Cormac Mccarthy The Road Analysis

Cormac McCarthy’s The Road and Remembering the Days of Innocence

People have often romanticize the past and painted it to be better than it actually is. they look back at times such as the 1960’s with a longing of youth or happy times, with an aura of nostalgia, however they tend to forget the rampant racism that was truly prevalent or lack of women's rights. In literature, authors not only use their environment as well as earlier times to create a story that involves a conflict between preserving innocence and the past or living in the present. Cormac McCarthy’s The Road takes a refreshing point of view on an otherwise exhausted theme and turns it into a double-edged sword; he gives context as to why we should preserve the past, or acknowledgement

The Man tries his best to tell his son stories of life before the disaster struck, as he as no recollection of it. The Man often tells stories with a hero who saves the day, with hopes of having some influence on his son to be more brave for when The Man eventually succumbs to his illness and he is left alone. The Boy is more mature toward the end of the novel, he does not stop along the road to collect things, or ask as many questions as he did in the beginning. The boy realizes that he does not necessarily want the answer to some of them. He becomes very disconnected and does not radiate some of the liveliness he had portrayed when him and his papa first started their journey toward the south. In one particularly hard time for the pair, The Boy, having a conversation with his father, is characterized through McCarthy’s use of tone as very disconnected from his father and the world around him, “[The Man] stopped and looked back at the boy. The boy stopped and waited. [The Man:] You think we're going to die, don't you? [The Boy:] I don't know. [The Man:] We're not going to die. [The Boy:] Okay. [The Man:] But you don't believe me.” (McCarthy 155). In comparison to The Boy and The Man’s discussions at the beginning of the book, The Boy has lost his curiosity, through everything he has experienced he is turned into a very somber and indifferent toward his future.

The Man does everything he can to stay sane in this prophetic world. Although his wife, his son’s mother, committed suicide in the wake of the disaster, it is revealed he carries her picture