Cormac Mccarthy The Road Analysis
The Road by Cormac McCarthy
Posted on August 14, 2008 by CountessZ
--The Road by Cormac McCarthy is by far one of the most arresting novels I have ever read. On the surface, it is a dystopian novel about a very bleak future and the dark underbelly of survival in a true post-apocalyptic environment. But at its heart, it is the story of a man trying to be a “good” father under impossible circumstances.
How this father and his tender son got where they are, and what happened to bring about such a dire future, is almost irrelevant. In fact, we receive only disjointed and incomplete clues about what may have happened via the father’s feverish dreams and in rare moments when he allows himself to remember. And even then””the memories, the dreams””they are all personal, void of any social or political concerns.
What we do know quite clearly is that there was fire””fire so intense and so fierce and so engulfing that it literally scorched its way across the land, leaving everything in its wake stark, brittle, and hostile. Ash …show more content…
With every page, I could see more and more clearly that The Road served as an analogy for what it means to live as a man of principle in this modern world””a place populated by metaphorical “cannibals” who would survive at any cost, even the cost of their own humanity. The road is more than just the path this pair struggled down in search of something better. It is the road each of us walks down. And what does our journey look like?
The father in this story is caught in a trap. As he tries to create a worthy example in a corrupt and desolate world, he is continually forced to face his own limitations and those that have been imposed on him. Yet, he keeps trying to push through beyond that. He keeps trying be worthy, to meet the expectations he has of himself and those he imagines other people (most notably his son) have of him as
Posted on August 14, 2008 by CountessZ
--The Road by Cormac McCarthy is by far one of the most arresting novels I have ever read. On the surface, it is a dystopian novel about a very bleak future and the dark underbelly of survival in a true post-apocalyptic environment. But at its heart, it is the story of a man trying to be a “good” father under impossible circumstances.
How this father and his tender son got where they are, and what happened to bring about such a dire future, is almost irrelevant. In fact, we receive only disjointed and incomplete clues about what may have happened via the father’s feverish dreams and in rare moments when he allows himself to remember. And even then””the memories, the dreams””they are all personal, void of any social or political concerns.
What we do know quite clearly is that there was fire””fire so intense and so fierce and so engulfing that it literally scorched its way across the land, leaving everything in its wake stark, brittle, and hostile. Ash …show more content…
With every page, I could see more and more clearly that The Road served as an analogy for what it means to live as a man of principle in this modern world””a place populated by metaphorical “cannibals” who would survive at any cost, even the cost of their own humanity. The road is more than just the path this pair struggled down in search of something better. It is the road each of us walks down. And what does our journey look like?
The father in this story is caught in a trap. As he tries to create a worthy example in a corrupt and desolate world, he is continually forced to face his own limitations and those that have been imposed on him. Yet, he keeps trying to push through beyond that. He keeps trying be worthy, to meet the expectations he has of himself and those he imagines other people (most notably his son) have of him as