Goodness And Morality In Cormac Mccarthy's The Road

Goodness and Morality in The Road

Cormac McCarthy's The Road, is an award-winning novel about an unidentifiable man who is traveling with his son. The protagonists are trapped in a post-apocalyptic world that has been besieged by nothingness and entirely stripped of life, food, and most of all, morality. They travel a treacherous road leading south where they encounter cannibals, burnt bodies, and the ruins of former houses. The world and people around them has turned amoral and unforgiving. For the protagonists, however, morality and goodness still exist. With each day, they are able to maintain faith, hope, and goodness which gives them the motivation to continue their journey. McCarthy's novel shows that even during the worst of times, love and morality will prevail and goodness will be found.

Morality is a culturally based idea of right and wrong. In The Road, due to the aftermath of the unspecified cataclysm, the land was left desolate and the survivors are desperate. The world no longer has any remnants of the past thus culture and ethics do not exist. As a result, the remaining majority trivializes the use of morals due to desperation and in an attempt to survive. However, the protagonists are able to find solace in the goodness of each other. They

choose to hold on tightly to common ideas of morality and goodness because they value it over mere survival. This idea is not only one of the most predominant themes in the novel but also gives the protagonists motivation which enables them to prolong their survival.
The reader can infer by the first sentence of the novel that the son is a precious element to the man’s life. The first sentence gives detail of the man awakening in utter darkness merely to reach out and touch the only thing dear to him, his son (McCarthy 1). The man then compares the setting to a glaucoma that is dimming the world, making it grayer with each day ( McCarthy 1).This is one of the most significant points in the book and implies that the boy is a symbol for comfort for the man and is also his entire purpose for continuing to survive.
The man and his son share a mutualistic relationship where they rely on each other for comfort, support, and life. The protagonists choose to make the best of what they have by directing their attention solely to each other, using the other protagonist as an escape from the terrible reality that they are forced to live in. They find comfort in each other’s goodness and choose to value that over mere survival unlike the amoral people in the novel.
For example, the people in the novel who were considered to be amoral were often referred to as “the bad guys.” Although, like previously stated, these people only became this way through desperation. The man and his son, however, refuse to succumb to these kind of actions. They felt as though they could continue to survive just as well without living savagely. Proof of this is found on page 2 where the man says that they are each other’s “world entire” (McCarthy 2). They engulf themselves in each other, escaping the brutal world around them.
In addition, there are other ideas as to why the protagonists continue to value goodness. For instance, on page 5 in the novel, the man proclaims the child as his warrant and then says out loud, “If he is not the word of God, God never spoke” (McCarthy 5). By saying this, it is assumed that a world without his son is a world without a god and that he values his son so highly that he is comparable to that of a religion. Religion, for most, is a building block for morality, ethics, and common ideas of goodness. With this statement it can be inferred that his goodness and morality derives solely from the love he has for his son.
With each day, the world around them becomes more faded, making their survival more difficult to sustain. As the story continues, the man slowly starts to become out of reach with his own identity and the identity of other objects. Memories of what he once knew can no longer be applied to the world in which he is living. As a result, he disposes of his money, credit cards, and driver’s license (McCarthy 51). At this point, nothing other than his son matters to him and it can be inferred that love is the only thing that can still be applied which is why it is not only an essential component to the survival of both of them, but also gives more evidence as to why love and goodness is the only motivation to continue living in a world entirely depleted of meaning.
Furthermore, on page 83, the man reassures that nothing bad will happen to him or the boy by saying “Because we’re carrying the fire” (McCarthy 83). Fire is a symbol for warmth, light, life, and protection. The fire that the man and son mention throughout the novel can be interpreted literally but was most likely used as a symbol to depict the goodness that both of them carry throughout their journey. Since fire is such a widely used symbol for life, the speculation here is that without the goodness that the man and his son carry they would be unable to survive.
Throughout pages 107-111 the man and his son explore a thought-to-be abandoned house in the middle of nowhere. While in the midst of their exploration, they venture upon a foul-smelling room filled with naked bodies, both male and female, that are desperately clinging to life. Both in shock, the man and his son struggle to exit the room but manage to shut the door behind them. To add to the horror, the man then notices that the boy is pointing out the window looking at four men and two women headed their way, most likely with intent to kill them (McCarthy 111). As a result, the man grabs the boy by the hand and tells him to run. Fearing for their lives, they tear through the house and eventually into a field where they both fall to the ground. While laying motionless and listening to their surroundings, the man pushes the revolver in the boy’s hand and asks him if he “knows how to do it” (McCarthy 112). This action is a very significant element in the novel purely because it shows how the man values life. The man made a split-second decision to end the life of his son if he thought it were to be corrupted by others. The man has no knowledge as to whether or not these people have intentions to harm him or his son, however, if the time comes, and he feels that it is necessary to end his son’s life in order to protect him, that is something that he will do. The reason for this being so significant is because the man values his ideas of goodness and morality more so than mere survival. It is inferred here that to the man, a life without goodness is a life not worth living.
Moreover, on page 161, the man and his son cross paths with a stranger traveling the same road as them.

The son eventually convinces his father to share some of their food with him and as a result they begin talking and the man invites him to stay for dinner. While eating, the man and the stranger begin talking about the boy and the man mentions how he believes his son is a god. The old man refuses to believe this because he cannot see how a god could be walking among them in a world so lifeless (McCarthy 172). To the stranger, it is simply impossible to see goodness in this world because he has lost everything. The man, however, the the world still contains goodness due to the love that he has for his

son.
Morality and goodness are such an essential key in the theme of Cormac McCarthy’s The Road. With the love that the protagonists have for each other, they are able to continue to find meaning in a world that was completely stripped of life. The novel shows that even in the most desperate of situations, good will continue to triumph over evil. An example of this can be found on page 189 where the man says “When your dreams are of some world that never was or of some world that will never be and you are happy again, then you have given up” (McCarthy 189). This statement is extremely significant because the man has often had dreams of places that will never be. For example, the man often dreams of his wife, and throughout the novel good dreams tend to haunt him. The man, however, has not given up and continues to find hope. The assumption here is that he would prefer the reality that he is living in over his past. It can be inferred here that the man’s son is his driving force to continue his life and makes it worth living.
Cormac McCarthy’s The Road, proves that morality is entirely relative. In the novel, the world is savage, lifeless, and brutal. As a result, most of the people surviving choose to live accordingly. Although, the protagonists are able to find goodness in each other thus the world is still worth living. The goodness that the protagonists carry throughout their journey is essential to both their survival and the theme.
In conclusion, Cormac McCarthy’s The Road is the ultimate test of character. With each passing day the world only becomes grayer and more lifeless. Food is almost nonexistent and the protagonists consider themselves lucky to survive after an encounter with nothing more than another person. However, even in a lifeless world, the protagonists still value goodness and morality over mere survival. McCarthy’s novel shows readers that goodness, love, and morality will occur in the most unlikely of places.