In the post-apocalyptic novel, The Road, by Cormac McCarthy, a man and his son travel south through the ruins and ash of their demolished home. Crippled by fear, starvation, and loneliness, the man and his son struggle to maintain physical, mental, and emotion health. Throughout the novel, the characters remain unnamed, with little description of their physical appearance. The man shares all of his beliefs, memories, qualms, and feelings through his thoughts and conversations with the boy. The man has many compelling convictions referencing The Holy Bible and his unwavering belief in God. However, these accounts often contradict each other. Throughout the novel, the existence of God is indefinite. The ambiguity of the novel relates to the ambiguity of God’s existence; the characters are left in the dark about what is to come throughout their journey, just as they are left to wonder whether God’s light is illuminated or diminished among the wreckage of their forgotten world.
At the beginning of the novel, the man describes the scenery he and the boy witness as they venture down the road. He describes the day as a void, godless land and the night as dark and cold. The lack of light and life in the novel symbolizes the absence of God. John notes, “Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, “I am the light of the
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world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life”” (New International Version, John. 8.12.). McCarthy uses the setting of the novel to emphasize the immorality of the world. Without light to reveal the path, lost souls wander eerily without purpose, constantly searching for something or someone to fill the void. Expounding on the idea of an immoral world, the man compares a falling snowflake to “the last host of Christendom” (McCarthy 16). The metaphor used here compares an acidic snowflake, full of ash and soot, to the last God-fearing human left in the world. All of the pure snowflakes have become contaminated with grime, just as all the pure hearts have become contaminated with immorality and sin. It is unclear whether the man identifies himself with the minority of God-fearing Christians or with the majority of unholy, wicked humans. McCarthy creates a mood of solidarity and isolationism throughout his work. The characters rarely encounter other humans of sound minds and kind hearts. Walking along the road, the man and the boy come across an elderly man who claims to be called Ely. Under normal circumstances, the man and the boy would have passed by the old man without speaking; however, the boy’s heart is vulnerable to the shrunken, malnourished man, and the boy begs his father to offer Ely food and provided him with a place of shelter for the night. Granting his son’s request, the man allows Ely to stay. While the boy sleeps, Ely and the man converse over a fire and speak of Ely’s religious beliefs. Ely expresses his disbelief in God in the paradoxical statement, “there is no God and we are his prophets” (McCarthy 170). He is suggesting that they are all prophets of an inexistent God; therefore, having no meaning or value in life. The English word prophet originated from the Greek word prophetes, meaning “one who speaks forth.” The responsibility of a prophet is to preach the truth of God’s word to others. Without a God, there is no truth to preach; thus, absolute truth becomes all relative. If absolute truth were all relative, every one person’s beliefs and morals would be considered the proper way. There would be no way to differentiate between wrong and right, immoral and moral. Without morals, the world of ethics would have no foundation and peace would be an unprecedented idea. Life would have no meaning or value in a world of constant battle. In his article, Erik J. Wienlenberg mentions miracles (“God, Morality, and Meaning in Cormac McCarthy’s The Road.”). Nearly every unfortunate event occurrence presented in the novel is followed by some form of a miracle. For example, the man and his son have been without food for several days and find an underground shelter full of can goods and basic necessities required for survival (McCarthy 138). Then again, the man and boy are consumed with hunger and spot a house off the road with food inside (McCarthy 202). The characters are rescued repetitively throughout the novel when no hope seems to be in sight. Does the man view these situations as miracles from God or just adventitious happenings? After noting a few examples of the protagonist’s doubt of God, one may also note a few examples of the protagonist’s belief in God. The book begins with the man describing a dream he has just awaken from. In the dream, the man is in a cave over-looking a lake. He describes a “pale, naked, translucent” creature crouched at the shore of the lake. The creature is portrayed as a beastlike animal similar to a horse. John of Patmos describes a similar creature in the following texts: “And I looked, and behold, a pale horse! And its rider’s name was Death, and Hades followed him. And they were given authority to over a fourth of the earth, to kill with sword and with famine and with pestilence and by wild beasts of the earth.” (New International Version. Revelation. 6.8.). At the end of novel when the man is dying, he recalls the dream he had in the cave. In the dream, God foreshadows the man’s death, and uses the illustration of death and Hades as a representation of the cannibals and “bad guys” the characters live in fear of every day. The man escapes death at the hand of another living soul. In the end it is not the beast itself that kills the man, but it is the fear of the beast that consumes him and eventually takes his life. One of the largest symbolic objects used throughout the novel is fire. The man refers to the fire as, “gods own firedrake” and describes the flames ascending and extinguishing in the starless sky (McCarthy 31). The man’s reference relates to the following insert: “And another sign appeared in heaven: behold, a great red dragon, with seven heads and ten horns, and on his heads seven diadems. His tail swept down a third of the stars of heaven and cast them to the earth…” (New International Version. Revelation. 12. 3-4.) The man relates his handmade, weak fire to God’s vicious, great red dragon. God’s dragon swept the sky clean of constellations, leaving the dark to consume the earth; ** Alongside fire, one of the most obvious biblical symbols used throughout the novel is the man’s young son. The boy represents all that is lacking in their destructed world: purity, altruism, innocence, morality, compassion, etc. Referencing back to the conversation with Ely, Ely admits that when he first saw the boy, he thought he had died and the boy was an angel. The man responds by saying, “what if a told you he’s a god?” ( McCarthy 172). Moreover, when the man and the boy find the food bunker, the boy’s main concern is thanking the people who created the bunker through a heartfelt prayer. The boy puts everyone else’s needs and concerns above his own, no matter what the circumstance. One of the boy’s greatest concern is being sure to always “carry the fire” and remain a “good guy.” “Carrying the fire” is a phrase repeated throughout the novel.
The man assures the boy that they are good people, and that there’s a fire burning within their hearts. The book of Hebrews notes, “for our God is a consuming fire.” (New International Version. Hebrews. 12. 29.). The phrase, “carrying the fire,” simply means that the boy is carrying God within his heart. With the inferno of God radiating within the boy, the boy may act as a prophet. Fire is a contagious substance and when it begins to spread, it becomes difficult to
extinguish. By assuring the boy that they are the good guys and carry the fire, the man also assures the boy of God’s work still at hand. He tells the boy it is his job to care for him, for he was chosen to do so by God. When the man is dying, he confesses to the boy he was always the best guy and encourages the boy to keep “carrying the fire” and to continue the journey without him. Even after the man’s death, the boy is exposed to God through the beliefs of his new family. The boy could be defined as “the last host of Christendom” (McCarthy16). He may be the last heart “carrying the fire” and the only source of Christianity left on the obstructed earth. The religious journey throughout The Road is a bumpy, winding path. Sometimes clouded by fog, one might question the ambiguous destination that lay ahead. The characters of the novel are constantly overrun by fear, exhaustion, and starvation, with little hope to keep them going. One may also question whether there is a God to be held responsible for the destruction and ruin of the world and the lack of hope within their hearts. Is there a God to blame? Is there a God to blame for the hurt and for the unrewarding journey? Is there a God to blame for the starvation? Is there a God to blame for the death? Is there a God?
In Cormac McCarthy’s The Road, the author makes various references to the Bible and to religion. Those references also can be compared on how they have changed the way of humans in real life. Along with how the boy maintains his innocence throughout this whole book even when he witnessed events that could’ve changed him. The man tried to the best of his abilities to preserve the innocence of the boy. Through all of the obstacles that they both faced, the man managed to keep the boy safe and even in his last moments he was sure that he taught his boy how to tell when people were good.
Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving is a novel in which religion is of great importance. One of the main themes in this novel is faith in God and oneself, and even more, the conflict between belief and doubt. Irving writes in such a way, that this is very evident throughout the book. John Wheelwright, at the start of the novel, is a young boy who does not seem to know much about how strong his faith really is. Part of the reason for this, is that the choice between believing in and doubting God is that there isn’t any complete evidence that He even exists.
In Cormac McCarthy’s The Road, the boy and his father carry the fire within themselves. This image of fire is the true nature of their courage to continue on the road to the unknown.
Before reaching his destination , John begins to allow nature to be his mentor. “The three deer passed in the valley, going east….I followed them”(Benét 77). He travels alone, relying on the fauna to guide him the right way. John arrives to the place of the gods where his ignorance comes into play again. He sees a variety of appliances but is not aware of their names. “There was a cooking place but no wood, and though there was a machine to cook food, there was no place to put fire in it” (Benét 82). He is describing an oven but living from an isolated world for decades, John is a stranger to all things modern. After more investigating, he falls asleep and dreams about the past. John is perplexed by the new things he had never seen before, “When gods war with gods, they use weapons we do not know. It was fire falling out of the sky and mist that poisoned” (Benét 84). It is noticeable to the audience that John is again envisioning technology that he is not familiar with. He then encounters a “dead god” and soon realizes something life-changing about the gods, “...they had been men neither gods or demons….They were men” (Benét
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,
“Does belief in God influence decisions?” This question and many others are asked by countless readers after experiencing what is Cormac McCarthy’s The Road. This thrilling post-apocalyptic novel follows the journey of a nameless father and son traveling down a long road after what can only be described as the end of the world as we know it. It centers around their fight for survival and their quest to find somewhere in this new world that’s safe. In the background of the gritty feature is the constant thought of God and his influence on moral decisions. McCarthy illustrates through the choices made by the characters how belief in God or lack thereof molds someone’s personal decisions and maybe even slants their moral compass in different directions.
Can someone be two contrasting ideas at once? It seems possible for Cormac McCarthy as through his novella Child of God, he considers this question with the use of the protagonist, Lester Ballard. (). (). Ballard’s animalistic descriptions and amazing feats juxtapose his non-humanness against his super-human capabilities.
The structure and language used is essential in depicting the effect that the need for survival has had upon both The Man and The Boy in The Road. The novel begins in media res, meaning in the middle of things. Because the plot isn’t typically panned out, the reader is left feeling similar to the characters: weary, wondering where the end is, and what is going to happen. McCarthy ensures the language is minimalistic throughout, illustrating the bleak nature of the post-apocalyptic setting and showing the detachment that the characters have from any sort of civilisation. Vivid imagery is important in The Road, to construct a portrait in the reader's mind that is filled with hopelessness, convincing us to accept that daily survival is the only practical option. He employs effective use of indirect discourse marker, so we feel as if we are in the man’s thought. The reader is provided with such intense descriptions of the bleak landscape to offer a feeling of truly seeing the need for survival both The Man and The Boy have. The reader feels no sense of closu...
In Cormac McCarthy’s The Road, the author makes various references to the Bible and to religion. Those references also can be compared on how they have changed the way of humans in real life. Along with how the boy maintains his innocence throughout this whole book even when he witnessed events that could’ve changed him. The man tried to the best of his abilities to preserve the innocence of the boy. Through all of the obstacles that they both faced, the man managed to keep the boy safe and even in his last moments he was sure that he taught his boy how to tell when people were good.
Ross is later talking with an old man when he states "By the clock tis day, and yet dark. night strangles the traveling lamp" (2. 4. l6-7). In other words; although, sun should be out, something is blocking the light. This example of darkness imagery creates. an eerie feeling in the reader because it is very abnormal for the sun to be blocked. One might say that God is punishing them or that there is the presence of a devil if the sun was gone and would stir up the emotions of the reader although it was probably only an eclipse.
Since symbolism first began to be used in the English language, Light has always represented a theme of hope and optimism. The phrase “Light at the end of the tunnel” best encompasses this, implying an opportunity or relief after difficulty or chaos. In the same way, Darkness has represented confusion or despair. James Joyce expands on the traditional connotations of Light and Darkness in his short story “Araby”. The narrative follows a young boy on his futile quest to find love with a girl much older than himself whom he hardly knows. Joyce uses Light to represent not only hope, but unrealistic idealism and illusion. In the same way, Darkness, in addition to despair, represents the reality and truth in the narrator's predicament. Joyce uses Light and Darkness as a symbol for the clash between fantasy and reality that takes place within the narrator.
In the Novel The Road, by Cormac McCarthy, survival becomes the biggest quest to life. The novel is set to be as a scene of isolation and banishment from people and places. The author uses the hidden woods as a set of isolation for the characters, in which creates the suspense of traveling to an unspecified destination near the shore. Cormac McCarthy creates a novel on the depth of an imaginative journey, which leads to a road of intensity and despair. The journey to move forward in an apocalyptic world transforms both of the main characters father and son tremendously as time progress. In particular, the boys’ isolation takes him from hope to torment, making him become fearful and imaginative. The images indicate that McCarthy’s post apocalyptic novel relies on images, particular verbal choices, and truthful evidence to how isolation affected the son emotionally and physically.
The time period this work takes place in is a very gloomy and frightening time. He wakes up in a dark place by himself and in fear, which makes things worse. A common theme we can relate this dark place to is when we fall off of the path of God. Since God represents all things good, the dark is the exact opposite. Since everything is not so clear in the wood he his describing, the path back to God is even more difficult to attain.
They keep saying this because it makes the boy and the man have hope that something good will come along, and to keep their spirits up even though there life is very hard and tiring. One scene in the book is when the boy asked the man if they would ever eat people, the man said no they would not the reason why was because “we are carrying the fire”. The man is showing the boy that carrying the fire is protecting them, no matter what happens to them that if they are carrying the fire they will be alright. The boy knows that if they are carrying the fire they have a sign of hope and that the world is not over and light will come through. Another scene in the book that brings up carrying the fire is when the father is dying. When the father is dying he tells the son that he now has to carry the fire alone, the boy hesitates because he doesn’t think he is ready for it and he doesn't want his father to leave him but the father knows he is ready. The son knows that he will always be carrying the
In Cormac McCarthy’s The Road, in the post-apocalyptic world that the man and the boy live in, dreams begin to take on the form of a new “reality.” As the novel progresses, the man’s dreams, initially memories remnant of his pre-apocalypse life, become “brighter” as the boy’s dreams become darker and nightmarish. Through the use of color and distinct language, McCarthy emphasizes the contrast between reality and dreams. The man’s reliance on bad dreams to keep him tied to the harsh reality alludes to the hopelessness of the situation; he can never truly escape. McCarthy suggests that those who strive for a life that no longer exists are deluded with false hope. Having dreams is a natural human tendency, but in a world that has become so inhumane, the man can’t even afford to retain this element of being human. The loss of the past is a concept that the characters living in this ashen world struggle with, and McCarthy presents memory as a weakness to be exploited.