A Symbol Of Fire In The Road By Cormac Mccarthy
“A bend in the road is not the end of the road unless you fail to make the turn.” – Helen Keller. In The Road by Cormac McCarthy, the main protagonists, the man, and his son are on a perilous journey through a post-apocalyptic Earth. The man and his son struggle to survive in a harsh environment with little supplies, food, or shelter. Throughout their grueling journey, the father tells his son about this symbol that he carries, the fire. When they are at their most desperate, they must keep going because they are carrying the fire. The fire represents hope, protection, and humanity.
One of the values that the symbolic fire represents is hope. Hope for a better future. A new beginning. That is why the boy is the one carrying the fire. He has all these great character traits that make him the one who has to fix his world. Towards the end of the novel the father acknowledges on his deathbed that the boy is the fire when he tells the boy, “You have to carry the fire. I don't know how to. Yes you do. Is it real? The fire? Yes it is. Where is it? I don't know where it is. Yes you do. It's inside you. It was always there. I can see it.” This quote confirms the boy is the fire and the hope left for the world. In his immaturity, his optimism is never quenched and is arguably the only character in the novel that really has hope for something better. Despite everything going on around him he never really lets it put him down. For example, when the man and the boy are crossing through a countryside riddled with burnt corpses they have this exchange, “Take my hand, he said. I don’t think you should see this...It’s okay papa. It’s okay? They’re already there. I don’t want you to look. They’ll still be there.” While it is a little disturbing how unaffected the boy is by the surroundings it proves that even though he is compassionate he can be mature too. Which is a good combination of traits to have as the last hope of humankind.
The fire also symbolizes protection. The man tells the boy multiple times that they will be safe because the fire will protect them. When the boy is frightened early in the novel, his father assures him nothing bad will happen, and the boy says, 'because we're carrying the fire.' His father confirms this, saying 'Yes. Because we're carrying the fire.' The father tells the boy that the fire will protect him because the father has to believe that his son will live. The only reason the man continues trying to survive his so he can protect the only thing left in the world he loves, his son. The man even says at the beginning of the novel, “He knew only that the child was his warrant. He said: If he is not the word of God God never spoke.” A few pages later the man also said, “What would you do if I died? If you died I would want to die too.” At the end of the day, the only thing keeping the man going is his son. There is almost something divine about the way the boy is written. When they are talking to Ely he said, “When I saw that boy I thought I had died. You thought he was an angel? I didn't know what he was. I never thought to see a child again. I didn't know that would happen.” Characters in the book can tell there is something different about the boy. Ely on first meeting him as stated above thought he was an angel. That is not a common thing to think about someone. There is truly some unusual qualities to the boy.
The fire represents the only humanity left in this grim dystopian world. As the boy carries the fire he is also carrying humanity's last hope. This world has been filled with people who have lost their humanity. There are people so hungry that they have turned to cannibalism. In one disturbing instance, the man and the boy see a “charred human infant headless and gutted and blackening on the spit.” This is why it is so important for the boy to carry the fire because it might be humanity’s last chance at a normal life. Everyone is so corrupted by their situation that they cannot tell what they’ve become. It is so bad that when the man thought they were going to be captured by cannibals he thought to himself, “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. Could you crush that beloved skull with a rock?”. Imagine having to kill your own child to prevent him from being eaten. The world is so far from what it should be that it's not even comprehensible. No matter how bad it is the man and the boy continue to push through and carry the fate of humanity on their shoulders. That is somewhat of an underlying theme of the novel and an accurate depiction of what the fire represents as a whole.
The fire that the boy carries within himself is key to the survival of the human race. His fire represents protection from those trying to ruin what little remains of the world of old. It represents hope for a better future and all of the good things humanity has to offer. While The Road by Cormac McCarthy includes a number of symbols the fire is the most prominent throughout the novel and most discussed by the main protagonists. Overall, the fire is a driving force in The Road and a powerful symbol.
