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Search For Hope In Cormac Mccarthy's The Road

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In an apocalyptic world, a man is searching for hope as he tries to protect his son. In the Bible, Abraham is left searching for faith as God commands him to kill his only son, Isaac. The man and Abraham are both searching for something that they do not possess and they both look to their children to find it. Cormac McCarthy in The Road tells a story of a man’s mental and physical journey as he travels south to protect his son, but along the way he encounters internal battles within himself and contemplates if there is enough hope to continue. Author Alan Noble argues in his essay that hope is the driving force for the man and boy’s survival, which we agree with. The story begins with a dream. A dark and twisted monster arises from a lake with only hunger for death on his mind. This dream is the first insight of how the man pictures the …show more content…

When the boy is grown, God commands Abraham to sacrifice his son, which makes Abraham question his faith to God. Why would he want to take away something that means so much to him? In the same way, the man loses his hope after his wife commits suicide and he watches the world turn more destructive by each passing hour. He is also left to take care of his son. They both experience this emptiness that leaves them feeling unsure about the future. Noble explains that both men are defying the norm and are working against what should be done, saying, “It is unethical for him to keep his son alive under these conditions, just as it was unethical for Abraham to sacrifice Isaac” (Noble 99). We believe that Noble is wrong in saying that it was unethical to save the boy in The Road because if the boy is the light and the only hope left, it is ethical and correct to keep him alive. Even in the toughest events there is always a sliver of hope or faith shown by the son in The Road and by the sheep that magically appear to save

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