The Road,
by Cormac McCarthy is a futuristic novel based on a post-apocalyptic journey of
one man and his son beginning their new lives as strangers to the new world.
The father’s death leads the boy to understand what being alone is, to be bold.
The father does everything he can to help his son survive. In the process, he
teaches his son to be courageous and brave; teaching him the skills to survive.
He devotes his life on saving him, “My job is to take care of you. I was appointed
to do that by God. I will kill anyone who touches you,” (77). His son
understands that his father is his life; he cannot do anything without him.
Alone he feels frightened with all the worries in his hand. As the novel
progresses, the father continues to fight hunger and sickness, all for his son.
He knows he cannot go on, but struggles to continue. “ He slept close to his
father that night and held him but when he woke up in the morning his father
was cold and stiff,” (281). The boy is now alone. His father’s death is devastating,
but realizes he can be bold. He can keep on moving, using all of the skills his
father showed him. When approached, the son asks a man “Are you carrying the
fire,” (283) that was a significant question his father used to reassure his
son. He used it to remind his son that a person carrying the fire is a good
person. His father’s death allowed the boy to use his strategies in order to
find the “Good guys”. A father will always teach their son to do the right
things, and teach them to be brave and smart. The father taught his son to be courageous,
in order to survive. This sheds light on the universal truth of triumph through
drastic circumstances. Once the father died, the boy had to learn to push the
difficulty on his own.
