The Theme Of Love In Cormac Mccarthy's The Road

In Cormac McCarthy’s The Road, an important theme that is developed throughout the book is the ideal of trust. The relationship between the boy and the man is developed throughout and can be juxtaposed through the relationships seen with other characters. Along with the trust McCarthy also emphasis the significance of lying to go deeper into his point about the importance of human relationships and how important they are for survival. McCarthy uses these characters all throughout the book to show how trust is a delicate and important part of every human relationship.

Throughout the entire book McCarthy subtly shows the issues of trust between the man and the boy. The boy is constantly depending on the man for his guidance and reassurance. With the uncertain circumstances that

they are forced to deal with it is very easy for them to lose hope. The boy is constantly asking his father “are we going to die now?”(87) and every single time the man says no, so the boy believes him until at one point we can see the boy become a dynamic character. He begins to question the faith that he has in his father. When the boy begins to question this he asks, “If we were going to die would you tell me?” (94). Instead of the undeniable trust that the boy used to have for his father, he is beginning to no longer feel that. The loss of trust starts to cause the boy to begin to question if his father really is one of the good guys. Based on the way that the man treats the other people that they encounter on the road the boy does not believe the man’s reassurances of them being the good guys.
However it can be seen that the boy has no other choice, trusting the man is a necessity. The boy tells his father, “yes I believe you...I have too.” (167) The man is the boy’s only companion and he is the one who knows the nature of human life before the unnamed catastrophe. It is impossible for the boy to discredit the man because if his longer years and more experience. Trust becomes another issue when it comes to their survival. The boy is young and naive and is more trusting of the other people that they meet on the road. This can cause a lot of issues because most of the people that they meet on the road are cannibals, rapists and thieves. When the man and the boy come into contact with the man who tries to convince them to go with his colleagues at their truck, rightly the man does not trust him, seconds later the man pulls out a knife on the boy. Knowing the personality of the boy the man could have convinced him to go with him which could have caused his demise.
This trust that we see changing throughout the book says a lot about human nature. The kind of relationships that humans need and are always searching for. At the end of the novel when the man die’s, a stranger comes to retrieve the boy
As the main characters continue to travel along the road and as the situation become more and more grim for them, they must rely on each other more and more.

The only thing that these two characters have left is each other and once they lose the trust that they have then they will lose each other. At one point the boy must remind the man “If you break little promises you’ll break big ones”(34). Losing the trust for the little things mean that the trust for the big things, the things that matter, is no longer there. Also, this is a pivotal point for the boy, it shows his maturity and how much he has grown throughout the book. However even though the boy is becoming more mature he still needs his father to stay alive in the world that they live in. McCarthy is using these two characters to make the point about how fragile humans really are. The little lie can destroy the trust that they need to survive. Staying honest and truth with each other is imperative for these characters on the road. Everything, even their environment is an enemy, with everything against them the need for each other to completely trust each other is the what will ultimately be what causes their survival or their

death.
This relationship is important to the overall theme that McCarthy is trying to show throughout his novel. Using the man and the boy’s relationship McCarthy is able to subtly imply to the reader that human relationships are delicate. He is using the extremes of the setting to show that even in regular day to day life humans need to have someone they can trust completely and entirely. The man admitted multiple times that if it was not for the boy then he would have no reason to continue living. McCarthy uses the relationships of the protagonists and the people they encounter on the road with the relationship between the protagonists. The juxtaposition shows how desperate they are to find others that they can trust and to stay alive. The character Ely is introduced to prove this point. When the man and the boy first meet Ely the boys first reaction is to help him and to “keep him” (163). The man unhappily agrees to help the man and does not trust him and even makes snarky comments about helping Ely. The willingness of the boy to stop and help the man is showing how easy and perhaps desperate the boy is for human connection. The situation that the boy and man are forced to live in is extremely challenging but without the trust and connection that the man and the boy share it would be impossible.