Summary and Analysis of Cormac Mccarthy’s Novel "The Road"
A journey is made with a destination in mind. Whether it be to lands unknown, or places one calls home, the journey has a defined endpoint. In McCarthy’s The Road, the destination chosen is not one that can be arrived at with a plane ride or a road trip. It is instead a journey to the center of humanity. The book is set in the aftermath of an apocalypse; when or how it happened is not mentioned. The simple message McCarthy portrays through this setting is that historical or scientific details and background information are only superficial. In the end, it does not matter what happened, how it happened, or why it did. What matters is what the people do. Through his vivid imagery, bleak rhetoric, and unique structure, McCarthy questions the very essence of what it means to be human — having morals, ethical responsibilities, a judgment of what is right and wrong, and most of all, hope.
McCarthy uses his unconventional structure to illustrate how the smallest and seemingly insignificant changes can have monumental effects. Lindsey Banco analyses the structure in her paper “Contractions in Cormac McCarthy's THE ROAD”: “Paragraphs are short, chapter breaks and quotation marks around dialogue are absent; punctuation is rare, and his tiny cast of almost entirely nameless characters speak in bare monosyllables”. As analyzed by Banco, McCarthy’s writing is devoid of many writing conventions that are considered the norm. The first distinct aspect in McCarthy’s book is the lack of chapter breaks. The absence of the chapters represents how a journey is not done in breaks and sections, but is rather one long continuous journey, representing the continuous path that the characters follow to find the true meaning of their lives and humanity.
Concurrently, his lack of names and grammar demonstrate that things like names and rules are menial and insignificant. He illustrates that one’s identity is not defined by the rules they, or the names it answers to, but by its actions and its morals. This idea is supported by the text when the father lays out his possessions on the road: “Some money, credit cards. His driver’s license. A picture of his wife. He spread everything out on the blacktop. Like gambling cards”. The significance of this is displayed through the words “like gambling cards”. The father is essentially gambling with his identity. He is willing to lose everything that labeled and defined him because it no longer means anything anymore. His decision to leave those possessions on the road and move on without him completes the idea that names and possessions are meaningless, for all the weight is carried in their actions.
McCarthy utilizes the archetype of fire in an atypical way to display how the world is in every way, backwards. The symbol of fire has always represented knowledge, innovation, and the progress of humanity, both intellectually and morally. However, in contrast to its usual description as a fierce and awe-astonishing force that influences legendary heroes, it is nothing more than a mere candle, flickering in its last moments. This can be seen when McCarthy writes, “Hold your hand in front of the flame. Don’t let it go out. …If you don’t want to hold the lamp you’ll have to take the pistol”. The flickering flame now represents the dwindling strength of humanity, and how, much like the flame, it needs a “hand in front” to protect it from extinction. The juxtaposition between the lamp and the pistol directly correlates between the comparison McCarthy illustrates between the goodness and evil in the world.
Throughout the book the boy maintains the image as the “flame bearer”, or the one who carries the hope environment. He consistently chooses to act out of kindness, while his father acts out of fear. When they encounter the man struck by lightning, the child tries to find a way to help him, representing his goodness and status as the fire bearer, while the father chooses to leave him, supporting his position as the one who bears the weapon. Ironically, the weapon bearer, representation of the darkness, is the one who protects the flame. This concept is further explained by Jingjing Guo, as he describes in his paper, “`McCarthy’s The Road and Ethical choice in a Post-Apocalyptic World”: “For the father, living in such a world the set of rules boils down to a simple credo of ‘survive first, ask questions later’”. Because his soul purpose is to save the child and all he entails, the father’s role transforms from the epitome of darkness to simply the hand shielding the flame from extinguishing.
The sparing use of color throughout the book is a key element in describing the setting of bleakness of the world. Paul Knox analyzes the lack of color in his paper “Okay Means Okay”: Ideology and Survival in Cormac McCarthy’s THE ROAD”. When referring to the significance of the black and white descriptions McCarthy provides, Knox states, “Such analysis suggests that the ideology require tacit approval of its participants to justify its binary vision”. Knox identifies a common theme in the book of breaking the language down into “binary”, or two options. McCarthy constantly describes the world as a monotonous shade of gray: a result of black and white mixing together. An example of this can be found in the very first pages of the novel, setting the scene in a dark, dismal world: And the dreams so rich in color. How else would death call you? Waking in the cold dawn it all turned to ash instantly. Like certain frescoes entombed for centuries suddenly exposed to the day. The weather lifted and the cold and they came at last into the broad lowland river valley, the pieced farmland still visible, everything dead to the root along the barren bottomlands.
The father consistently sees the world in grayscale. To him, the whole world is now a blurry product of good and evil, light and dark, all blending together until everything can only be described as bad, or worse. Two, binary options. The only time McCarthy uses color is in dreams the father has of the past. The color represents the hope, sense of morality and power of judgment people used to have. So, naturally, the color is only used to describe times of the past, a time of hope and prosperity. Hope, morality, and judgment all combine to provide a new dimension to humanity, much like the color provides a new dimension to the world around them.
The strongest, and most direct comparison McCarthy draws is of the people to the birds as creatures migrating to an asylum for survival. When the two characters begin their final leg of the journey, and the child asks how much longer they must walk to reach the destination, the child alludes to birds migrating north for the winter, much like they are migrating south. This passage from the book contains several direct comparisons between the hypothetical situation the child describes, and the very real one they find themselves in. The connection between people and birds is clear, as the child seeks to find others like himself and his father in this desolate world when he says “Do you think there might be crows somewhere”, while the father, a cynical man, feels it is “highly unlikely” that anyone else could be out there. Furthermore, the child refers to the final destination of the bird’s migration being Mars—an unknown place, but potentially a place of life. His eagerness to know if the birds can find Mars correlates with his want to arrive at a place where humanity can begin to grow again. All of his questions clearly reflect his position as the flame bearer, with hope constantly alight inside of him. Concurrently, the father maintains the position of the weapon bearer, as he diminishes every hypothetical scenario of hope.
Drawing a parallel to the caustic cold of the world, McCarthy describes how the birds would “freeze to death” if they flew to Mars, much like the father and child are suffering through the cold. However, the strongest comparison is at the end, when the child asks if there will be food at the end of the journey, and the father says the destination is barren. His simple statement of the fact that there is “nothing there” completely eradicates any motivation the two may have had to make this journey. It draws to question the true purpose of the journey, if the result provides nothing more than the starting point. This idea is supported when the two finally arrive at the coastline, hoping to find the utopia they have been so desperately searching for: “They sat with their heels dug into the sand and watched the bleak sea wash up at their feet. Cold. Desolate. Birdless. Everything the child has hoped for, everything that he has fought for, everything that he has continued surviving for, has just been taken from him. After arriving at what could be considered the edge of their world, he knows now that there is no place in their reach where humanity can seek asylum. Nevertheless, despite these crushing circumstances, the flame is not extinguished. Upon arriving on the beach, the child goes to explore the shore, and comes across a boat. McCarthy describes the boat as “gray and saltcoured but he could make out the worn gilt lettering. Pájaro de Esperanza.” Pájaro de Esperanza is Spanish for “Bird of Hope”. The simple, and subtle placement of this ship summates the idea of the migration of the birds. It enunciates the idea that no matter the circumstances, one should always have hope. The child has found his “spaceship to take him to Mars”—one where ethical responsibility, morality, judgment and hope still exist.
Cormac McCarthy’s novel The Road is one that discusses principles of the utmost importance. It describes a world where people have nothing, but their own dogmas to live by. He juxtaposes the effect of hope and morality against living a cynical life which only sees despair by using his unique structure, vivid imagery, and powerful symbolism. By portraying a time where a person is defined only by their actions, McCarthy The apocalyptic world that McCarthy paints can be applied to anyone’s life. Every person experiences their own apocalypse, and wants to lose hope. McCarthy’s book teaches one the lesson that one needs to survive their apocalypse: Have hope. Have hope until you find your Pájaro de Esperanza.
