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Father son relationship the road
Father and son relationship in the road
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“Beauty and seduction, I believe, is nature's tool for survival, because we will protect what we fall in love with.” - Louie Schwartzberg. In the novel The Road by Cormac McCarthy, love between a father and son plays a key role in their survival. The father does everything in his power to make sure the son is safe and healthy, even if it means risking his own safety. This idea is greatly exemplified throughout the entire book, when the boy and father enter abandon homes in search of resources. Food and shelter quickly become the most important resources for the father and son, which encourages them to continue searching through abandoned buildings.. Each house represents something different in the story, and plays a key role in how the boy and father survive on their journey on the road. One of the first houses the pair enters during their journey is the father's childhood home. To the father, seeing his home brings back memories of what his life was like as a boy. This scene makes the father feel upset, as he knows his child will never get to experience a normal childhood like he did. The father reminisces on what life was like before the disaster. “On cold winter nights when the electricity was out in a storm we would sit at the fire here, me and my …show more content…
sisters, doing our homework.” (McCarthy 26) . While the father is experiencing these warm memories of childhood, he is harshly brought back to reality. “He pushed open the door half expecting to find his childhood things. Raw cold daylight fell through from the roof. Gray as his heart.” (McCarthy 27) The father faces the difficult reality that life is very different than what it used to be. This house representes the nostalgia he feels towards how his life used to be. The father appears to assume that life will never be able to return to the way it used to be, but he never expresses this idea to the child. Although they had good experiences in most of the houses, one house in particular gave them more trouble than they were expecting.
While searching for food, the pair entered the basement of an old house. “Huddled against the back 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.” (McCarthy 110) The father shoved the boy up the stairs, ensuring his son was safe before protecting himself. At this moment in the plot, both boy and father believed they were going to die. Even though the father was scared himself, he always insured his son’s well being was
priority. While in search of more resources, they stumbled upon an underground bunker. The bunker was the equivalent to heaven for them, as it was stocked full with everything they had been searching for. “Crate upon crate of canned goods. Tomatoes, peaches, beans, apricots. Canned hams. Corned beef. Hundreds of gallons of water in 10 gallon plastic terry jugs…” (Pg. 138) In this bunker they found everything required for survival, but the father knew that moving on quickly was necessary. In this situiation, it would of been easy for the father to become selfish and remain in one location for a longer period of time. Once again, he put the safety of his son over the needs of himself. Finding a place like this that had been so well preserved gave the boy and father a sense of hope. Their stay in the bunker as exactly what they needed to reignite their sense of hope, after believing the cold, wet winter would take their lives. After a few days, they left the bunker and continued their journey along the road. Each discovery provided a different emotion to the father and son, which helps reflect the desperation they were experiencing. The emotions all relate to the experience of love between father and son. Adults protecting their children is something every person can relate to, either as the child or as the parent. The author relates many aspects of the plot to this theme, which makes the characters emotions extremely relatable. Similar experiences can create very different emotions. For example, while the father and son were in the fathers childhood home, the father was experiencing nostalgia while his son was experiencing fear. By using a univeral idea, McCarthy uses the plot to exemplify an ideal that everyone can relate to, no matter what kind of situiation the reader is in. McCarthy, Cormac. The Road. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2006. Print.
He always wants to help someone else in need before himself, whereas the father is only concerned about their own personal wellbeings. He “is the one” who worries about their ethical choices and wants to help a stranger in any way he can (259). McCarthy proves the importance of the boy’s spirit of love for other people when his dad dies and he must take the leap of faith to continue along the road with a new family. Despite all the corrupted people they encountered beforehand, the boy meets someone who is “carrying the fire” (129). This mantra by the father and son, symbolizes hope and humanity. The qualities Steinbeck labels for a writer to create in his writings can be summed up in “carrying the fire” since the two never did give up. It is the greatness of the heart and spirit Steinbeck notes that is “inside [them]. [And] [i]t [is] always there” (279). It is noteworthy that even in the midst of death and ashes, the two are able to hold onto their relationship and sanity. The “good guys” can continue to carry meaning and structure in their lives, even in a time where society turned into a battle to survive on the remnants of
In Phoenix, Arizona, Victor and Thomas meet Sue Song, the lady who called regarding Arnold Joseph’s death. She answered all the questions the boys wanted to know. She also told Victor about his dad’s love for his son, and what exactly happened in the fire day. After a long conversation, Victor understands that his father did not mean to leave, and felt sorry for his dad. During his search in the trailer, Victor found an old picture of their family with the word “home” on the back of the picture, which made him think about his dad in a different way and proud of him. After a deep thinking, Victor cuts his hair and understands that his father did not mean to
When the man and boy meet people on the road, the boy has sympathy for them, but his father is more concerned with keeping them both alive. The boy is able to get his father to show kindness to the strangers (McCarthy), however reluctantly the kindness is given. The boy’s main concern is to be a good guy. Being the good guy is one of the major reasons the boy has for continuing down the road with his father. He does not see there is much of a point to life if he is not helping other people. The boy wants to be sure he and his father help people and continue to carry the fire. The boy is the man’s strength and therefore courage, but the man does not know how the boy worries about him how the boy’s will to live depends so much on his
“[He] looked across at his father and wondered just how he was going to tell him. It was a very serious thing.” This point of view demonstrates how nervous the boy is to tell his father that a close friend, Bill Harper, was arriving the next day to fish with him. The boy sits next to the fire and parries the idea of divulging his innocent plan. He knows that things are changing in his life and that eventually he must leave his father and create a new life with new social requirements, demonstrated by this quote: “He knew it was something that had to happen sometime. Yet he also knew that it was the end of something.” The boy goes on the wonder, “It was an ending to a beginning and he wondered just how he should tell his father about it.” The boy’s thoughtful attitude exhibits a bond between father and son and a relationship of respect. The boy wonders if it is also a relationship of
Although finding food was a struggle for them, the man always put the boy’s health before his. The man made sure the boys thirst and hunger was always gone and that he had food to eat and drinks to drink. “He took the can and sipped it and handed it back. You drink it, he said. Let's just sit here.” (Page 27). In this quote, the man gave the boy the last of the soda but the boy got upset that the man didn’t take any, so the man took a sip and proceeded to give it to the boy. This is important because the father knows that he’s thirsty and could kill for a drink, but he knows that this is the first and last soda the boy would ever get. “He'd found a last half packet of cocoa and he fixed it for the boy and then poured his own cup with hot water and sat blowing at the rim.” (Page 18). This quote shows us too that the man always made sure that the boy got the better part of the deal. The boy got to drink cocoa but the man just drank hot water. The father does this because he got to live through his childhood without this apocalyptic world but the boy only lived a few years that he really doesn’t remember. These quotes show paternal love because they explain how the father always puts the son before him. Through all of the actions the father takes, it shows us how much he really cares about the son, and that his son is his only hope and his fire for
Everything has died, and all that remains is brutality and savagery. People, once neighbors and friends, now turning on each other in the name of survival. It is disturbing and horrific most of the time. Despite this, there is a light in the dark. Two survivors wandering the road, a father and a son. They are some of the last “good guys” on the planet. They are able to survive, despite the horrendous conditions presented to them. They are constantly running from terror, with little safety to hide. They, however, make their own safety. Cormac McCarthy is able to masterfully use things that most writers try their best to avoid. McCarthy writes without using names. This creates a sense of safety between father and son, as they do not need each other 's names. It is just them. McCarthy writes using incorrect grammar. This shows the father and son are alike real people. They are not perfect, cookie cutter characters. They could be anyone the reader knows. They both love each other and feel safe enough with one another. McCarthy writes using short, to the point sentences. This conveys that the son is smart enough to understand what is happening without long descriptions. Despite this knowledge, the father is constantly calming down the kid, furthering their love for one another. McCarthy is a master of writing, and The Road is sure to go down in history as a magnificent piece of
During the hard times of the apocalypse, the family from The Road completely fell apart. One of the sacrifices the parents make for their son is their family. Between the hazardous conditions of the now post-apocalyptic world, as well as the birth of their son, the family’s unraveling was inevitable. In order to provide efficient care for the boy, they had to let one another
Losing a phone compared to being raped, starved, killed, and eaten in pieces makes everyday life seem not so excruciating. Cormac McCarthy was born July 20, 1933 and is one of the most influencing writers of this era. McCarthy was once so poor he could not even afford toothpaste. Of course this was before he became famous. His lifestyle was hotel to hotel. One time he got thrown out of a $40 dollar a month hotel and even became homeless. This is a man who from experience knows what should be appreciated. McCarthy published a novel that would give readers just that message called The Road. Placed in a world of poverty the story is about a man and his son. They travel to a warmer place in hopes of finding something more than the scattered decomposing bodies and ashes. The father and son face hunger, death, and distrust on their long journey. 15 year old Lawrence King was shot for being gay. Known as a common hate crime, the murderer obviously thought he was more superior to keep his life and to take someone’s life. Believing ideas in a possible accepting world with no conditions is dangerous thought to that person’s immunity to the facts of reality.
The structure and language used is essential in depicting the effect that the need for survival has had upon both The Man and The Boy in The Road. The novel begins in media res, meaning in the middle of things. Because the plot isn’t typically panned out, the reader is left feeling similar to the characters: weary, wondering where the end is, and what is going to happen. McCarthy ensures the language is minimalistic throughout, illustrating the bleak nature of the post-apocalyptic setting and showing the detachment that the characters have from any sort of civilisation. Vivid imagery is important in The Road, to construct a portrait in the reader's mind that is filled with hopelessness, convincing us to accept that daily survival is the only practical option. He employs effective use of indirect discourse marker, so we feel as if we are in the man’s thought. The reader is provided with such intense descriptions of the bleak landscape to offer a feeling of truly seeing the need for survival both The Man and The Boy have. The reader feels no sense of closu...
Cormac McCarthy’s post-apocalyptic novel The Road displays different concepts of nuclear and non-nuclear families throughout the novel. In The Road the reader is introduced to different types of individuals and non-nuclear families and how they succeed in a post-apocalyptic world. Nuclear families are what many consider to be a traditional family, consisting of a mother, father, and children while non-nuclear families are families that are considered untraditional. However, when a traditional family is introduced the reader sees the failures of nuclear families rather than their success while non-nuclear families appear to be more likely to succeed in the sense of survival. Incidents
With the son’s fear amongst the possibility of death being near McCarthy focuses deeply in the father’s frustration as well. “If only my heart were stone” are words McCarthy uses this as a way illustrate the emotional worries the characters had. ( McCarthy pg.11). Overall, the journey of isolation affected the boy just as the man both outward and innerly. The boys’ journey through the road made him weak and without a chance of any hope. McCarthy states, “Ever is a long time. But the boy knew what he knew. That ever is no time at all” (McCarthy pg. 28). The years of journey had got the best of both, where they no longer had much expectation for
The father’s character begins to develop with the boy’s memory of an outing to a nightclub to see the jazz legend, Thelonius Monk. This is the first sign of the father’s unreliability and how the boy’s first recollection of a visitation with him was a dissatisfaction to his mother. The second sign of the father’s lack of responsibility appears again when he wanted to keep taking the boy down the snowy slopes even though he was pushing the time constraints put on his visitation with his son. He knew he was supposed to have the boy back with his mother in time for Christmas Eve dinner. Instead, the father wanted to be adventurous with his son and keep taking him down the slopes for one last run. When that one last run turned into several more, the father realized he was now pushing the time limits of his visit. Even though he thought he was going to get him home, he was met with a highway patrol’s blockade of the now closed road that led home.
The Road, by Cormac McCarthy, follows the journey of a father and a son who are faced with the struggle to survive in a post-apocalyptic world. The two main characters are faced with endeavors that test a core characteristic of their beings: their responsibilities to themselves and to the world around them. This responsibility drives every action between the characters of the novel and manifests in many different ways. Responsibility is shown through three key interactions: the man to the boy, the boy to the man, and the boy to the rest of the world. It is this responsibility that separates McCarthy’s book from those of the same genre.
At first the relationship between a father and his son can be perceived as a simple companionship. However, this bond can potentially evolve into more of a dynamic fitting relationship. In The Road The Man and his son have to depend on one another because they each hold a piece of each other. The Man holds his sons sense of adulthood while the son posses his father’s innocence. This reliance between the father and son create a relationship where they need each other in order to stay alive. “The boy was all that stood between him and death.” (McCarthy 29) It is evident that without a reason to live, in this case his son, The Man has no motivation to continue living his life. It essentially proves how the boy needs his father to love and protect him, while the father needs the boy to fuel ...
spent a lot of time thinking how to get rid of the house and the farm and to abandon his family. The mother also wants to be free from home and her marriage life. She plans to sell the house and escape to Europe where she thinks dreams can be attainable. Family and home are no longer a source of security, tranquility, and happiness for parents; they are rather a source of misery and meaninglessness for their lives. They are unable to realize the true meaning of their lives and the intimate and warm relationship that characterizes the relationship between a husband and a wife in the space of the house. The father escapes this reality by abandoning his family. He isolates himself and drinks heavily to find himself at the end drowned in debts