Literary Review: The Road

Literary Review: The Road

Introduction

Human beings often face a battle within themselves between good and evil. This battle has been going on for ages and still goes on even in the world today. The side that is portrayed by the person in question depends on several factors that eventually shape up a person’s personality. In Cormac McCarthy’s novel The Road, the reader embarks on a man’s journey together with his son as they struggle to survive in a world filled with evil. The post-apocalyptic era in the novel has seen most life forms wiped out. The people left in the world are left with no choice but to ensure their survival. This is mostly done through illegal means such as theft, murder, and even cannibalism. As a result, evil has prevailed over the world, and most people have lost their humanity. McCarthy employs his poetic prowess to paint different pictures of what goes on in society today. This is achieved by using symbolism, descriptive imagery, tone, and other literary devices. He uses structure, rather than punctuation, to create a distinction between different parts of the story, timeline, and dialog between characters. This paper looks at how he employed symbolism to touch on the various issues that affect society today.

McCarthy, in his novel, has employed minimalism. He uses it not only as a theme but also as a style of writing. As a style, this is evidenced by the use of concise paragraphs. Chapter breaks and quotation marks are not present in the book. As mentioned earlier, McCarthy makes very little use of punctuation. Very few characters are used in the novel, and only limited a limited number of them have names. They mostly speak in monosyllables. Part of the dialog between the father and the son goes like: “What did you dream about? Nothing. Are you okay? No. We’ll be okay. Okay.” This style can also be symbolic of the minimal resources that are available to the people (Banco, 278). These include food and social amenities. The lack of food has led people to resort to inhumane means of acquiring food such as theft and cannibalism. The lack of social amenities has left them in a bad state, whereby in cases of injury, they do not have access to health services hence succumb to their injuries. Besides, this reflects the few people that survived the apocalypse and the even fewer homes present in the area. Cannibals mostly dominate the area, and the rest of the population are slaves to the cannibals. Nobody is confident about the future since they can meet with death at any given time.

The battle between good and evil comes down to ethics and morals. The man was alive before the life-changing events, and he knew the importance of morals and ethics. He does his best to uphold the morals and to pass them to his son. When the man and his son were surprised by a truck full of savages, they manage to escape, although one of the savages confronts them. The man has no intention of hurting the savage, but he has to ensure that the savage does not return to the truck to get back up. Unlike many of the people in the society who did not have any moral considerations, the man is faced with an ethical decision to make (Guo, 2). The man, being a good guy, decides to spare the life of the savage, seeing that he was unarmed and posed no immediate threat without the rest of the crew. However, the savage refuses to accompany them and attacks the boy. At this point, the man is left with no choice but to kill the savage, as it was the ethical thing to do. By killing the bad guy (savage), he ensures that good prevails over evil by providing continuity of his son’s life. He says, “I will kill anyone who touches you.” (McCarthy, 77). This clearly shows that ethics plays a significant role in the decision-making process of individuals. As such, when ethics

, as is seen in the novel, people are likely to make wrong decisions that cause more harm than good in society.

Juxtaposition has been efficiently used by McCarthy to portray the different ethical issues in the novel. The boy makes more of an effort to act ethically as compared to the father. Their characters, therefore, differ in this sense. The two eventually come across a group of people that have been held captive by a group of cannibals, locked in a cellar. The boy was willing to save them from the eventual death that awaited them since the cannibals would harvest flesh from their living bodies. He was not in a position to do so.

On the other hand, the father was better suited to help the captives. Instead, he panics and grabs the boy instructing him to hurry and run (McCarthy, 110). Also, he slams down the door, thereby eliminating any chances of the captives escaping. This raises an ethical concern since he opted not to help them with the assumption that they could easily have been as dangerous as their captors.

The aim of the journey undertaken by the man and his son was to reach the coast, where they hoped would be a safe place for them, away from the chaos and brutality that they struggled so much to avoid. The coast symbolizes home, a place that gives human beings a sense of belonging and security. It can also symbolically stand for a person’s goal in life. The man and his son put their lives at risk by embarking on a dangerous journey on the road, whereby cannibals roam freely in search of people to kill and eat. They are forced to eat cold food and suffer through the cold of the night since lighting a fire would risk giving away their location to the savages. They go through all this trouble just to reach home. The desire to get home is greater than the fear of the numerous dangers that await them throughout their journey. The risks they encounter throughout the journey could also symbolize the different setbacks and obstacles that different people face as they strive to reach their goals. The magnitude of their desire to achieve their dreams has a significant influence on a person’s actions. For example, a will that is so great will motivate the individual to fight through the pain and overcome the obstacles to reach the goal eventually. On the other hand, if the will isn’t as strong, the person would not see the need to endure the hardships, leading to giving up on their dreams.

Love is a theme that is evident throughout the book, especially that of the father towards the son. His love is so great that he is willing to do anything in his power to ensure the son’s safety. At the beginning of the story, the boy’s mother suggests that they should end their lives as it would be better than enduring suffering in the hands of the cannibals. She then commits suicide, leaving the boy behind without considering what would happen to him. She leaves the fate of his life to chance.

On the other hand, the father takes matters into his own hands, providing continuous protection to his son up to the point of his death. This love can be compared to God’s love for humanity. The sacrificial love can be compared to the point whereby God sacrificed his only son for the sake of his people. Despite the numerous challenges that come their way, the man still acknowledges the presence of a supreme being, God. He says that God assigned him the task of protecting his son by any means necessary.

McCarthy also aims at showing that there is no end to love. The man, with his dying breath, says to his son, “I’m sorry. You have my whole heart. You always did. You’re the best guy. You always were. If I’m not here, you can still talk to me. You can talk to me, and I’ll talk to you. You’ll see.” The man encourages his son, telling him that they could stay in touch even after he dies. (McCarthy, 198). Dying is inevitable, and eventually, everyone will die. However, the bond that is shared by the people will live on, long after the death of one of them.

Violence is also recurrent throughout the novel. The novel tries to explain the basis behind the violence that is seen among different people. Everyone does not exhibit violence, and this can be attributed to several factors. From McCarthy’s novel, it is understood that violence is critical in ensuring the survival of individuals. The man was determined to lead his son through a violence-free path, and this would have required him being a good role model and lead by example. However, when faced with dangerous situations, the man was forced to resort to violence to ensure that the two of them survived. Sometimes, he even had to kill people to prevent them from hurting his son. Also, the novel shows that the level of violence portrayed by an individual depends on the responsibilities that the person has. From the book, it is seen that those that survived the post-apocalyptic era became extremely violent to the point of being cannibals. This is because they had a responsibility to withstand the harsh conditions that had resulted from the unfortunate calamity. There was no food available hence the only option left was to feed on fellow human beings. To capture humans and turn them into food, violence had to be used.

The idea of good and evil gave rise to different ideologies among the people. The book’s characters develop the ideologies of good people and bad people (Knox, 98). The ideologies play a significant role in influencing the decisions made by the people, the people they align themselves with, and whether or not they will survive in the land. For instance, the people who chose to be bad have increased their chances of survival since they take advantage of the good people and kill them to enhance their survival. The good people, on the other hand, have to live in constant fear of being discovered and killed by the other group. They are forced to become slaves to increase their chances of survival even though that barely ensures their survival. In comparison to present-day life, different ideologies are known to shape people’s perspectives in life. The doctrines may also be vital in determining the survival tactics of individuals.

The importance of language in ensuring efficient communication cannot be overemphasized. Proper communication is essential in maneuvering different situations. For example, in cases of terrorist attacks, communication is key in ensuring that the terrorists do not cause any harm to the hostages in their hands. The relevant authorities have talks with the terrorists whereby the demands of the terrorists are aired out, and the two come to an understanding that will bring greater good to the society. In the novel, the man and his son find themselves in different violent situations, whereby they have to find effective ways of communicating to save themselves. The father’s sacrificial parenting is only successful because he manages to communicate effectively with his son, who turns out to be very obedient (Ambroży, 70). Without language, communication would have been impaired, rendering the man’s efforts to protect his son useless.

The novel’s title, The Road, has been used symbolically to represent some things. Metaphorically speaking, the road has been painted as being barren, silent, and godless. Their journey along this road is filled with many trials and hardships that the two have to endure to reach their destination. At the beginning of the journey, the man’s spirit is described similarly to the road. As the two of them came close to reaching their destination, the man’s illness gets the better of him, and he faces death. From the reader’s perspective, it is expected that the man would put an end to his son’s life to save him from the harsh world that surrounds him. However, the man’s experiences on the road have given him new hope and optimism is reborn in him. He has hope that his son might have a bright future ahead. Just before taking his last breath, he says, “You need to go on…You need to keep going. You don’t know what might happen down the road.” This indicates the optimism that has taken over the man.

Despite the criticism that the book has received over the years, it deserves praise for how it manages to create a clear picture of the events that take place in the world today and the effects that these events have had on the society. McCarthy’s style of writing is unique, and it manages to pass several messages to the readers in a style that is so simple. The obstacle course that the man and his son go through in an attempt to reach their destination portrays the suffering that people endure in their lives as they strive to achieve their goals.