Father And Son Relationship In The Road By Cormac Mccarthy

One of the most sensitive situations and concerning thoughts that trouble the boys in the book “The Road” embrace the ways in which father-son relationships are torn apart by the bad situations. The father and son have an unhealthy relationship that didn’t have support and communication but, throughout the book their relationship between each other strengthens as they trust one another for survival and luxury. There's a relationship between father and son in Cormac McCarthy's novel 'The Road” that is strong. The father views his son as a symbol of God's presence which makes people grasp that the father sees courage through his son. You can see how the father cares for his son and how devoted he is to him through the book. Fatherly love is one of the “The Road”, this is the bond between father and son. Their bond has a powerful part in the novel and influences the choices made during their journey on the road. The father and son remain unnamed in the book, which gives their familial relationship their full identity. This makes their relationship significant to any parent and child bond outside of the novel and in any other book. They only have each other’s company and that the father feels that his only job is to protect his son from any danger.

However, the son’s purpose is to carry the fire, which is a metaphor that keeps us as readers predicting what the fire imitates. This could be that the father and son both bring their morals. They do not steal from the existing, kill or eat others. Otherwise, this could be seen that the boy is carrying the fire to lead civilization forward, towards a better upcoming. Their relationship does not change vividly in the novel. However, in spite of their beliefs, the father begins to steer away from them. He steals from the existing and kills two people on the way. While these were done to defend his son, the son became distressed with his father when he took back their possessions from a man who took from them, leaving him with not a thing. This reveals the child’s helpful character. He is very diverse from his father, he trusts other people and wants to care for them. McCarthy does not name these characters, but we know that they are father and son. We know this as the child constantly calls the man “papa”. The reason for him calling him papa is that it makes it general, allowing anyone to relate the characters.

Also, it is important as it subsidizes to the idea of the mysterious. The reason of the apocalypse remains unclear to readers and the absence of names imitates the vagueness of the book. This makes their relationship seem a lot stronger as it gives a sense of seclusion between them. The father and son have diverse personalities. The father is profoundly doubtful about other travelers and their intentions about each other. This is reasonable as they come across the bad guys in the novel who is purposely getting women pregnant and then eating their babies. He feels that it his job by God to protect his only son. Therefore, this shows why he doesn’t trust others. On the other hand, his son is rather the opposite of his father. He frequently expresses that he wants to help people in need and has faith in humankind. For instance, when they found the man who stole their stuff, the father has no worries about taking their things back and leaving him naked in the road. Even though the boy knows that the man took from them he still wanted to help him. The son is a careful character and loving towards others even though they did him wrong.

This may be because the child has little information about the risks that could happen, and he might not believe that there are a lot of bad guys out there. Instead, it could be viewed that he has trust about what can happen in the upcoming and so he is willing to give food to strangers along the way. Another example is when they find a mound of food that was hidden in an underground bunker. The boy did not want to take the food until they made sure that no one was alive there to have it. Then the son thanks the people for leaving the food there “we know that you saved it for yourself and if you were here we wouldn’t eat it no matter how hungry we were”. The boy is warm-hearted, and the prayer reveals that he has the faith in God. He respects his morals by not stealing from the living. In contrast to his son, the father has lost his trust in God and curses him multiple times in the novel. “Damn you eternally have you a soul?”. Though, it seems to be that he believes in God, he puts faults on him for the life himself and his son. Their contrasting personalities influences their relationship. At the beginning it is not clear, but towards the end it becomes superficial of what their purpose is.

The father’s only purpose is to direct his son to the coastline and teach him how to survive on their way there. The son is the faith within the story. He is the courage for a better upcoming. The son is way more trusting to others and becomes sad and quiet when his father doesn’t agree with him. For example, the son has never seen another young boy and is scared for him, but his father ignores him and says, “I know but he’ll be alright”. Towards the end of the book it seems that the father and his son start to get distant from each other because of their different personalities. This might be because the son is a lot more educated about dangers and therefore does not need his father as much. The boy appears not to understand that danger could happen at any moment, whereas his father knows a lot more about what some people do to live. It could be seen that the child is very innocent and therefore he will trust anyone more than his own father.