Figurative Language In The Road By Mccarthy Mccarthy

Set in a post-apocalyptic future, The Road describes a father and son’s fight for their lives as they journey the road south for the winter. An unknown catastrophe has plagued the world, leaving hell on Earth for all who inhabit it. Rotting corpses, abandoned homes, and devastated landscapes are an everyday sight. Worst of all, human beings have reverted back to barbarism, leaving humanity and any sense of morals behind. Critics argue that The Road has “no plotline or story arc of character development” (165). Although even though The Road explains nothing, it actually explains everything. In fact, the novel consists of deeper meanings intended for readers to uncover themselves. In particular, the road itself is a major symbolic aspect of the

novel. “The road is what gives them direction, what gives them purpose, what affords them the opportunity for a reason to survive (enotes)”. Could the road represent more than what critics falsely claim? In reality, McCarthy didn’t intend to write a novel about a father and son walking an everyday road. McCarthy’s true interpretation of the road was to represent humanity’s journey on the road of life. While the road may represent society’s path through life, The Road’s universal message would not be understood without the other important aspects of the novel. McCarthy’s imagery, the father and son’s bond, and the obstacles they face along the way are just a few that support The Road’s universal theme.
To begin, a major facet of McCarthy’s universal theme is his use of imagery regarding the setting.

Metaphorically speaking, McCarthy sets a realistic comparison to humanity’s physical journey through life. Obviously, the world doesn’t end on a daily basis. Its extremity is only meant to make the readers aware, not to compare the setting to everyday lives. McCarthy accomplishes this through both descriptive and figurative language throughout the novel. Most notably, the post-apocalyptic setting has brought up discussion. From the very first pages, readers are exposed to the desolate and bleak landscape McCarthy creates. Conditions so harsh, layers of ash conceal the past world and force the father and son to wear face masks for protection. Ash so thick, in fact, that the sun is obscured from sight and the oceans are no longer blue. Life and all vegetation are also slain from the extreme cold, leaving only rotting corpses scattered along the roadside. That being said, the father and son are among the few specks of life remaining, everything else lifeless and gray. Such extreme conditions may seem unthinkable to many. Humanity doesn’t want to talk about death or even the evil within us. Although, that’s exactly what McCarthy had evoked in his reader's minds. He understands the idea that human life can’t flourish if humans themselves can’t coalesce. In the novel, when times got tough, human instinct was in full tilt. Violence, selfishness, and even cannibalistic “bad guys” had

been the true danger the father and son were avoiding. The idea that humans fear themselves more than the harsh surroundings, says a lot about how humans live their life. McCarthy has put forth this idea, hoping humanity can learn to be as charismatic as the young boy in the novel.
Secondly, McCarthy’s writing style also adds to the idea that humanity travels the road of life. It’s one thing reading about the devastating conditions stated above, although the true connection is with McCarthy’s writing style. That of which, he uses to access the emotional aspect of life and force the readers to feel as though they were the characters themselves. No chapters, excessive detail, sentence fragments. and lack of punctuation all transport readers into a whole new experience while reading the novel. Civilization no longer exists, nor do rules or any morals there once was. The only things that still hold true for the father and son are their survival and faith to God. So why write something in a time where none of that matters? Where the rules of writing no longer apply? McCarthy did what no other author did before. He had written in such a way that put the readers in the same situation the characters had undergone. Varying from short sentence fragments in times of distress, to descriptive sentences as they travel past human corpses and the barren landscape around them. For example, at the start of the novel McCarthy illustrations the ravaged landscape as “Barren, Silent, and Godless. (McCarthy 4)”