The Road by Cormac McCarthy is a post-apocalyptic masterpiece that contains many memorable characters. Though the characters in the novel aren’t given names, the protagonist character labeled “The Man” is by far the most interesting character in the novel. The Man is a character that every reader can get behind because of his immense devotion to The Boy, which is his son.. Everyone can root for a man that would sacrifice his own well being in order to protect a child. “When he woke in the woods in the dark and the cold of the night he’d reach out and touch the boy sleeping beside him” (McCarthy, 1). Even in this post-apocalyptic society where everything is in ruin,The Man does whatever is necessary to teach The Boy valuable life lessons, …show more content…
When he feels The Boy is being threatened, he turns on this mean streak that is unrivaled by any other ruthless character in literature. The Man is arguably more ruthless and unrelenting than Anton Chigurh, who is a character in one of Cormac McCarthy’s other fantastic novels, No Country for Old Men. In one scene, The Man sets a guy ablaze with his flare gun and also leaves another guy laying in the middle of the road unconscious and without any clothes on, as The Man stole the clothes off of his back. “The man had already dropped to the ground and he swung with him and leveled the pistol and fired from a two-handed position balanced on both knees at a distance of six feet. The man fell back instantly and lay with blood bubbling from the hole in his forehead” (McCarthy, 102). This ruthless aggression The Man has is very thought provoking because it makes the reader think that maybe The Man’s mean streak and savagery may become a detriment to The Boy or is it simply a case of The Man doing whatever it takes it protect The Boy. This aggression The Man has may even be considered a paradox; The Man doesn’t want The Boy to develop the same evil and sinister nature that the rest of the survivors have, but The Man has shown to have remnants of that same savage