Archetypal Criticism In The Road By Cormac Mccarthy

The Road: An Archetypal Criticism
A master of abstract, violent stories filled with biblical alliterations, Cormac McCarthy writes about a nameless man and son traversing a barren wasteland of post-apocalyptic America on an idealistic journey on the titular road of the book. Brimming with symbolism and the ancient struggle of good vs. evil, McCarthy’s forte, he questions what would happen if a worldwide catastrophe were to occur. Father and son travel facing the evils that have perpetrated this now “godless” land. McCarthy focused on the human emotions of fear and hope as well as the dynamics of the father son relationship. But what makes his novel special is how he uses biblical allusions to deepen his novel. Turning the boy into a symbol of Christ McCarthy created an almost parable like story filled with abstract yet apparent symbolism and allusions to stories and characters from the Bible.
A lifeless, ash-coated America is the setting, the book, is placed in. The two antagonists are faced with brutal weather, cannibals, starvation and the threat of isolation if one were to die. Groups of people are stowed away in hidden places as

if they were other people’s food supply. In a book filled with virtual zombies and fixated on the living dead, it turns out that they are (“Road Through Hell” 1). It’s no wonder the father and son lean so heavily on one another for support in this disturbing heartless road on which they travel.
At first glance the book’s plot appears to be the classic hero’s journey, our antagonists, stuck in a terrible plight, travel along a dangerous path in the search for the goal at the end. While this is true, The Road, has a bit more to offer than most. The man, a fighter desperate to reach his goal while knowing they will never stop traveling, pushed on solely because of the boy. The selfless and caring child is alone in his feelings in this crass hate-filled world. He is the shining light in the ash covered landscape, a replacement for the fog covered sun. It is no secret that the Man would die if something were to happen to the boy. Before getting to the more glaring Biblical references, the terrain and the apocalyptic cataclysm themselves set the tone for a novel with Theological merit. The world is covered in ash and fire, contrasting closely with the “fire and brimstone” from the Bible. For the most part everything good is gone, criminals and murderers cover the land much like the stories in the book of Revelations, leaving an earth in even more desperate need of a savior. The catastrophe that brought this on could be an allusion to the “Rapture”. Which is the Biblical telling of the end of the world and McCarthy mimics the accounts of this event closely in The Road. This connection once again leads the reader to assume that these Biblical references have a deeper meaning and are the background to the biggest symbol being the boy.
Ziolkowski explains in his book, Fictional Transfigurations of Christ, that the symbol of a Christ figure has broadened throughout history and is no longer only used to refer to someone who has an archetypal redemptive death, but can refer to any character that exhibits Christ like behaviors (Ziolkowski 3). Jesus is often alluded to in works of literature from obvious symbolism as with Harry Potter or Aslan, Narnia, to vaguer allusions like Atticus from To Kill a Mockingbird. Nonetheless it is often easy to tell when a character symbolizes Christ even in if it is in an inexplicit way due to the saturation of Christ in our society.
In the New Testament epistle, “Revelations”, Jesus will come as a “thief in the night” to save the faithful from the Apocalypse. This is closely akin with, The Road, the boy being the least likely of people to rescue others yet he does. This is one of the most striking similarities between Christ and the boy. Like Jesus he comes as an unassuming character, a boy, with temperance and prudence, and an ordinarily appearing man in the case of the Jesus, but both are obviously special and possess divine qualities. Intertwining the twos meaning to their individual stories together. This adds meaning to McCarthy’s book. Without the boy there is no redemption and therefore everyone in it is already lost, so there is no story to tell. With the boy, however, the story has meaning and hope for humanity.
Jesus is necessary to his story, without him there is no one to curate redemption and no reason for human existences. The boy, while not possessing as much power, is also necessary to his book. The Man knew only that his child was his warrant. Saying, “If he is not the word of God, God never spoke” (McCarthy 3). The man may be thought of as the main antagonist as he narrates the story, but his sole purpose in life is derived through the existence of the boy. Without him he is nothing. Much like without Jesus, Christians would be nothing. The boy also possesses Christ like qualities. He is the only person to care about strangers. He wants to take care of the burnt man they come across on the road, he wishes the man would have let the boy he saw in one of the towns come with them, and in an attempt to mitigate someone else’s unfortunate circumstances gives up his own food to an old man they find on the road.
“Where men can't live gods fare no better” (McCarthy 237) in the words of the mysterious, Ely, as he gives the man his answer to the question of if the boy is divine. This old man resembles the prophet Elijah from the Old Testament. Returning to the earth in its final days, disguised as an elderly man. Despite his brazen and uncaring demeanor the boy, in true Christ like manner, feeds him regardless and even gives him food for the next few days, whilst dealing with Ely’s vehement treatment of him.
Cormac McCarthy writes an intriguing story of a fallen world and its savior disguised as a starving boy.

The end of the novel leaves you questioning the future of his world and him, but it is also full of hope because there is a savior amidst them. You can only expect that once he reaches manhood he will embody a modern Jesus transcending into holiness and save all that still carry the fire. Bringing a meaning to this dark destroyed world the boy gives a reason to live to those in that apocalyptic land. Without his parallel with Christ the boy would be just another nameless face in a sea of tragic pointless lives. Thankfully for those in the story the boy was not a mere man but something more, like Jesus meek yet incredibly powerful in their own ways, give a point and meaning where one lacked before the Christ-like figures

arrival.

Works Cited
Wielenberg, Erik J. "God, Morality, and Meaning in Cormac McCarthy's The Road." Cormac McCarthy Journal (2010): 1-16. Texas Digital Library, 2010. Web. 10 Dec. 2014.
“The Road Through Hell, Paved With Desperation” (n.d.): n. pag. Riverdell. Web. 10 Dec. 2014.
Arnold, Edwin T., and Dianne C. Luce. Perspectives on Cormac McCarthy. Jackson: U of Mississippi, 1999. Print.
Ziolkowski, Theodore. Fictional Transfigurations of Jesus. Princeton, NJ: Princeton UP, 1972. Print.
McCarthy, Cormac. The Road. New York: Vintage, 2006. Print.