It’s a popular belief that The Road by Cormac McCarthy is about death and pursuing your goals. Many also believe that in the story there is no good left, or that it is about good vs. evil. Or perhaps readers believe it is about love. But they don’t realize that there is a theme incorporating the dystopia, the survival aspect, and desperation. There is a theme that relates to the previous topics including love that the main characters share. The Road explores how the force of love is powerful enough to keep father and son alive in post-cataclysm.
Quickly, the reader finds the love that the man and the boy share to be molded and shaped by their circumstances. For example, if any modern family were to normalize death in every circumstance such as the man and the boy do, they would be considered quite morbid and unwholesome. In one of their final exchanges, the man expresses his love for his son “I know. I’m sorry. You have
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The man and the boy are determined to get to the eastern coast. Obviously, it’s not an easy task what with all the roadagents and gangs roaming the roads. Illness and starvation are natural threats. An example of the hardships they face is through an illness the man carries: “Already it was hard going and [the man] stopped often to rest. Slogging to the edge of the road with his back to the child where he stood bent with his hands on his knees, coughing. He raised up and stood with weeping eyes. On the gray snow a fine mist of blood.” (30) By the end of the book, when they do reach the coast, it is rather underwhelming. However, the pair likely would not have made it all the way without the determination they created together. The man also states that his only reason for living is to protect the boy. To keep him safe. To make sure the boy learns all he needs to survive in the harsh world of theirs. In the end, the man and the boy both have justified reasons for being as determined as they