Cormac Mccarthy The Road Essay

In Cormac McCarthy’s post-apocalyptic novel, The Road, the main character, an unnamed man, treks through the “ashes of the late world” (11) with his son, the boy, towards the south, seeking a better life. McCarthy presents the man and the boy in a world void of any “godspoke men” (32) in the “cold relentless circling” (130) of the world after an unknown disaster has struck the earth. The man and the boy struggle to navigate the perilous landscape as they face hardships and deadly obstacles. Despite the adversity, the man continues to show his unshakable love for the boy. Through actions and the measures the man takes to protect his boy, McCarthy illuminates the theme of a parent who loves and will do anything to protect their child despite the desolate and despair-filled world.

McCarthy makes it apparent that the man is willing to do anything for the boy throughout the novel by utilizing events that occur following the man and the boy that represent the parental love that the man has for the boy. As the man and the boy travel through the desolate world, they battle with the concept of death and how it is a better fate than struggling to survive in a world where “every day is a lie” (75) and the “absolute truth of the world” is the “cold relentless circling of the intestate earth” (130). The man sees that there is no worth living in a world full of egregiousness. There is nothing for the man and the boy to live for except each other. Simultaneously, the man makes small sacrifices that exemplify his care for the boy. As the novel progresses, McCarthy displays the man’s love as a parent for the boy through his small act of offering a rare treat, a “coca cola” for the boy to