Symbolism In The Road

Hope is defined by the Merriam Webster Dictionary as wanting something to happen or to be true and think that it could happen or be true. With hope, people can achieve anything the wish to achieve. Many times authors use both materialist and non materialistic things to symbolize hope, as hope is intangible. According to Thomas Foster “Action can also be symbolic” (Foster 112). With hope being an indefinite concept, it is often symbolized through actions. In the novel The Road, McCarthy makes use of multiple symbols to represent hope as the father discovers a reason from the boy to endure the grim road; proving the critical role that children play in influencing moral authority. Hope is resembled by fire in the novel, both literally and metaphorically. The father has been suffering from severe health issues for quite sometime, and he is at the end of his life. As the father wakes up in the night from coughing, the boy was sitting “by the fire wrapped in a blanket watching him… The light was a candle which the boy bore in a ringstick of

Hope is illustrated by fire many times throughout the entire novel. The good guys “carry the fire” throughout the novel, and the boy carries the fire for the man (278). As the boy carries the fire, both literally and metaphorically, he provides hope for his father. The old man Ely also allows the boy to supply hope for the father as the boy is able to find the good in a disputable situation. Finally, the boy prays to his father for hope for a better tomorrow for a better tomorrow, and that is what the boy receives. The long road the boy and father journey through does not always seem as though it is going to end well, but because of the boy and his unforgettable hope given to his father, the road becomes a bit more