Struggling For Goodness In Cormac Mccarthy's The Road

Struggling for Goodness Cormac McCarthy’s 2006 best selling dystopian novel, The Road, tells the story of a young boy and his father trying to survive in a post apocalyptic world. As they journey to reach the shore, they experience things they never dreamed of. To survive, the father is forced to make choices based on survival rather than kindness or decency. With each day and each violent encounter, the father’s actions become more animalistic and cruel. The Road demonstrates the further people stray from humanity, the more selfish and less human they become; however, goodness can still prevail. As the man and the boy travel together and struggle to stay alive, they witness horrible actions by others. The longer they journey, the more

When he and the boy come to a house where people are being held prisoners to feed other humans, the man ignores the people's cries for help. Instead, he shoved the boy through the hatch and sent him sprawling. He stood and got hold of the door and swung it over and let it slam down and he turned to grab the boy ...grabbed the boy by the hand. Christ, he said. Run. Run. (110-11). McCarthy’s style in this scene is raw and simple. He adds to the horror of the scene by using words that all add to the fear felt by the man: coldness, damp, ungodly stench, burnt, stubs, hideous, blackened, stained, crouched, huddled, naked. Walking down the steps is symbolic of the man going into hell. He walks down and sees people and a situation he never thought he would witness. At this point the man acknowledges people have reached a point where they do not value life and have stooped so low they see other humans as meals. Instead of trying to help the victims, the father runs and does not help even when a “bearded face appeared blinking at the foot of the stairs. Please, he called. Please ”(111). Worried more about people walking towards the house than the ones in the basement, the man and the boy run for their lives.
Even when his own son has to turn away, cover his ears and beg him to stop, the man has strayed so far from humanity, he continues to take vicious revenge on the thief. The man is ruthless in his words and actions and shows no pity to the