Summary: The Road By Cormac Mccarthy

1478 Words6 Pages
Ahmad Young Professor Perry Ivey English 1102 9 April 2015 Cormac McCarthy’s The Road The grim tale, The Road, is about a father and his son trying to survive and make their way south after a catastrophe struck the world. The world looks as if its one big ash tray, as all living things including vegetation is no longer. In their travels, the father-son duo try to avoid others who will turn them into slaves or even worse; eat them. The novel The Road by Cormac McCarthy provides great examples of how inhumane society really is and it’s proven through the struggle to either stay alive and/or keep their morals through the use of the post-apocalyptic setting, character development, literary techniques and religious symbolism. Is McCarthy inferring…show more content…
The very few people that are left in the world are justifying and commuting cannibalism, slavery and caring none for it. The individuals may not have caused the destruction of the world but who can they blame for the actions that THEY are partaking in. This novel informs the reader that deep inside humans are just animals, and when it comes down to it will do any and everything just to survive, even if that means letting go of their morals. Cormac McCarthy didn’t make this book as the typical “Zombie Apocalypse” story, but displaying the true struggle of the “good guys” vs the “bad guys”. The “bad guys” were responsible for forcing others into slavery, murder, rape and even cannibalism. While the father may behave as a “bad guy” in some of his actions, he’s a “good guy” at heart and will do anything to protect him and his son, even if that means taking their own lives. In an article, 'All These…show more content…
But why would God leave the good people on Earth, so in actuality are there any good people left on Earth? The father kills a man that poses a threat to him and his son. The father and the son are still the “good guys” because of the son’s purity, on one hand, and because of the father’s motivations on the other. The father doesn’t murder the man just because, but because he has no other choice. In her article, Hannah Stewart, stated that, “His life doesn’t improve upon the end of another – he doesn’t get more food, better health, warmer clothes, or more days to live. He kills the man so that the child can be safe.” The father’s spiritual principles appear to be what motivates him and forces him to keep pushing through the hurt, sickness, starvation, and fatigue. Furthermore, it pushes him to keep his son harmless and alive. The father tells the boy, “My job is to take care of you. I was appointed to do that by God. I will kill anyone who touches you.” This quote by the father is more proof of the presence of the awareness or existence of God is how the father visions his son. The son is innocent through and through – he hasn’t even done harm to anyone, and he makes sure his father is doing okay and vice versa. At the start of the novel, the father thinks: “If he is not the word of God, God never spoke.” Later on in the
Show More
Related

  • Cormac Mccarthy The Road Summary

    926 Words  | 4 Pages

    The Road is a 2006 novel by American writer Cormac McCarthy. It is a post-apocalyptic tale of a journey of a father and his young son over a period of several months, across a landscape blasted by an unspecified cataclysm that has destroyed most of civilization and, in the intervening years, almost all life on Earth. The novel was awarded the 2007 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for Fiction in 2006. The book was adapted to a film by the same name in 2009, directed

    Read More

More about Summary: The Road By Cormac Mccarthy

Open Document