The Roady Essay

The Road Essay

The Road, by Cormac McCarthy, depicts a post-apocalyptic world filled with cannibalism, death, and a longing for survival. Among other things, race and religion no longer distinguish society into defined groups. The human beings are either considered good guys, or bad guys through the eyes of the father and his son. Surviving in this world, when knowing what life was like before, creates newly discovered hardships and an inevitable feeling that life is meaningless. This novel follows the boy and his father as they continue on their journey of survival, due to their view that their lives still hold value. In a world as disastrous and broken as this one, life maintains meaning through connections, love and hope. A connection with other human beings allows life to be meaningful, even in the midst of suffering. The boy and his father have close to nothing, except for each other. It’s the existence of their connection that makes it worth continuing the struggle. We see how meaningful connections are to the father when a flashback from his childhood is described. The father and his uncle spend the whole day sailing across a lake to retrieve a piece of firewood. “Neither of them had spoken a word. This was the perfect day of his childhood” (McCarthy, 13). Even though there was no verbal communication that day, the man and his uncle spent the day sharing a deep connection with one another. They worked together in a common task, with hopes of reaching the same goal, making it the perfect day in his childhood. Most of the days spent between the man and his son are similar to this perfect day. They work together everyday in order to reach their common goal, survive. It is this connection between the two of them that creates some meaning in their lives. Meanwhile, a lack of connection is also present in the book to show how life is meaningless without it. Unlike the father and the son, their mother had lost her connection to her family. Her fears of the future took over her, and became too much to handle. This caused her to break the emotional bond she once had. As a result, she killed herself, because life was no longer meaningful enough to live in her eyes. Another form of meaning in life is love. The man’s love for the boy is what ultimately separates him from death. It’s also the boy’s love for his father that motivates him to not give up on life. The love present is shown through ways beyond caring and providing for one another in their daily life. Times where the man would begin to cry at the sight of his sleeping boy expresses the love he has. “He wasn’t sure what it was about but he thought it was about beauty or about goodness. Things that he’d no longer any way to think about it all, (McCarthy, 130)”. These tears weren’t about the thought of death, but purely because of love. If they had no one to love or by loved by, life would be short of meaning. Along with connections and love, Hope makes life meaningful. It’s what drives both the man and son to wake up every morning, and continue on their journey. On the surface, hope seems to be something that was been long lost, and never to be gained. Although, throughout the book the father teaches the son life lessons, something the boy wouldn’t have to know if they truly believed there was no future for them. One moment where the man is teaching the boy is when they are camped near a waterfall sight. Here, the mean teaches him how to swim. “He held him and floated him about, the boy gasping and chopping at the water. You’re doing good, the man said. You’re doing well,” (McCarthy, 39). Simply, the purpose of teaching someone how to swim is so they can swim on their own later on in the future. Hope in each other is also a driving force in their life. The son has hope in his father, trusting that he will continue to guide him throughout life even when he is dead. “He tried to talk to God but the best thing was to talk to his father and he did talk to him and he didn’t forget,” (McCarthy, 286). Even with the man being dead, the son continues to live by maintaining hope in his father’s guidance. It is evident that connections, love, and hope make life meaningful. By emphasizing these three components, it shows how life can be meaningful with or without god, even in these circumstances of suffering. Throughout the novel, the existence and role of god comes into play. The man describes this world as a godless world. While there are others, who believe god is keeping them going, like Ely. Ely is a man the father and son encounter, who believes that all the survivors of the catastrophe are prophets, and he is the word of god. McCarthy reveals how the boy’s life is made meaningful by his relationship and love for his father. By making god have no contribution to making life meaningful, we are able to see this novel clearly for what it is, a love story.