Fear In The Road By Cormac Mccarthy

Penelope Word once said, “Love cannot exist without fear.” In other words, when an individual experiences the power of love, they are almost guaranteed to face the fear that comes along with it. One can perhaps argue that love and fear are the of the two most powerful emotions, and their ability to influence one's actions is like no other. Cormac McCarthy considers this idea in his novel The Road and reveals the twisted relationship between love, fear, and desperation in a dystopian society. Throughout the novel, it is clear to see that McCarthy attempts to portray love as an all-powerful emotion that leads to desperation and fear based on an analysis of the man’s relationship with the boy and his wife.

McCarthy illustrates that love can lead

to desperation as seen through the relationship of the man and the boy. Throughout the entire novel, the man is desperate to find himself and his son food so that they will not die. In fact, he is so desperate that it clouds his thinking and causes him to make foolish decisions. For instance, after having no food and very little sleep for five days, the man and the boy stumble upon a house. Willing to do anything it takes to stay alive, they enter the house and find a hatch in the floor that is locked with a large padlock. The man, oblivious to the signs of danger surrounding him, decides to open the hatch only to find a room filled with half-eaten people. Upon entering the house, the narrator clearly describes the situation: “Piled in a windrow in one corner of the room was a great heap of clothing. Clothes and shoes. Belts. Coats. Blankets and old sleeping bags” (107). If the man had not been so desperate to find food, it is likely that he would have noticed all the extra clothes laying around and seen it as a sign of cannibalistic danger. Instead, his love for the boy is so great that it creates a severe sense of desperation in order to keep him alive. As a result, this makes the man oblivious to the things around him, putting the life of both himself and his son at risk. The narrator even mentions that the man “would have ample time later to think about that” (107), referring to the many signs of danger that he failed to notice before opening the hatch. As the protector and caregiver of the boy, the man is very anxious to find food so that they will not die. Consequently, the man’s hunger and concern for the boy clouds his thinking and causes him to be unsuspecting. It is not until after he makes the mistake of opening the hatch that he realizes he let his love for the boy and desperation to find food get the best of him.
The relationship between the man and his wife also supports McCarthy’s argument that fear is a direct result of love.

For example, during one of the flashbacks that the man has near the beginning of the book, it is clear that the wife’s choice to kill herself is solely an act of fear. She cannot bear the thought of seeing the two people she loves most waste away in such an odious world. This is confirmed during an argument between the man and the wife when the wife asserts: “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” (56). The wife loves the man and the boy so much that she would rather kill herself than face her fear of seeing them die. In this case, love leads to a fear stronger than any other: the fear of death. Additionally, McCarthy’s argument about love is further supported during the same flashback when the wife refuses to say goodbye to the boy before killing herself. In the flashback, the man requests for his wife to say goodbye to their son; however, it soon becomes clear to the reader that she chooses not to do so when the narrator explains how the boy was left to infer his mother’s death: “In the morning the boy said nothing at all and when they were packed and ready to set out upon the road he turned and looked back at their campsite and he said: She’s gone isn’t she?” (58). While the reason that the wife does not say goodbye to the boy is

unclear, it can easily be assumed that she is simply afraid to face him. Her love for the boy is so great that it has caused her to completely forgo saying goodbye to her son out of fear that he will make her second-guess her actions. Perhaps she is afraid that the boy will see her as a faithless coward. Whatever this fear is, it has caused her to leave her son in the dark, showing the connection between love and fear and the influence it can have on an individual.
However, some would argue that McCarthy’s central argument about love and relationships is that love prevails even in the darkest and most dismal of times.

For example, when looking at the death of the man at the end of the novel, we see the man break his biggest promise to the boy: never leaving his side. As the man is dying, the boy laments, “You said you wouldn't ever leave me” (279). This gives the boy all the more reason to hate the man for his lies. However, following the man's death, the boy “sat there a long time weeping… he knelt beside his father and held his cold hand and said his name over and over again” (281). While the boy had every reason to be mad at his father for leaving him to fend for himself in this hideous world, he is loyal to the man and stays by his cold, dead body for three days, promising to never forget him. This clearly illustrates that no matter how devastating or traumatic an experience may be, love continues to conquer all other emotions. It is easy to see how some people would consider this to be McCarthy’s central argument about love and relationships; however, it is simply illogical. While love does appear to prevail in this particular situation, this is not the case throughout the rest of the novel. In many cases, we see that love does not win, but rather it creates an excess of fear in any given individual. For instance, we can see this when analyzing the actions of the man. The man is constantly telling the boy not to trust anyone,

attempting to take all precautions in order to keep his son alive and well. The man loves the boy more than anything, consequently instilling a constant fear of losing his son in his mind.
After a close analysis of the text, it is clear to see that McCarthy portrays love as an all-powerful emotion that instills fear and desperation in those who experience it. For example, this can easily be seen when looking at the relationship of the man and the boy. The man is constantly looking for ways to protect the boy because he loves him so much and is afraid of losing him. Additionally, McCarthy’s argument about love can also be seen through the actions of the wife. Her love for the man and the boy is great that she would rather kill herself than live to see them suffer. It is true that love cannot exist without fear, and with fear comes great desperation.