Cormac Mccarthy The Road Analysis

In a world where everything has gone to chaos, where there is cannibalism, where food is sacred, and sky is charcoal grey; people will do anything to survive. In order to survive one needs the basic elements: food, water, and shelter. Having others, to help one stay sane; having a sense of direction, in order to know where to go and where not to go: and also knowing who and what to trust is also need in order to survive. In the post-apocalyptic novel The Road, by Cormac McCarthy, it displays many themes, but the ones that prevails the rest is sense of trust and compassion; whether it be to trust or not to trust, to be compassionate or not. Both the father and son have different views on who to and not to trust, and when to be compassionate
The father does everything to protect his son. The reason they are traveling to try and a find a better life for him. Throughout their journey he constantly tells him that they are the good guys; he is always making sure his son has food to eat, even if he’ll have a little or none; and watches over him until his last day. The following dialogues show that he has compassion towards his son: “What would you do if I died? If you died I would want to die too. So you could be with me? Yes. So I could be with you.” (11) and, “My job is to take care of you. I was appointed to do that by God. I will kill anyone who touches you. Do you understand?” (77). The father sees himself as a guardian angel for his son, and is willing to do anything, even kill, to make sure his son is safe. He would rather die than continue on without his son; he can’t bare to live without him since his son is what keeps him going, he is what keeps him sane. He has no mercy and empathy for others. For example, he makes a man strip his clothes off and takes them, as an act of punishment. The son has to convince him to return the cloths. All in all, the son is what gives the father a reason to rethink his actions, to have emotions, to be