The Road in the Novel….
Traditionally, the road has often been used as a metaphor for a journey that pushes society forward, shown as a microcosm through the lives of significant characters. ‘The Road’ is true to this; through the boy’s discovery of another good family, his father’s death marks the end of the pessimistic childhood he has been subject to and the idea of hope is conveyed via his character to which the reader takes as a sign that the world putting itself back together, starting with its people. Constantly referred to as ‘the word of God’, the boy symbolises the creator of our world, his existence itself is meant to prove the presence of God and suggest that if God’s word has survived the nuclear holocaust, then so can his power. This gives the reader cause to believe that the world can be recreated and man can once again be in the image of God, a feeling that comes about through the man’s death. His struggle on earth has lead him off the ‘correct’ path in life and his mind has been corrupted by the loneliness of the situation; the boy in his ignorance has never known anything more than this solitude and so has nothing to compare the new world to. His lack of expectations is what the reader sees as the hope for the future as he can create a world that thinks similarly to himself and reform Earth.
The portrayal of the road in many texts can be a metaphor for the journey from birth to death, in ‘The Road’ however, these two aspects have been reversed; the man’s death can be seen as the boy’s birth as when the man dies, his son’s spirit is set free and he manages to escape from the bubble of isolation his father has trapped him in for so long. When the two are travelling down ‘the road’ they both seem to be waiting for death, their struggle is apparently meaningless, especially as the reader hears the gradual descent of the man’s health; it isn’t until he finally dies at the end of the book that the boy comes to life and seems to have been born out of his father’s death. It could be argued that the book begins when it ends, at the death of the man; although the his life comes to a close, the hope for the boy is stronger and his character begins to become more explicit. It could be seen as trust or possibly naivety that causes the boy to talk to and agree to leave his father and join the other man and his family, but the hope is that the journey of discovery on the road has lead him to be the ‘good’ guy he has frequently talks about and he can now move on with, not only his life, but ‘carry the fire’ to other people on the road, similarly to Jesus, once again making him ‘the word or God’.
During the course of the book, the boy is portrayed in several different ways to be carrying God’s message through the nuclear holocaust; occasionally McCarthy includes scenes where the boy is washing in order to resemble him being baptised. Ironically, whenever we see the boy washing, it is usually after his father has sinned; he is described to ‘wipe the gore’ of his son’s face after he shoots the roadrat and inadvertently covers his son in the man’s brains. At this point the boy washes himself as if to wash away the sins of his father along with the remains of the roadrat. McCarthy seems to find it important to include references to religion in the novel; the man’s wife dies and McCarthy states that ‘her coldness was her final gift’, however she only feels the need to kill herself because of her husband’s actions; his carelessness with the pistol or with circumstances in general lead him to have only two bullets left and she knew that she must die, once again, for the man’s sins. After all the sacrifices that his family have made for him, he finally dies to free his son who manages to find a new family, possibly a better one, who can take care of him while he continues passing on ‘the word of God’.
The portrayal of the road in many texts can be a metaphor for the journey from birth to death, in ‘The Road’ however, these two aspects have been reversed; the man’s death can be seen as the boy’s birth as when the man dies, his son’s spirit is set free and he manages to escape from the bubble of isolation his father has trapped him in for so long. When the two are travelling down ‘the road’ they both seem to be waiting for death, their struggle is apparently meaningless, especially as the reader hears the gradual descent of the man’s health; it isn’t until he finally dies at the end of the book that the boy comes to life and seems to have been born out of his father’s death. It could be argued that the book begins when it ends, at the death of the man; although the his life comes to a close, the hope for the boy is stronger and his character begins to become more explicit. It could be seen as trust or possibly naivety that causes the boy to talk to and agree to leave his father and join the other man and his family, but the hope is that the journey of discovery on the road has lead him to be the ‘good’ guy he has frequently talks about and he can now move on with, not only his life, but ‘carry the fire’ to other people on the road, similarly to Jesus, once again making him ‘the word or God’.
During the course of the book, the boy is portrayed in several different ways to be carrying God’s message through the nuclear holocaust; occasionally McCarthy includes scenes where the boy is washing in order to resemble him being baptised. Ironically, whenever we see the boy washing, it is usually after his father has sinned; he is described to ‘wipe the gore’ of his son’s face after he shoots the roadrat and inadvertently covers his son in the man’s brains. At this point the boy washes himself as if to wash away the sins of his father along with the remains of the roadrat. McCarthy seems to find it important to include references to religion in the novel; the man’s wife dies and McCarthy states that ‘her coldness was her final gift’, however she only feels the need to kill herself because of her husband’s actions; his carelessness with the pistol or with circumstances in general lead him to have only two bullets left and she knew that she must die, once again, for the man’s sins. After all the sacrifices that his family have made for him, he finally dies to free his son who manages to find a new family, possibly a better one, who can take care of him while he continues passing on ‘the word of God’.
