The Road By Cormac Mccarthy: An Analysis

Although it has been said by some critics that ‘a work that does not provide the pleasure of significant closure has terminated with an artist fault,’ this part of the quote definitely does not apply. The Road by Cormac McCarthy is 287 pages of torment, heartache and anguish for not only the main characters but for the readers as well; but it doesn’t stop them both from moving on. As the book progresses, it seemed to only be getting worse for the father and son which was immensely disappointing at the time because happy endings are usually heavily relied upon in order to feel like the book is pleasant; even though it is proven in other works that, that is not always the case. The ending seemed to appropriately conclude the work since it wasn’t

The author Cormac McCarthy just seemed to give us an abundance of tragedy and violence as the father of the boy keeps trying to tell him that they’ll make it even though everything seemed to be bleak. Anybody who used to be anybody was no longer important anymore, no matter what your occupation used to be in the old world. This newer world seems to be extremely backwards and even one of my favorite quotes in the book proves it, “You forget what you want to remember, and you remember what you want to forget.” It shows that nothing in the old world matters since all you can seem to remember are the dreadful things in order for you to know that in this time and age the situation are dangerous, which makes you push yourself in order to survive. Since their new world was post- apocalyptic, there is no more relying on law enforcement agencies or in humanity either. When things begin to get rough, people take to extreme measures to make sure they can survive even if it means turning to cannibalism to stay alive. The plot of the story can definitely become a reality and that’s what’s scary to most people. That’s why this book is one of the greatest books I’ve ever read if you take into account that it keeps me up at night, thinking and planning for the future. Who knows what might happen in

It talks about the faith in humanity that seems to be depleting, little by little. With that being said, it goes hand and hand with the ending of the book perfectly. In a post-apocalyptic world an animalistic instinct seems to take over, causing everyone to no longer be rational thus making the killings more frequent. It becomes man vs. man, as well as man vs. nature or even to say, perhaps man vs. man and nature combined. Throughout the book until the end, it can be seen that all sense of humanity has been lost and when you thought it couldn’t get any worse, the son has witnessed his father’s death, making this book seem like a tragedy from cover to cover but something remarkable happens there too. Even though it seems like a complete loss, something is also gained. It could possibly be a new perspective or maybe the gain of the child’s new found family who took him in, or even both. All it took was one family to come along, for the reader to sense that one spark that made you realize humanity isn’t completely lost, though it does leave you to wonder whether or not they will