McCarthy’s The Road is a post-apocalyptic novel that deals with the temporariness of life itself. The title of the novel is very simple, in that it conveys the novels setting which is largely focused on the movements along this road. The road has both a physical and metaphorical representation in the novel. This essay will focus on the motif of the road in the novel and how the characters identify with events occurring on their particular journey on the road. The road is a symbol for the characters in the novel and a representation of the greater devastation and loss that the people are experiencing. The lack of punctuation in the novel may be an indication of how the new world cannot accurately represent things of the old world as they no longer exist. There is a constant clash of reality for the characters who know the old world and see the new world whilst on the roads journey. A road in the general sense is a means of connecting two places to each other. The road in various cultures signifies one’s destiny, there is a sense of purpose that one gains when travelling along a road. As the road creates this sense of purpose, it provides the image of some sort of future that one aspires to. In a western-influenced culture, one believes that they are heading into the future by travelling through a space in time. The future is seen as a destination and the road provides the journey that we must go on in order to reach the goals that we have set out for ourselves. In the