The Road – Novel Analysis

The Road is a novel that belongs to the post-apocalyptic genre written by the award-winning American author Cormac McCarthy. The novel was first published in June 2006 and a movie with the same name was made based on the novel’s events. The book describes a journey of a father and his child in a post-apocalyptic world when human civilization has gone through negative changes which made life way harder and the question of survival and existence is always on top priorities.

The Main Characters

The main characters of the book are the man and his young son during their journey to survival. The man is unnamed throughout the whole novel and he is the protagonist of the novel. The man is the one who protects his son and overcomes all the obstacles that they meet during their survival journey. The protagonist, the man, is described in the novel as a strong and resourceful person who is systematically thinking and working to protect his son and deliver him to safety. At the same time, the man is bearing and the old wound caused by the suicide of his wife and the traumatizing experience in this post-apocalyptic world as he witnessed the shift to it. Strongness and survival orientation are things that are necessary in the world and imposed on the man unwillingly. Therefore, he does not hesitate to use violence in the new violent world. In other words, the man is described as a good human but the harsh circumstances in the new world forced him to become who he is. His violent way is even reflected in his son. He is ready to kill his son and instruct him to do so just to avoid being tortured by bad people in the new world.

”Now is the time. Curse God and die. What if it doesn’t fire? It has to fire. What if it doesn’t fire? Could you crush that beloved skull with a rock? Is there such a being within you of which you know nothing? Can there be? Hold him in your arms. Just so, the soul is quick. Pull him toward you. Kiss him. Quickly.” (p.114)

In regards to how the man looks, he goes undescribed in the novel. The reader gets to know him better through his acts, how his personality is and how he is shaped by the new violent world that they are living in.

“He was just hungry, Papa. He’s going to die.

He’s going to die anyway.

He’s so scared, Papa.

The man squatted and looked at him. I’m scared, he said. Do you understand? I’m scared.

The boy didn’t answer. He just sat there with his head down, sobbing.

You’re not the one who has to worry about everything.

The boy said something but he couldn’t understand him. What? He said.

He looked up, his wet and grimy face. Yes, I am, he said. I am the one.”

However, the man is hardly changing or developing throughout the novel but he has rather a static personality. That is, he is described as an experienced and resourceful person with one aim which is to deliver his son to safety at the coast. In simpler words, his commitment to save and protect his son never changes during their journey to safety. However, the boy gives the man motivation to continue the journey and gives him reasons to survive.

The Main Theme

Several themes can be reflected upon in the novel, such as violence, the post-apocalyptic world, humanity, death, existence, and survival. However, the most obvious theme in The Road is family and love in the family. That is, the father’s love for his son is represented through the commitment that the man took to protect his son and deliver him to safety. The son’s love for his father is, as well, represented by him crying and lying next to the body of his dead father at the end of the novel.

”The one thing I can tell you is that you won’t survive for yourself. I know because I would never have come this far. A person who had no one would be well advised to cobble together some passable ghost. Breathe it into being and coax it along with words of love. Offer it each phantom crumb and shield it from harm with your body.” (p.49).

Love is obvious throughout all acts that the man does even when remembering his wife’s suicide. That is, the traumatizing memory of his wife committing suicide and running away from the new apocalyptic life that the new world has become. She was afraid of this new world and attempted to get relieved by committing suicide, leaving a traumatized husband and a son after her. Furthermore, love is present in all man’s acts although he and his son were in such harsh circumstances. The man even acted in a sensitive way favoring love and emotions over rationality in several situations just to make his son happy such as when they gave food to the other starving child that they met on the road. However, the family love was not only present in the man and the son relationship but rather even in the new family that the boy met after the death of his father. The family is illustrated as a loving family that is going to take good care of the boy. In simpler words, love and family love to form the main theme of the novel although other themes are represented in the novel such as violence and the post-apocalyptic world.

The Language

The language in this novel is very symbolic and things mentioned in The Road refer to other matters such as the title itself that represents the journey that the man and the boy did through the destroyed new world. The flare pistol is such a thing that refers to a new era of morals and regulations as it is no longer used to signal help but rather as an attack weapon and to defend against all possible dangers. Furthermore, the language in The Road is descriptive language and a decent portion of the novel goes to describe the environment, the events, and other things to give the reader a complete image of what is going on and how the new world looks like. The descriptive language makes a logical sense as the events take place in a fictional world and these descriptions will enable the reader to create an image of those events and of the environment that is in the novel.

”The world shrinking down about a raw core of parsable entities. The names of things slowly follow those things into oblivion. Colors. The names of birds. Things to eat. Finally the names of things one believed to be true. More fragile than he would have thought. How much was gone already? The sacred idiom shorn of its referents and so of its reality.” (p.75)

Finally, the language in the novel is rather hard and not simple. Some sentences need to be read several times before one can get the main idea of them. However, it is not very complicated either but rather a descriptive language that needs to be understood beyond the obvious meanings of the terms.