The Road Cormac Mccarthy Essay

The Road, written by Cormac McCarthy, is about a man and a boy who together endure through the tribulations of the world in its retrogression and deterioration. In The Road, Cormac McCarthy compares dreams that the man has to the reality of the desolate world. He seems to portray how beautiful and happy dreams become haunting and detrimental in the novel.

In The Road, Cormac McCarthy describes the world as bleak and lifeless. On page 1, McCarthy describes the barren features of the world. It states “Nights dark beyond darkness and the days more gray each one than what had gone before.” This indicates the void and emptiness that the world has. In addition, on page 75, McCarthy mentions how the world was different. The morals and ethics

people had were rapidly fading away. He expresses “The world shrinking down about a raw core of parsible entities. The names of things slowly following those things into oblivion. Colors.” This demonstrates the frailty of the world and everything in it. The book shows how civilization ended; therefore, life and everything joyful ended as well. Lastly, on page 14, Cormac McCarthy describes the horrific, yet sad scenes of the world. It states “Desolate country. A boarding nailed to a barndoor. Ratty. Wisp of a tail. Inside the barn three bodies hanging from the rafters, dried and dusty among the wan slats of light.” This signifies how deadly the world is. In total, instead of the world developing and becoming stronger, it became weak and the luminous color that was once in the world was no longer there.
Additionally, in The Road, the dreams that the man have are colorful and full of light.

On page 15, the man reminisced about his dead wife. It states “in dreams his pale bride came to him out of a green and leafy canopy. Her nipples pipeclayed and her rib bones painted white. She wore a dress of gauze and her dark hair was carried up in combs of ivory, combs of shell. Her smile, her downturned eyes.” This shows the explicit details he remembered of his wife. The novel demonstrates how the memories he had of his wife shows how much he misses his past life. Also, on page 27, the beautiful color and light that the man saw changed something in him. It states “everything was alight. As if the lost sun were returning at last. The snow orange and quivering. A forest fire was making its way along the tinderbox ridges above them, flaring and shimmering against the overcast like northern lights. Cold as it was he stood there a long time. The color of it moved something in him long forgotten.” The novel shows the fascination the man has with light and color; furthermore, the man has a strong desire in his heart for light and jollity again. All in all, the man’s long experience of the world’s hardships gave him the desire to go back to the life he used to

live.
The man in The Road feels as if the cheerful dreams he has will badly affect him in the dull and infertile reality.

On page 15, the man realizes that the joyful dreams that he has can make him weak in the real world. He uncovers “the right dreams for a man in peril were dreams of peril and all else was the call of languor and of death.” This infers that the man knew that during such affliction in the world, dreaming of such pleasant memories would affect him mentally and emotionally. Moreover, on page 15 the man tells how happy dreams are merely alluring worlds that lead you to death. It states “he dreamt of walking in a flowering wood where birds flew before them he and the child and the sky was aching blue but he was learning how to wake himself from just such siren worlds.” This reveals how the “siren worlds” represents the man’s happy dreams and recollections. Overall, it seems as if the colorful dreams the man has are genuinely

deadly.
Altogether, the author, Cormac McCarthy, juxtaposes the good dreams the man has and the melancholy world to convey to the reader that during times of peril, it is important to have a strong mindset. Thinking about what your life could be like instead of focusing on reality makes you feeble. The imagination we have separates us from the truth that is sometimes right in front of us. The ideal world we have in our minds keep us from truly facing reality for what it is.