Cormac McCarthy – The Road – Comment

 

Avoiding dystopian novels and films is a rule of mine, and has been one, until discovering Cormac McCarthy's 2006 text, The Road. If anything, all I need is to watch and read the news to create a dark mood. Writing about nuclear war over the years is enough for me. Although in The Road, the writing is descriptively sparse, and the images that his prose creates in the mind's eye, anyone interested in serious American literature, should read this book.

The earth, at least in the United States, has turned into a dark, wintry desolation of gray skies and desperate people. We are never told why this is the case, weather from climate change, or the fall out from a nuclear holocaust. Everything across the landscape is covered with ash, and the sun barely lights the sky. This leads me to deduce that they are living in a nuclear winter.

Our two main characters are the Man and his young child, we know as Son. They're on the road headed west toward a warmer climate and the sea. They push a shopping cart filled with blankets and a variety of canned goods, including a pistol that holds only two bullets. Most of the novel is the two coming across abandoned houses and buildings searching for food and anything that will aid their survival.

The young lad has a great amount of compassion and empathy for his fellow human beings. A few times along their journey, they come across another traveling poor soul. While the Man is suspicious and aggressive toward the stranger, the little boy always cries out to his father to help them and share what little food they have left.

The boy constantly asks his father if they are 'the good guys', and those they come across are 'the bad guys.' The Man assures his son they are reasonable, carrying a light. The light is a metaphor for hope in a hopeless existence.

After sometime, they come across a parade of travelers fitted in scarves and gas masks. Despite hiding, they're confronted, where one of the men goes to grab the boy, and the Man shoots him in the head. Now he only has one bullet left – that he uses at the end of the tale. All their supplies have been stolen, and with persistence, over time, they recover a few items. People have resorted to cannibalism to eat and remain alive.

Because of the ash-filled atmosphere, Man's health is deteriorating at a fast rate. As the reader we understand that his time is limited.

To be sure, nothing about this novel provides hope. Unless, perhaps, the boy's instinct for empathy and compassion that sees our future generations hold onto what makes us human – our humanity.