Cormac Mccarthy The Road Essay

Annie Cox Mr. Davis Honors English 10-1 22 February 2024 Hope is Never Truly Lost In Cormac McCarthy's novel “The Road” a father and his son are on a constant hunt for safety and resources through an apocalypse. The boy’s mother takes her own life at the beginning of the apocalypse, putting the responsibility of raising the boy on the father. McCarthy uses the boy's persistence as he fights to continue as one of “the good guys” (pdf) to impact the father while he consistently fights to keep them alive. The man and the boy pass in and out of danger; constantly watching behind and around them, paranoid they will be attacked at any moment. Along the road they meet many people, both good and bad, each time faced with the difficult decision of how

The evil people and the cannibals lose sight of who they are, become psychopaths, disregard integrity, and respond insanely to the apocalypse. Through various events, McCarthy displays that as people make their journey through life, hope is challenged, but never truly lost. The boy is driven by his yearning for a greater future. While “moving south” (pdf), they reach an ocean; as they sit and look out at the great beyond, the boy asks the father if they “could write a letter to the good guys” (pdf) in the sand. To the boy, this is a stellar idea to instill hope in other people that good guys “[are] here” (pdf). McCarthy utilizes this question to display the boy's strong desire to find other people who have held onto good morals and values. However, when the man hears this, his mind automatically turns to “what if the bad guys [see] it” (pdf). McCarthy shows the father’s hopelessness as he feels the world is left with bad guys rarely exploring the possibility of other good guys on the road. In these circumstances, others may react similarly; hope dwindling while

McCarthy portrays the distinct difference between the two in their responses to a difficult decision, a moment of true character and personality. Thinking about this experience, he temporarily loses hope and faith in his father. He begins to think they’re as bad as everyone else on the road. The boy struggles to understand why the man doesn’t trust anybody, but after coming across thieves, murderers, and cannibals, the father has reached his limit; his hope sinking lower than ever before. He longs to find somebody good but ultimately doesn’t expect them to, all they find are people with “no remedy for evil” (pdf). The man and the boy rely solely on one another, this event putting extreme tension on their relationship. The boy doesn’t often feel hopeless with the man, but at this moment he feels the man is as evil as the other people on the road. Through the time of the stolen shopping cart, the boy's expectation of his father is extremely challenged, greatly affecting the father too; he needs his son to trust him so he can maintain his