Cormac McCarthy’s novel, The Road, tells a story of a man and a boy in a world of cannibalistic humans. The man is on the road with the boy where people are eating each other in order to survive. The boy and the man keep their morality by being humane, not turning to cannibalism even when times are hard. In McCarthy’s novel, the physical and negative geographical surrounding affect and shapes the positive moral traits of the boy, which was a society lacked humanity.
The society the boy lives in lacks humanity, but the man teaches the boy morals and the idea of humanity. In order to survive, a person must maintain their morals and integrity. With the society destroyed, the man and the boy go on a journey down the road. The man teaches the
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boy morality and humanity, “We wouldn’t ever eat anybody, would we? No. Of course not. Even if we were starving? We’re starving now” (McCarthy 128). The only person in the boy’s life is his father, his father teaches him morality is more important than surviving. Since the only contact the boy has is his father, the man influences the moral traits of the boy. The influence from the man is not always positive because man would rather die. The cause of the ma’s though is because of the death of his wife. He would wish to die, but the boy keeps the man’s life going. The idea of humanity in the mind of the boy clear. He understand cannibalism is wrong and locking people up is also wrong, “Huddled against the back wall were naked people, male and female, all trying to hide, shielding their faces with their hands…Then one by one they turn and blinked in the pitiful light…Please help us” (McCarthy 110). Although the boy wants to help the people trapped in the basement, the man does not let him. The man does not want the boy to help the people in the basement because if they were to help, they will not survive. Though the man does not understand why the boy wanted to help, they both understand the meaning of survival. Above all, survival is key to the man and the boy, but the geographical surrounding affects the psychological trait of the boy. The affects may be positive or negative depending on the circumstance on the situation. The geographical surrounding plays an important role in the psychological traits of the boy, “When he woke in the woods in the dark and the cold of the night he’d reach out to touch the child sleeping beside him. Nights dark beyond darkness and the days more gray each one than what had gone before” (McCarthy 3). The darkness, the ashes, and the solitude world the boy lives in shaped the way the he thinks. The way the boy thinks is different from the man because the boy was born in the world of cannibalistic people. The man was born in a world before the world became dark and gray. When the boy was brought into the world of cannibalism, his first instinct was to help other without thinking the consequences whether they are good or not. His psychological trait is affected by the darkness and the woody places he lives in, he becomes naïve since the only person he really becomes in contact with is the man, which is the father. Since the boy is used to his geographical surrounding, his first instinct when he sees a person to try to walk up to or help them, but this father pulls him back, “He’s been struck by lightning. Cant we help him? Papa? No. We cant help him…They went on. The boy was crying. He kept looking back” (McCarthy 51). The instincts of the boy was to help the man that was struck by the lightning, but the man told the boy not to. Thus, the boy felt hurt and sad because he was not able to help the hurt man. The man does not understand why the boy feels the way he feels because the boy and the man think differently, and they come from different worlds. Because the boy was born in the setting of dark, ashy, and solitude, the boy psychological trait is to help and break down in emotion when there is a hurt person. Yet again, the boy would rather help the man and sacrifice his own life so he can help others. Without a second thought, the boy will nonchalantly help another person even if it means that he will die by helping. Furthermore, the action of the boy plays an important role in the novel, which is affected by the man and the surroundings.
The goodness of the boy makes the boy seen as a Christ figure, “which allusions to biblical source are used to heighten continuities between the religious tradition and the contemporary moment but to illustrate a disparity or disruption” (Foster 52). The boy would sacrifice himself to help other unlike the man, which shows the boy represent goodness. He will put other in front of him in order to help the other people. The boy’s mind set is to sacrifice himself in order to help other because he knows he will eventually die one day. He would rather die being a good person and maintain his morals than losing his morals and not being able to help anyone. His actions gives him the view of a Christ figure, which irritates his father. The Christ figure is a person who will sacrifice himself in the sake of others. For example, when a man named Eli showed up, the boy insisted on helping Eli by giving away his food. The boy always bring up the little boy he saw even though the man said there was no little boy. The boy and the little the boy saw are represented as Christ figures because the two of them represent goodness to the world they live
in. McCarthy’s novel represents the way surroundings can affect the person psychological and moral traits. Despite the negative surrounding the boy grows up in, the boy maintains his morals under the worst circumstances. The geographical surrounds plays an important role on the moral traits on the boy. The man and the boy’s journey helped the boy find his true character. As a result, the boy is seen as a Christ figure and willing to sacrifice himself. Consequently, the effects of the boy’s fate is positive because of the positive influence by his father.
In Cormac McCarthy’s The Road, the author makes various references to the Bible and to religion. Those references also can be compared on how they have changed the way of humans in real life. Along with how the boy maintains his innocence throughout this whole book even when he witnessed events that could’ve changed him. The man tried to the best of his abilities to preserve the innocence of the boy. Through all of the obstacles that they both faced, the man managed to keep the boy safe and even in his last moments he was sure that he taught his boy how to tell when people were good.
They find bits and pieces to eat as they go, but not enough to make it last a long time. Until, however, they find an abundance of food in an abandoned house (McCarthy 138). As they look for food, they meet or see other humans. Some of these humans are not the same as the man and the boy. They are, however, cannibals.
He has endured and overcame many fears and struggles, but during this section, we truly acquire an insight of what the little boy is actually like – his thoughts, his opinions, his personality. Contrary to his surroundings, the little boy is vibrant and almost the only lively thing around. I love him! He is awfully appalled by the “bad guys” and shockingly sympathetic toward dead people. For example, when the father raided a house and found food, the little boy suggested that they should thank them because even though they’re dead or gone, without them, the little boy and father would starve. My heart goes out to him because he is enduring things little boys should never go through, even if this novel is just a fictional
Many find reverence and respect for something through death. For some, respect is found for something once feared. In a passage from The Crossing by Cormac McCarthy, a man cares for a wolf that has died. The prominent religious motif and the paradox contrasting beauty and terror create a sense of awe that is felt by the narrator as he cares for the wolf.
The theme of the novel is the collapse of the society. The friendships among the boys are destructive because they do not realize the beast inside of them. They show their ego to each other. The beast is something evil within themselves and it is not a savage animal that is caved ‘Lord of the Flies’.
While reading the novel “The Road” by Cormac McCarthy the overall aspect is pessimistic. It is about violence, hardship, death, fear, and the loss of hope. Throughout the book, the two main characters, the man, and boy face up against some of the toughest survival and life lessons. Together they face the woman’s suicide, starvation, the idea of rape, sickness, survival of the apocalypse, and in a sense being hunted like prey by cannibals who also managed to survive the terrifying possibilities that cause Earth to go to chaos. Within the novel, there are hundreds of examples to provide evidence of the pessimistic nature of the novel. Cormac McCarthy who is the author continuously writes in his novel about some of the deepest and darkest situations
In The Road McCarthy establishes a post-apocalyptic world in which the majority of population are cannibals. It is established that the public (majority) is hazardous to the two protagonist of the novel. The father and son are forced to kill or be killed. By thrusting the father and son into a world with their actions are predicated by the actions of the public, McCarthy is attempting to illustrate the significant influence one’s environment has on an individual. When the father and son are together in seclusion McCarthy showcases maturity in each of the characters. The conversations they have become more philosophical.
In the post-apocalyptic novel, The Road, by Cormac McCarthy, a man and his son travel south through the ruins and ash of their demolished home. Crippled by fear, starvation, and loneliness, the man and his son struggle to maintain physical, mental, and emotion health. Throughout the novel, the characters remain unnamed, with little description of their physical appearance. The man shares all of his beliefs, memories, qualms, and feelings through his thoughts and conversations with the boy. The man has many compelling convictions referencing The Holy Bible and his unwavering belief in God. However, these accounts often contradict each other. Throughout the novel, the existence of God is indefinite. The ambiguity of the novel relates to the ambiguity of God’s existence; the characters are left in the dark about what is to come throughout their journey, just as they are left to wonder whether God’s light is illuminated or diminished among the wreckage of their forgotten world.
In Cormac McCarthy’s Sci-Fi novel, “The Road”, two mysterious people, a father and his curious son, contact survival of the fittest during tragic apocalyptic times. With a shopping cart of food and supplies, they excavate into the remains of tattered houses, torn buildings and other sheltering places, while averting from troublesome communes. In the duration of the novel, they’re plagued with sickness that temporarily unable them to proceed onward. Due to the inopportune events occurring before the apocalypse, the wife of the son and father committed suicide due to these anonymous survivors lurking the remains of earth. The last people on earth could be the ‘bad guys’ as the young boy describes them. In page 47, the wife reacted to this, stating, “Sooner or later they will catch us and they will kill us. They will rape me. They'll rape him. They are going to rape us and kill us and eat us and you won't face it. You'd rather wait for it to happen. But I can't.”
People always like to refer to themselves as “independent”. Independence may seem like a great ideal in modern society, but in a post-apocalyptic world, a sense of dependence is unavoidable. Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs help us to understand what people depend on. In Cormac McCarthy’s The Road, survival of the boy and the man is due to their dependence on their human nature and ability to support one another.
In this passage from The Crossing by Cormac McCarthy, the narrator describes the protagonist’s interaction pertaining to a recently killed wolf. For an unknown reason, this experience has a very deep, emotional effect on the protagonist. Throughout the text, McCarthy uses detailed diction to truly convey just how much this involvement meant to the main character. McCarthy also uses imagery to show the profound connection the protagonist feels with this dead wolf, this imagery is brought to life through polysendeton.
Known for his raw, punctuation-barren prose and biblical symbolism, Cormac McCarthy is one of the most highly regarded writers of our time. In his novel, No Country for Old Men, McCarthy explores biblical doctrine in a parabolic manner and illustrates the depravity of society through his signature macabre lens. Through a story about a drug deal gone awry and the deadly chase that ensues, McCarthy unravels a theological discussion about man’s relationship with sin. His bloody story is one that parallels Romans 3:10, which says: “There is no one righteous, not even one”(English Standard Version Rom. 3:10). Through the actions of a hitman, a war veteran and a sheriff, he reveals that human righteousness is impossible due to our
“The story employs a dramatic point of view that emphasizes the fragility of human relationships. It shows understanding and agreemen...
In Cormac McCarthy’s The Road, in the post-apocalyptic world that the man and the boy live in, dreams begin to take on the form of a new “reality.” As the novel progresses, the man’s dreams, initially memories remnant of his pre-apocalypse life, become “brighter” as the boy’s dreams become darker and nightmarish. Through the use of color and distinct language, McCarthy emphasizes the contrast between reality and dreams. The man’s reliance on bad dreams to keep him tied to the harsh reality alludes to the hopelessness of the situation; he can never truly escape. McCarthy suggests that those who strive for a life that no longer exists are deluded with false hope. Having dreams is a natural human tendency, but in a world that has become so inhumane, the man can’t even afford to retain this element of being human. The loss of the past is a concept that the characters living in this ashen world struggle with, and McCarthy presents memory as a weakness to be exploited.
Adam, a corporal officer, starts as man who works everyday to catch the ‘villains’ of society, but is not spending enough time with his family, especially his son. He favors his nine year old daughter over his fifteen year old son. Adam views his daughter as a sweet child, and his son as a stubborn teenager who is going through a rebellious stage. However, when his daughter is killed in an accident, his perspective of family changes. In his grief, he states that he wishes he had been a better father. His wife reminds him that he still is a father and he realizes that he still has a chance with his son, Dylan. After his Daughter’s death, he creates a resolution from scriptures that states how he will be a better father. Because of the resolution he creates, he opens up to and spends more time with his son. By th...