Cormac Mccarthy The Road Analysis

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The Road We all like to reminisce about the past from time to time, but there are some things that are too painful to remember. While it’s good for people to look on the positive side of every situation, some memories are just too hard to resurface. Throughout Cormac McCarthy’s novel, The Road, the man and his son struggle with remembering the past while living in a monstrous world. The two are trying their hardest to live in a world full of violence and horror. Even though Lucius Annaeus Seneca believes “Things that are hard to bear are sweet to remember” it is hard for the man and his son to see anything except the horror that awaits them down the road. At the beginning of the story, we are introduced to the man and his son. They are living in a post-apocalyptic world where everything is burned and dead. We learn how the man’s soul purpose is to make sure his son survives, no matter what the cost. When walking down the road, they spot people stuck and dying in burning asphalt. The man says to his son “Just remember that the things you put into your head are there forever...You forget what you want to remember and you remember…show more content…
He dreams a lot of his late wife and the last few memories he has of her. In one of his dreams his wife was sick and he cared for her, but while the dream made it seem that he was a caring husband he thought differently. He did not take care of her and she died alone somewhere in the dark and there is no other dream nor waking world and there is no other tale to tell (McCarthy 27). The man believes that his survival depends solely on his dreams being dark, for he believes that pleasant dreams mean that he is approaching death. “And the dreams so rich in color. How else would death call you?” (McCarthy 18). But while he wants to try and forget about what happened to his wife, he also feels guilty for not keeping her memory alive, and talking about her more to his

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