Essay Cormac Mccarthy Inhumane In The Road

The Road

In society humanity or the act of being humane is evident in some way. Humanity is behavior that reflects compassion, sympathy, and generosity. Society is a collection of people who generally work together for a common good and stable environment. Humanity needs to be present to create and strengthen people’s investment in their society. Inhumane acts that are sadistic and lack compassion become prevalent when society is fragile and braking apart. The Road by Cormac McCarthy demonstrates both humane and inhumane acts throughout the novel.

The Road’s destruction of society with a war torn environment and the death of an uncountable number of people is obvious of a society lacking humanity. Despite that, humanity prevails through

the boy and his actions. “There’s a little boy, Papa. There’s a little boy. There’s no little boy. What are you doing? Yes there is. I saw him…Now we’ve got to go. Come on. I just wanted to see him, Papa. The man took him by the arm and they went back up through the yard. The boy would not stop crying and he would not stop looking back. Come on, the man said. We've got to go. I want to see him, Papa…What if the little boy doesnt have anybody to take care of him? He said. What if he doesnt have a papa? … I’m afraid for that little boy…We could get him and take him with us…And I’d give that little boy half of my food. He was crying again. What about the little boy, he sobbed” (McCarthy 84-86). The boy’s ability to care about someone else besides himself shows his generosity and compassion he has for the little boy. Caring about the welfare of others and sharing your food is an act of humanity. Without our ability to empathize and have compassion, we would never do something to compromise our chance of survival. The boy is the character that is the constant source of humane acts and his character is important for the future growth and reestablishment of society. Humanity continues to be present in articles written on different societies, one of them being the war in Syria. Even in the ruins and turmoil of Aleppo, there was still humanity to be found, “Nurses and other medical staff were seen scrambling through the blackness, trying to rush the patients out of the badly damaged hospital as children cried out for help” (Jazeera, 2016). After an air raid that hit a children’s hospital in Aleppo, medical staff and nurses stayed behind to help other patients escape the building and surrounding area, risking their own lives by doing so (Jazeera, 2016). Selfless acts made by the staff to put their own lives in danger to save others is a humane act. Helping someone in need when doing so does not benefit you is demonstrating humanity. The Road continues to have humane moments, one being the thought process of the father. “Can you do it? When the time comes? When the time comes there will be no time. Now is the time. Curse god and die. What if it doesnt fire? It has to fire. What if it doesnt fire? Could you crush that beloved skull with a rock?” (McCarthy 114). In this section of the novel, the man is making complex and ethically challenged choices. Experiencing cognitive dissonance on ethics shows humanity. Mercy killing is a difficult choice, especially with someone you know; killing someone is wrong but doing so will be a more humane death for him or her. The man does not want the boy to suffer if the men find them. He knows his son will suffer by the hands of these sadistic men and that he cannot bear. His son’s death will hurt him emotionally, but he puts his son’s life and feelings before his own. An article written about Haiti shows one man’s determination for a more just and humane society. “He puts people who typically don’t have access to justice on an equal playing field with some of the most powerful forces in Haiti, and in a really magnificent way. I like to see him at work” … “The term ‘hero’ gets thrown around way too easily, but I’m not sure there’s a better term for someone who absolutely risks his life every day when he goes to work — and does it for very little personal, tangible reward” (Bhatia, 2017). Mario Joseph is a human rights lawyer in Haiti who fights against the system and helps people receive justice who would most likely never have a chance without him. Currently he is fighting against the human rights violations committed by the United Nations and Jean-Claude Duvalier who is responsible for mass political violence, but in Haiti, he is not accountable for his actions (Bhatia, 2017). Mario Joseph sacrifices his time and efforts to help other people achieve justice with no reward himself, his humane acts for the people of Haiti are done out of a selfless nature and having the motivation to push for a better, more just future for Haiti. Mario embodies humanity by his persistence and compassion for others. Humanity can still be present in some of the most deprived areas; an article about a homeless section of Los Angeles exposes a man referred to as General Jeff. General Jeff or Jeff Page lives on skid row, which is where the largest population of homeless people reside in the United States. Page has tried to improve the area for everyone in skid row by being an advocate for the people living there (Khawaja, 2016). “He noticed streetlights were broken, which created a dark and dangerous atmosphere and paved the way for unsavory activities. After manually gathering data on the lights, Page ambushed the head of the Bureau of Street Lighting with his findings. Two days later, government trucks rolled up to repair the broken lights. “I felt really good that day,” Page recollects. “That night –– lights! We could see! The drug dealers were pissed!” (Khawaja, 2016). Page wanted to improve the living conditions of Skid Row to better the community he was living in. He dedicated his life to living there and advocating on behalf of them. He does not have much personal gain besides a safer environment for everyone, which is a humane act on his part. At the end of the novel The Road continues to have humane moments and acts. The boy cares for his father in which way he has never witnessed before, “What about my papa? What about him. We cant just leave him here. Yes we can. I dont want people to see him. Can I cover him with leaves? The wind will blow them away. Could we cover him with one of the blankets?... I think I want to say goodbye to him… He walked back into the woods and knelt beside his father… He cried for a long time. I’ll talk to you every day, he whispered. And I wont forget. No matter what” (McCarthy 286). Throughout the novel, the boy has seen many deaths, the bodies of which are usually dispersed and lying in abandoned buildings with utter disregard for them. The boy realizes he does not want the same fate for his father as he wishes to give him some sort of burial to cover the body. The love for his father and gratefulness to him was the reason he did not leave his body on The Road, the boy needed to have a proper goodbye and speak to his father one last time. Caring for the man’s body even after he is gone is significant of the boy’s humanity.
The Road is rampant with inhumane acts and behavior.

The lack of structure and society is a breeding ground for this. Almost all characters often show inhumanity. "They passed two hundred feet away, the ground shuddering lightly. Tramping. Behind them came wagons drawn by slaves in harness and piled with goods of war and after that the women, perhaps a dozen in number, some of them pregnant, and lastly a supplementary consort of catamites illclothed against the cold and fitted in dogcollars and yoked each to each. All passed on” (McCarthy 91). The act of enslaving a person and exploiting them for your benefit is inhumane. Treating people as if they are property or things to be controlled dehumanizes them and strips you of humanity. People have been used slaves throughout The Road; the lack of society only further contributes to the inhumane acts. The air raid in Aleppo was an obvious inhumane act that targeted hospitals and civilians. “Government bombs targeted neighborhoods with medical facilities, including the children's hospital and a nearby clinic that has one of the few remaining intensive care units in the east of the city, the Observatory said” ... “The World Health Organization said it recorded 126 attacks on health facilities in 2016, a common tactic over the five years of a war that is estimated to have killed more than 400,000 people” (Jazeera, 2016). A government targeting its own people and purposefully bombing them is a grossly inhuman act. Targeting places that care for people and places filled with children is barbarous and not seen within a society that has ethics and morality. The Syrian government has complete disregard for their own people by committing such immoral acts. Similarly, in The Road human life is often the subject of inhumanity. “He could see part of a stone wall. Clay floor. An old mattress darkly stained. He crouched and stepped down again and held out the light. Huddled against the back of the wall were naked people, male and

female, all trying to hide, shielding their faces with their hands. On the mattress lay a man with his legs gone to the hip and the stumps of them blackened and burnt. The smell was hideous” (McCarthy 110). In desperation, we resort to inhumane actions. Killing another person and consuming them is a survival tactic and we no longer have the cognitive ability to separate right and wrong. By doing this we have lost all humanity and have reverted to primitive and uncivilized behavior. Leaving people in a basement with nothing but themselves, waiting to kill them and consume them goes completely against society and its expectations. Returning to the article on Haiti, they have also seen inhumane acts committed by organizations who say they are in support and advocate for human rights. “The second behemoth is the United Nations. Yes, the world’s premiere advocate for human rights stands accused of a major violation: importing cholera into Haiti through grossly inadequate sanitation at a U.N. peacekeeping base. The water-borne illness, not documented in Haiti until October 2010, has since killed 8,200 people and infected 7 percent of the population” (Bhatia, 2017). The United Nations, which advocates for human rights and protection, has significant incriminating evidence against them for human rights violations in Haiti. The hypocrisy of the United Nations is immoral, and not taking responsibility and being held accountable makes the behavior even worse. They are supposed to protect human rights but do not care about them when they commit a violation. The unaccountability contributes to the inhumanity seen in Haiti.
The Road and articles written above support and develop the idea of humanity verses inhumanity. The Road gives an accurate portrayal of what humanity encompasses and what it does not. To achieve a successful society with morality, humane behavior must be present and greatly outweigh any inhumane acts. Humanity is not just simply the state of being human or a collection of all of us. Humanity encompasses compassion, ethics, decision making, and not only caring for yourself but also of others, a community, or a group.