Morbid Diction In The Road

Pushed to the Breaking Point

Imagine a world where everything is black and covered in layers of ash, where dead bodies are scattered throughout the streets and food is scarce. When earth, once green and alive, turns dark and deadly. A story about a man, his son and their will to survive. Within the novel Cormac McCarthy shows how people turn to animalistic and hasty characteristics during a post-apocalyptic time. Their need to survive tops all other circumstances, no matter the consequences. The hardships they face will forever be imprinted in their mind. In the novel, The Road, author Cormac McCarthy utilizes morbid diction and visual imagery to portray a desperate tone when discussing the loss of humanity, proving that desperate times can lead a person to act in careless ways.

McCarthy uses morbid diction to display a desperate tone about humanity to prove desolation can cause one to act in horrendous ways. In the novel the man and the boy had seen the smoke rising from the

forest, so they had decided to go and check out the fire. When they got there the man was rummaging the woods to see if he could find anything to eat . When the man wasn’t paying attention to the boy he comes across a deceased infant. McCarthy then describes the child as a, "charred human infant"(McCarthy 198). Cormac McCarthy utilizes the morbid diction in this passage to convey a desperate tone to show a loss in humanity. McCarthy is proving that desperate times call for desperate measures within this passage. He is showing this because the infant had been eaten by the people in the woods. By describing the child as a "charred human infant", McCarthy is using morbid diction to convey his tone. Charred is an example of morbid diction because McCarthy could have said burned or black, but he choose charred which evokes a gruesome tone. McCarthy's phrase, "charred human infant", is used to further reveal the desperation and the loss of humanity in this passage. The morbid tone further portrays how McCarthy is showing that in desperate times, such as a post-apocalyptic society with little to no life, people will do anything it takes to survive, even if it means killing an innocent baby and eating it. This baby symbolizes a loss of humanity within the novel because the characters have taken such drastic measures in a time of need.Within the same section McCarthy states about the infant, "headless and gutted" (McCarthy 198). McCarthy's use of diction within this passage is used for a purpose. The purpose is to showcase the authors tone, desperate. McCarthy is also trying to say something about humanity. The way McCarthy describes what the boy had seen shows how desperate the people who ate the child were. The baby has its head cut off, its insides out and it was burnt. McCarthy is showing that when the circumstances are dire enough, such as no food left, ones emotions are heightened and all they have on their mind is to survive. McCarthy's morbid diction is used in such a way that the message McCarthy is trying to communicate is not stated matter-of-factly it makes the reader think about the plot and what happened. The message towards humanity is hinted at within the word choice. This further goes to show how extreme a person can turn out to be in the worst of times, when desperation and survival take over ones mind. McCarthy's use of diction in the novel, and mainly in this passage, are used to describe the event in such details to evoke a morbid tone within the reader in order to display how McCarthy feels about the loss of humanity within the novel.
McCarthy also uses sensory imagery to display a desperate tone towards humanity to prove that desperation can lead a human to act inhumanely. The little boy finds a dead baby in the woods where three men and a women were camping the night before. This traumatizes the boy so the man takes them away and onto the road. The baby had been described, in vivid details, as "...charred human infant headless and gutted and blackening on the spit" (McCarthy 198). McCarthy includes this visual imagery to showcase the desperate tone of the passage. The visual imagery creates a desperate tone. It vividly depicts the infant and how it is found. McCarthy includes this type of imagery into the piece to show just how barbaric humans can be when humanity is lost. When McCarthy describes the infant as charred, headless, gutted and black this paints a very descriptive picture in the readers head. The very graphic images that are depicted add the desperate tone. If these people are hungry enough to eat a baby, that a women has carried in her womb for quite some time, must mean something. McCarthy included this for a reason, to paint a picture in the readers head so that the tone can be clearly seen and identified. Desperation can drive people to insanity. In the same paragraph McCarthy shows another form of imagery, tactile imagery, and adds "...picked the boy up...holding him close" (McCarthy 198). The author includes this tactile imagery in order to portray the desperate tone. This quote is tactile imagery because words such as "picked" and "holding" are used which can be felt by the characters in the story. McCarthy describes what the father does to the boy after this traumatic event to symbolize a loss of humanity within this novel. The dead baby and the boy’s reaction to witnessing the dead baby all contribute to the tone. The desperation in this quote is evident because the boy could not walk, nor did he want to walk because he was so afraid of what he had just seen. The boy’s loss of innocence that McCarthy writes about also provides evidence towards McCarthy's message towards humanity. With his loss of innocence comes a loss in humanity as well because of the inhumane action that was described. The characteristics that represented within this quote, and also within this passage, are all used to sketch out a desperate tone when discussing a loss of humanity and how the inhumane actions are evident when dealing with one’s desperation. McCarthy's use of sensory imagery within the novel, showcases the desperate tone when discussing the loss of humanity and how people will do anything to survive in a society like this.
In The Road, a novel by Cormac McCarthy, visual imagery and morbid diction are put to use to convey a desperate tone while talking about the baby which is no longer alive in order to convey a message about humanity and how desperate times can lead a person to do barbaric things.

McCarthy is trying to show that during desperate times there is a sudden loss in humanity due to the uneasiness and the drastic measures one will take in order to survive. A person will do anything it takes to survive in desperate and desolate worlds. McCarthy is proving this with his diction and choice of imagery. A man and a boy set out to survive in a tragic and dangerous world, where the main food source is depleting and all resources are deteriorating. A novel about what is left of a man’s family and how they struggle to survive. Humanity is tested and shows just how extreme ones actions can be. The want for life is tested, one could question whether or not survival will be possible for the man and the

boy.

Work Cited
McCarthy, Cormac. The Road. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2006. Print.