peaceful in the boy’s point of view. Although father and son are the only encourages of each other in isolation, they frequently acquire hope in a despairing

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