Hopelessness is the feeling of desolation, something one would turn to when there’s simply no more options. It haunts the human in a myriad of ways and in Cormac McCarthy’s novel, this topic is traversed. McCarthy’s novel expands upon this topic with many indications of hopelessness. In his tragedy, McCarthy tells the story about a father and son who live on an abandoned earth, which was devastated by fire. Some of the aforementioned symbols include the infant. The flare pistol and the Coca-Cola can. These items are seemingly ordinary in our present day lives, but work to assure the ultimate fall of the characters' hopes. McCarthy’s characters are human, and humans will feel hopelessness much like McCarthy’s characters do. Hopelessness will always recur at the death site of a child, as it is human nature to want to protect our young. Hence why the infant was the symbol with the heaviest effect on both the Boy and the reader. The infant is also the most compelling symbol because it was a fetus, something that had not yet the ability to protect itself when faced with danger. It only instilled more horror and hopelessness because of the …show more content…
The pistol had the potential to provide the characters with hope, but consequently, due to the desolate setting and lack of intelligent (or friendly) life it was the opposite. Flares are often used in cases where one might be in distress - which the characters are. The pistol is to be the thing that leads to your saving, but with no one around to save them. The Boy and the Man leave without saving. The bright light on the pistol symbolizes their hope which they see slowly diminish. This may also have represented the good left in humanity, which seemed only to be possessed by the Boy and his father, but they watch as even that leaves. In all the flare pistol is a symbol of abandonment from everyone, including their