Figurative Language In The Road By Cormac Mccarthy

In The Road, Cormac McCarthy uses figurative language, to demonstrate the difference in the people’s decisions and values when compared to the real world. The survivors of the apocalypse, including the father all had to undergo a series of radical changes in order to adapt and survive in the new world.
When the father enters the house, where the people are kept for food, not only does he see naked people both male and female but also a man with his leg cut off. McCarthy writes, “On the mattress lay a man with his legs gone to the hip and stumps of them blackened and burnt” (McCarthy 110). This gruesome imagery was used to describe a man with his leg cut off for food and is kept alive. Of course, McCarthy employed the imagery to give an impact on the readers. However, more importantly, it reveals the brutality and the loss of humanity in this world. A world where people are kept as live stocks. A world where people kill others for the enjoyment. Moreover, this level of brutality and psychotic mentality is common, maybe even accepted as the norm in this world. On the contrary, it rarely exists in the real word and can only be seen in television shows like The Walking Dead. This shows that what used to be criminal acts has quickly transformed into a common way of survival. Additionally, human

McCarthy writes the father’s internal dialogue, “Could you crush that beloved skull with a rock?” (McCarthy 114).This strongly emotional imagery inside the father’s head not only represents the father killing his son but also suggest that the father has a detailed plan. Once again, this shows how far people will go and change when they are under extreme circumstances. This also shows how widespread these kinds of changes are in humans. The good guys too, need to take extreme measures when they are faced with no other