N. Perault
The Road Essay
There is Hope in Hell
Imagine living in a post-apocalyptic world, where there is nothing left but death and ash, and the few survivors have turned to cannibalism. In the book “The Road” by Cormac McCarthy (2006), he weaves a very dark detailed description of such a place. The story follows the travels of “The Man” and “The Boy” as they work to find haven in such a hellacious place. The man comes from times gone by and knows of when the world was a better place. The boy on the other hand has only lived in this nightmarish setting and this is all he knows. This story illustrates how humans can have hope, even in the direst of situations, and are not a product of their environment.
The first time the reader starts to get a sense that the boy is not like the father, is when the duo encounters a basement full of humans being penned up, pending consumption by their peers (McCarthy, 2006, pg. 49). The father quickly grabs the boy and flees and doesn’t think once about saving the people. In a conversation later in the book the boy asks, “Why they couldn’t save them?” (McCarthy, 2006, pg. 57). The father is…show more content… After a thief steals everything they have, they catch up to the thief and the man is ballistic. He takes back his belongings and also everything the thief had as well. The man was ready to kill the thief and the boy plead with him not to. (McCarthy, 2006, pg. 104-105). During this ordeal the boy is crying and is compassionate for the thief. The man feels that the thief should be killed, as it’s him or us. The man justifies this as the thief sentencing them to death, while the boy feels compassion for the thief and argues with the man to return the thief’s items (McCarthy, 2006, pg. 104-105). This scene was very eye opening, as the boy was begging for mercy for the very man who attempted to steal everything from them and leave them for