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Conflict Between Man And The Boy In Cormac Mccarthy's The Road

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The Conflict between the Man and the Boy In the novel, The Road by Cormac McCarthy, the man and the boy are doing their best to survive in a post-apocalyptic world. Throughout the story, they are both in conflict with each other due to their differences in morals. The conflict between the man and the boy is over the boy’s desire to help people, which plays the role of creating moral tension. This tension of their constant disagreements brings to the readers whose morals and ways of surviving are correct. With the man and the boy both having reason to their beliefs, the novel suggests one of them is correct. From the many different behaviors the man showed throughout the novel and meaning he brought, suggests he is correct. The man has always …show more content…

For example, when the man had to murder someone in order to protect his son’s life and stated “My job is to take care of you. I was appointed to do that by God. I will kill anyone who touches you.”(McCarthy 77) Even though the father had different morals than the son, his heart still remained good and focused on the one he loves. This created the man to hide with his son wherever there are others around and prepare to kill if necessary. Though there were times where he did push too far by having these morals. When they were camped on the beach by the boat, all of their belongings were stolen by another survivor. After they quickly tracked the robber, the man made him take off and give them all of his belongings. Leaving him bare naked in the …show more content…

The boy being too kind to strangers portrays him as weak at times. This causes him to hesitate at times when his father needs him. Which further increases the father's need to be alert since the boy can easily be taken advantage of. For instance, the good morals of the boy made him “profoundly troubled not only by the scene he and his father witness but more crucially by their failure to respond to the call for help.”(Morgenstern 49). The man being willing to protect his son’s safety, can cause him to make bad decisions and miss out on opportunities. Like when the boy risked his safety at the end of the story by trusting people, something his father would have never done or allowed. Which then led to the boy being able to live in safety with a nice

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