Man And Death In The Road By Cormac Mccarthy

The Road by Cormac McCarthy is about a father and son who are surrounded by an apocalyptic world where they are trying to survive. Many of McCarthy’s books are about negative or violent times like Blood Meridian and All The Pretty Horses. McCarthy enjoys writing about the terror in the real world. When writing literature, he avoids using commas and quotation marks.. Many works of literature have a plethora of themes throughout them, in The Road, the theme that sticks out the most is paternal love. The boy is the only thing that stands between the man and death. Aside from that, the father doesn’t kill anyone for food, he only takes the life of people who threaten the boy. Lastly, the man allows the boy have the last of their supplies, food,

and drinks. That’s why paternal love stands out so much in this book. Without the love the father has for the son, they wouldn’t be alive.
In The Road, McCarthy introduces us to a new character who is only present in flashbacks and dreams, the boy's mom and the man's wife. The wife is unalive in the book because she took her life. She claimed she could not protect herself or her son from the people who had turned to cannibalism. The man had a chance to take his and his sons life too by bullets, but he decided not to because he knew it was the wrong choice and there was hope for them in the world. The man lets the boy know too that he is the only reason that he’s still here. “They slept huddled together in the rank quilts in the dark and the cold. He held the boy close to him. So thin. My heart, he said. My heart. But he knew that if he were a good father still it might well be as she had said. That the boy was all that stood between him and death.” (Page 44) This quote shows us that the man realizes that the world around them might not get better before they can make it out of the hole they’re living in, but as long as he has the boy, he will be alive. The man calls the boy his heart because the boy is his fire and what keeps him running, like the blood from your heart gives you life, the boy gives him life. This shows paternal love because the man is holding the boy close to him so that the boy feels safe and the man is staying here for the son.
“What would you do if I died?
If you died I would want to die too.
So you could be with me?
Yes. So I could be with you.
Okay” (Page 46)
This quote tells us that the man only wants to live to care for the boy. No matter where the boy is, whether he’s alive or dead, the man wants to be with him. The boy says “okay” at the end of this conversation which tells us that he feels reassured that his dad will always be there with him and that he doesn’t need to be scared of being alone. This shows paternal love because the man never wants to leave the boy, he always wants them to be together, and he’d do anything to protect that, but if the boy died, he’d die too to be with him. It’s easy to die in the world surrounding the man and the boy. Most people would kill the man and boy without thinking, but why wouldn’t they do the same?
The world surrounding the boy and the man is horrendous.

Most people wouldn’t think before killing someone in this world, even if they were a child, or even an elderly, just so they could cure their starvation. The man and the boy are different. They aren’t like this. The man will only kill people who threaten the boys life, even if this means that it’s harder for them to get food. “I don't think you should touch him. Maybe we could give him something to eat. He stood looking off down the road. Damn, he whispered. He looked down at the old man. Perhaps he'd turn into a god and they to trees. All right, he said.” (Page 78). “No you can't. If you look at him again I'll shoot you.” (Page 31) In both of these quotes, the man and boy come across someone who they don’t know and they don’t know the ability of these people or what their intentions are. In the first quote, the boy tells the man to not touch the old man but to help him. The man contemplates it and agrees with the boy. The man does this to keep the boy from having to see the horrifying event of his own father killing someone. In the second quote, the father is threatening to shoot an unknown man because he was just looking at the boy. The man only cares about killing people if they have any chance of hurting the boy. Both of these quotes support the idea of paternal love because they show that the man risks not only his life but their starvation just to make sure no one hurts the boy. When there isn’t much food left,

the man still doesn’t kill people, but he doesn’t leave the boy to starve, he lets them have the last of their supplies.
The man and the boy had a scarce amount of supplies and they couldn’t just go to the store and find more.

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

life.
The man is alive for and because of the boy so he does anything tom keep him alive and safe and happy. The man gives him the best food and the last of their supplies and he makes sure to only kill people that threaten the boy because he doesn’t want his son to have to see that. Therefore, many works of literature have a plethora of themes but in The Road, the theme that stands out the most is paternal love. Without paternal love, the book would be a long list of words with no point and no interesting point. Without paternal love, there would be no man. Without paternal love, we wouldn’t know what The Road is. Paternal love is the driving force of the book.