Ideal Father Figure In The Road, By Cormac Mccarthy

Austin Lilly

In The Road, by Cormac McCarthy, McCarthy created The Man by characterizing him as a father figure who solely revolves around the boy and to be his protector. The purpose of creating The Man in this way is to show how the author believes how an ideal father would act for the sake of his son against problems in the world. The author creates The Man in order to show that a good father figure would do and give up anything for the sake of his son.

McCarthy characterizes The Man as an ideal father figure by showing how every action he takes is for the sake of The Boy. This is shown multiple times throughout the story such as when The Man and The Boy find a bottle of coke and The Man believes that this is the last bottle of coke they will ever find. Once they find this bottle of coke, The Man gives it to The Boy and tells him to drink the whole thing and it takes much convincing on the part of The Boy to get The Man to drink any of the coke. This shows how The Man wants to give everything to The Boy that he can, as a good father would.

In the Road McCarthy has the two go through many difficult events in which The Man must make hard choices such as when The Man and The Boy find a group of chained up individuals in the basement of someone’s house. Instead of trying to save the chained people, the man chooses to run away with the boy for fear of the two of them being hurt by the men who have put the people in chains. This shows that McCarthy believes that a good father would give up on saving others if it means risking the safety of his child. Another example of when McCarthy shows this same lesson is when The Boy is about to be taken away by ‘one of the bad guys’ as the man calls him and so, in response, The Man shoots the ‘bad guy’. This shows how McCarthy believes that an ideal father figure would even be willing to kill for the sake of his