Cormac Mccarthy The Road Analysis

In a world where everything is diminished and you’re life is in your own hands, it doesn’t start with faith or hope… You need that inner hunger “I survived because the fire inside me burns brighter than the fire around me,” (Joshua Graham) mentality. Imagine the feeling of having to watch your every move knowing that one possible mistake makes or breaks the gift of life. Amplify that feeling to now knowing that you’re responsible for another life, not any random life though, your sons life... You now have that same burden of being responsible for your own survival except now multiplied. In the novel The Road, Cormac McCarthy uses setting to reinforce the theme survival by a father and son traveling in a post-apocalyptic world.
McCarthy introduces …show more content…
“You wanted to know what the bad guys looked like. Now you know. It may happen again. My job is to take care of you. I was appointed to do that by God. I will kill anyone who touches you. Do you understand?” (McCarthy 39) The father is willing to put his own humanity on the line to fight for the life of his son because God told him to, demonstrating a constant conflict within the father. He believes that his son is the only remaining sign of God’s existence and without him, he fears that there is no hope for the future. “If you die I would want to die too,” (McCarthy 5) said from the father shows that he truly won't survive without him. God plays a big role in the father’s life during this journey, “he knew only that the child was his warrant. If he is not the word of God God never spoke,” (McCarthy 3) his belief in him is what lights his inner fire.
The author includes short conversations between the father and son periodically that mostly consists with the boy asking if they’re going to die or related towards death. These references always refresh the reader that this novel is more than just running to a location or about two people backpacking the country, but their biggest conflict is overcoming nature’s unpredictable weather and other survivors not looking to become

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