Ralph Mccarthy And His Father's Death

“What would you do if I died? If you died I would want to die too” (p. 11).

I love the way McCarthy shows the Man’s paternal love towards the Boy through a hypothetical question because it shows the strength of parental love. The Man is willing to commit suicide, if the Boy dies, to be with him. This is an example of foreshadowing because not only does this predict someone’s death, it also subtly predicts the fact that the Man will repeatedly question his ability to relieve the Boy from the violence of the world by killing him. This also shows a huge contrast between the Man and his wife. The Man sees the Boy has his reason for living while his wife sees him as someone she’s obligated to protect.

“You have some, Papa. I want you to drink it. You have some” (p. 23).

I love the way the Boy really wants to share his treats with his father, showing his strong love and respect for him.

It’s a rare occurrence nowadays for a child to share his delicacies with his parent. This role reversal is similar to when the Boy takes care of the Man at the end of the story. When the Man is almost dying, the Boy finds wood to keep the fire going and makes sure that he is warm. This shows the Boy’s incredible maturity at such a young age.

“He raised up and stood with weeping eyes. On the gray snow a fine mist of blood” (p. 30).

I think that the father is sick and his health is going to slowly deteriorate as the story progresses. I wonder what is going to happen to the Boy if the Man dies. I began to think of many movie scenes where a character finds out about his/her deadly fate. For example, in the movie “The Last Song,” which was based on a Nicholas Sparks’ novel, the father finds out that he has cancer and keeps it a secret from his two kids so he could spend one last summer with them.

“What is wrong with the man? He’s been struck by lightning. Can’t we help him? Papa?” (p.

50)
I love that the Boy still has his innocence despite being in a world with roads full of corpses. He honestly wants to help the man struck by lightning even though he and his father barely have enough supplies for the two of them. This is just one of many conversations between the Man and the Boy regarding helping those they encounter. The Boy really wants to help them but the Man knows they need to move on and use their supplies conservatively to survive. Also in many ways, the Boy’s unwavering innocence keeps them humane and far away from cannibalism.
“Will you tell him goodbye? No. I will not. Just wait till morning. Please. I have to go” (p. 58).
I hate that the Man’s wife chose to leave him and their son to avoid a future with a possibility of rape and killings. I can’t imagine the guilt the Man must have felt for not being able to convince his own wife not to kill herself. I can’t imagine what the Boy must’ve felt when he found out that his mom killed herself without telling him. It sounds as if the Boy didn’t mean anything to her. I think this is also the reason for such a strong relationship between the Boy and his father.
“What if that little boy doesn’t have anybody to take care of him? he said. What if he doesn’t have a papa?” (p. 85)
I think that the boy sees himself in the other little boy. He is concerned about the boy’s safety and wants his father to take care of him. I think he is scared of losing his father and being alone. This is an example of foreshadowing because while the Boy is worrying about the little boy, he is also thinking about the possibility of life without his father which terrifies him. This eventually becomes his life as his dad dies. But what he doesn’t imagine is that another family would take him under their wings.
“On the mattress lay a man with his legs gone to the hip and the stumps of them blackened and burnt. The smell was hideous” (p. 110).
I think these people are being eaten because not only did the Man say that they needed to eat, but also the man in the cellar lost both his legs. The Man opened the door thinking there was food. I can’t believe that people are resorting to cannibalism. This reminds me of the show “Hannibal” because in this TV show, the psychiatrist is secretly a cannibalistic serial killer. The difference being that the psychiatrist willingly eats other human beings while people in the post-apocalyptic world are forced to eat humans as a last resort just to stay alive.
“What if it doesn’t fire? Could you crush that beloved skull with a rock?” (p. 114)
I can’t believe that the Man is thinking about killing his own son. I understand that he doesn’t want his son to be captured and used as livestock or killed but if the moment comes, I can’t imagine the Man actually killing his son. This reminds me of sacrificing yourself or someone you love for the greater good. In the movie “Oblivion,” the main character, Commander Jack Harper, sends himself on a suicide mission to bomb the space station to save the rest of Earth. In the movie, the sacrifice happens while in The Road, the Man thinks about a potential sacrifice.