Resilience Of Love In The Road By Cormac Mccarthy

Cormac McCarthy’s novel The Road explores the resilience of human life and human sentiment. But the most tenacious emotion exemplified in the novel appears to be love. The novel illustrates how love influences the characters to endure in a godless post-apocalyptic world. The father and son are emotionally controlled by the love that they share for one another. Without the resilience of human emotion, the father and son would have perished with the rest of the world. McCarthy illustrates how the complex emotion of love can influence his characters will to survive in the desolate new world.
The role that love plays in McCarthy’s novel has been a theme of immense discussion. Marcel DeCoste states in a literary criticism that “the father's

love transcends mere survival, his own or the son's; this love counsels other virtues that enable life-giving relationships with others” (68). The idea of McCarthy establishing these “life-giving relationships” in his novel is not uncommon. Critic, Thomas Schaub, suggests, that McCarthy establishes "the basis for meaning in the father's love for his son, …this meaning transcends the father's efforts to affirm and protect his son's life" (153).
The power of love is of upmost importance when attempting to analyze the connection between the father and sons relationship and will to endure. The character’s love for each other mechanizes a self-perpetuating wheel that enables their survival. This symbiotic mutualistic relationship is depicted multiple times within the novel. In The Road, McCarthy writes,
They squatted in the road and ate cold rice and cold beans that they'd cooked days ago. Already beginning to ferment. No place to make a fire that would not be seen. 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.
(44)
This serves a prime example of how the father and son enable each other’s survival in this new apocalyptic world.

Without his son, the father would have relinquished his will to live much earlier. Another instance of loves perseverance in the novel is when the boy’s father lay dying; the father states, “I'm sorry. You have my whole heart. You always did. You're the best guy. You always were. If I'm not here you can still talk to me. You can talk to me and I'll talk to you. You'll see.” (279). It is as if the boy is the fathers heart in the metaphorical sense. The father’s love for his son is so great that he exonerates his previous motive of having his son perish alongside of him. Even in his dying breaths the father encourages his son to continue in his pursuit of survival.
McCarthy, being an expert novelist, allows the reader to gain a deeper understanding of the role that love plays in the new world. McCarthy does so through referring to love as “the fire” and referencing those who carry “the fire” as the “good

guys.”
Those who still maintain the ability to love in this post-apocalyptic new world are those who carry the fire and are ultimately the ones who can be trusted. One of the most prominent themes that can be derived from the novel is the power of love. This reoccurring theme has led many critics hail the novel as a great love story between a father and son. The novel puts parental values into stark perspective, and continually reveals the influence of paternal love.
McCarthy’s rather bleak and pessimistic novel is riddled with life sustaining emotions. The child in the novel is glorified as being a harbor for ethical values, even though having been raised in an immoral world where cannibalism, rape, and murder are social norms. This is in unambiguous contrast with the father who was raised in a wholesome society. It can be assumed that the father imparted these moral principles unto his son; however, he himself has lost some of these values in the interest of protecting his child. Dialogue between the father and son firmly establishes that the father continues surviving for his sons sake. A short excerpt of dialogue from the novel reads,
What's the bravest thing you ever did?
He spat in the road a bloody phlegm. Getting up this morning, he said.
(272)
This is another instance where the fathers love prevails in light of his sons survival.
The idea that the father pursues life regarding the survival of his son is virtually uncontested by literary critics. Jingjing Guo writes, “In trying to fulfill his parental responsibility, the father displays virtues in human nature like responsibility, love, perseverance, and self-sacrifice. After his wife's death, he is forced into the role of sole guardian, protector, and teacher of their son. He views his identity ‘Papa’ as his most important identity and seems to take protecting his son as the ‘sole, divinely appointed function’ (Quoted in Guo 3).
McCarthy has the father make many self-sacrifices as proof of his literal unconditional love. These selfless acts exemplify how love leads to the prolonging of his sons life. The father believes that God appointed him to protect his son and he will do so by any means necessary. The father’s sacrifices and selfless acts extend from denying himself food to murder in the name of survival. The father states “My job is to take care of you. I was appointed to do that by God. I will kill anyone who touches you. Do you understand?” (65). This divine appointment leads the father to make drastic decisions to secure his sons safety and wellbeing.
In order to fully understand the impact that love has on the characters you must also analyze the son, who like his father makes many sacrifices of his own. The sons sacrifices are not as radical, yet ever important concerning the analysis of character’s love for one another.
He walked back into the woods and knelt beside his father. He was wrapped in a blanket as the man had promised and the boy didnt uncover him but he sat beside him and he was crying and he couldnt stop. He cried for a long time. I'll talk to you every day, he whispered. And I wont forget. No matter what. Then he rose and turned and walked back out to the road.
(286)
A major sacrifice that the boy makes is deciding to leave his father’s body and to pursue life.

The boy refuses to surrender his will to live even though the only person who he truly loves has died. When describing the choices that the character’s make, it is important to understand that love is resilient in the boy, while the father only loves his son and nothing more. Therefore if the boy died the father would ultimately commit suicide; however, the boy has the ability to love more than just his father and that drives his will to pursue life after his father’s death.
Unlike his father, the boy recognizes that there is still good in the world. Between the boy maintaining his ability to love and to trust, there seems to be a chance for the regeneration of a wholesome society. The boy truly carries the fire in his heart, while the father carries nothing but a small dying flame that is only capable of loving his son. The boy can survive in this new world without his father, yet the father inability to pursue love and trust would cause him to die if his son

died.
Upon analysis it is clear to see that the father and son enable each other’s will to persevere; however, the son is stronger than his father and holds the capacity to pursue life with or without him. The father is a static character who is incapable of loving anyone but his son. The boy’s decision to continuing caring and trusting even after his father’s death is why he survives in the cruel new world. The father is the one who establishes that there is still good people in the world and that some people do still carry the flame; however, he refuses to give people a chance. This is opposed to the boy who is willing to trust those who he deems honest. If the boy was as close minded as his father he would have likely died with him. It is the power of love that enables the father to live as long as he does, and it is this same power that allows the boy to endure an apocalypse without his father.