The Road – Literary Analysis

The Road is a very interesting novel written by the American writer Cormac McCarthy. It is a post-apocalyptic novel that is about the post-apocalyptic world after the mass destruction and the downfall of human civilization. The novel, as the name indicates, describes a journey of a father and his son through the new world and the way to survival. The novel and the events happen in a fictional environment with fictional characters from the author’s imagination.

The Main Characters 

The Road has two main characters, a father and his son, and many other characters that the protagonist and his son meet along the journey. The protagonist in the novel is the father who throughout the journey tries to keep his son safe and deliver him to safety. The man goes unnamed throughout the novel but the reader gets to know him through different events and actions that illustrate how he is as a person. The protagonist is a strong person who also is resourceful and a loving father. He is still learning about the new world but gradually he manages to cope with all the dangerous aspects of this post-apocalyptic world. Furthermore, he is a family man and keeps memories of his dead wife, who committed suicide, and commits to protect his son through the journey to deliver him to safety. Protecting his son is never an easy task and requires a lot of effort. The terror and the different dangerous people that the man meets through his journey are the antagonists that he tries to overcome. Therefore, he is expected and required to be strong to continue the path that he is going through. There is an interesting aspect about the man which is about violence. The man is illustrated as violent in the context of the novel but this violence is a reaction to the new violent world that forces him and requires him to use violence. His mission includes using violence when necessary to protect his child from danger and the man will accomplish this mission regardless of what it takes him to do. 

“They lay listening. Can you do it? When the time comes? When the time comes there will be no time. 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)

The author never describes what the man looks like but we get to know the protagonist through different events and actions in the story. 

The other main character in the novel is the son even though his role is, to an extent, limited. That is, the whole story is centralized on this child. The child is not described in terms of what he looks like but he is illustrated as a good boy but afraid of the new world. He is the main reason for this journey and the protagonist’s source of motivation.

The Theme

The most obvious theme in the novel is familial love even though the novel reflects upon several themes such as survival, the post-apocalyptic world, death, and the loss of the ones we love. However, familial love is the dominant theme and is reflected upon through all events and actions that the protagonist goes through. All the actions that the protagonist takes throughout the novel reflect the love of a father for his son to protect him from danger. Moreover, even the sacrifice that the man does has the same aim which is protecting the child and it originates from this love. Another interesting matter about the theme is how the protagonist, the man, during those extremely harsh circumstances tries to keep his son happy and away from the new dangerous world that frames their life. 

Familial love is not only obvious in the relationship between the man and his son from the man’s side but even the child shows this love. He becomes worried about his father when they experience hardship and he stays with his father’s body when the man dies. This matter is represented at the very beginning of the story. Simply, whatever the man does or thinks about is centralized on one idea which is protecting his son and delivering him to safety. He would never hesitate even if it takes him to kill others just to protect his son. This reflects upon a strong love relationship between the man to his son. 

”When he woke in the woods in the dark and the cold of the night he’d reach out to touch the child sleeping beside him.”

Love is not merely represented in the relationship between the man and the child but even in the protagonist’s mind when he remembers his dead wife and to some extent blames her for not standing with him and trusting him in the new world. 

Love is there in the novel from the beginning till the end and is represented from different perspectives among family members. 

The Language

The language in the story is very interesting as the author uses symbolic language in describing different matters. Thus, the author makes use of the language aiming to deliver issues that are beyond the perceived obvious meanings of the text. Such a good example of this is the title of the novel. The Road is a symbol of the journey that the man and his child take and it can be interpreted as the road to survival or the journey of survival. Another interesting example of this matter is the flare pistol which normally is used to signal help but in the context of the novel, the flare pistol is used as a weapon to kill and eliminate enemies due to the prevailing new circumstances in the new dangerous world. 

”The world is shrinking down about a raw core of parsible 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)

McCarthy uses descriptive language which gives the story another interesting dimension and is logical. This is because the author describes a new and fictional world that we do not know. Furthermore, the journey that the main characters take is something that the reader is not familiar with. Thus, descriptions are mandatory to deliver the message to the reader. 

In terms of difficulty, the language is neither difficult nor easy but rather is on the right level to keep the reading interesting.