Examples Of Walking On The Road By Mccarthy

“What are our long term goals? he said. what? Our long term goals...What was the answer? I don't know” (pg 160). After continuously reading the same recurring events in the book, walking on the road and scavenging food, this quote really stood out to me because not only is this something I can relate to but it's one of the few moments that the man and the boy communicates in the novel. The lack of dialogue and the book written from the third person doesn't give much information from the character's perspective. However, even so, McCarthy was able to master this distinctive form of writing and still convey the character’s motives and whatnot throughout the text. Anyways, the man seemed perplexed that the boy was even aware of the concept of

setting long time goals. Therefore, the man tried his best to end his conversation so he won't have to reveal what the long term goal is or the reality of their situation. hence, I’d like to answer the boy’s question for the man tried brushing it away with, “Come on. it’s getting dark” (161). The gravity of the situation is that the boy, the man and primarily no one has a long time goal because inevitably they will all die. I remember reading a line in the book where the man was reminiscing about his wife and said something along the lines of, “ever is no time all” meaning the world has been totally annihilated and there is only a mere fraction of the earth to be decimated. Thus, I extrapolate that the man has no long time goal besides reaching their destination, the coast, although they don’t know what, or anything awaits for them there.