The purpose of this paper will be to show in what ways McCarthy__

The Road is a novel of human moral disintegration, depicting a dysfunctional future

world struck by a calamity whose origin is unknown. Whether it was a man-made catastrophe
(nuclear winter being frequently used to explain much of the exhausted surroundings), or not,
the novel does not emphasize the past. “Whatever has caused the actual devastation,” states
Cooper in her essay ___, “it is the internal corruption of people who sought too long for their
own power, who placed their own needs above those of others, that has brought humanity to its
doom”1 The novel does not seek to explain why something happened, and how, but rather, it is
persistent in showing the present time of the story, emphasizing the bleak, grim reality of dead
nature by contrasting it with florid passages reminiscing of the past. The devastated
environment, plagued by natural disasters and human abominations, is described in a language
reminiscing of Samuel Beckett or Ernest Hemingway, characterized by simplicity and
conciseness. It abounds in short, simple sentences that fragment the body of the text, graphically
representing the disorder of the physical and the psychological in the novel by forbidding a
syntactical order or a textual.2 By doing so, any form of causality is removed, creating “a space
for the “background to take place.”3 The background referred to can take on many forms and
meanings, with Dowd citing the Christian undertones and religious notes woven into the text
as one possible interpretation of it. And while labelling McCarthy as a Christian writer would
be out of place, something Matthew Potts points out,4 certain religious motifs are still firmly
embedded in the work. The holiness of the child is highlighted in the opening paragraphs of the
novel, the very first words said by the man being: “If he is not the word of God God never
spoke.”5 But the novel grows even more direct in stating this. In the scene where the man
retrieves their items stolen by a thief, leaving him naked and shivering on the road, we can see
the strong opposition between the father and the son. While the father knows what he is doing
is indirectly killing the thief, for he cannot survive long without food or clothes, he is also aware
of the fact that by not doing so, he puts his son and himself in immediate danger. The boy,
however, expresses the belief in unconditional kindness caused by nothing and requesting
nothing in return, saying:

1
Cooper 222
2
Dowd 25-26
3
Ibid. 28
4
Potts 490
5
TR 6
 Just help him, Papa. Just help him.

The man looked back up the road.

He was just hungry, Papa. He’s going to die.

He’s going to die anyway.

He’s so scared, Papa.

(...)

You’re not the one who has to worry about everything.

The boy said something but he couldnt understand him. What? he said.

He looked up, his wet and grimy face. Yes I am, he said. I am the one. 6

This is the most direct the novel could’ve been. It is here that the boy acknowledges and
accepts the fact that he is, in a sense, the Messiah the world is waiting for. One could almost
argue that the title, The Road, also stands for the emotional maturity experienced by the boy as
the novel progresses. While in the beginning he relies on his father to assure him that they are
the “good guys,” now he states that firmly and confidently.7

The most prominent motif is the boy as the one “carrying the fire,” something the man
repeats throughout the novel many times, but there is also something slightly more subtle, and
that is the omnipresent namelessness. Both the father and the son are referred to by very general,
unspecific nouns, representing the thought that the post-apocalyptic world they inhabit rendered
the pre-apocalyptic names obsolete.8 Names hold much power, and it is through the character
of Ely, the only character to be given a name in the novel, that we learn of their potency. When
pressed by the man, Ely admits having faked his identity, saying: ”I couldnt trust you with it.
To do something with it. I dont want anybody talking about me. To say where I was or what I
said when I was there. I mean, you could talk about me maybe. But nobody could say that it
was me. I could be anybody.” It is apparent that by contriving a fake identity, the “old man”
Ely protects himself by rendering himself unable to be “held responsible for his words and
deeds, and thus escaping punishment (…).”9 But by rejecting this lie, the novel also rejects the
possibility of one hiding their past and wrongdoings, ultimately facing judgement.10 Whether it

6
TR 189
7
Kunsa 66
8
Naming 63
9
Kunsa 60
10
Ibid.
would be God or people judging, that is left unanswered. The importance of namelessness in
the novel is stressed by Kunsa, especially the fact that by leaving the environment and
themselves without a name, and not using naming methods of the “old world,” the characters
act upon their beliefs that the new world ought to be named in a different way. “Just as
something optimistic propels the characters through the ashen landscape —a hope for warmth,
for safety, for more good guys,” she begins, “the optimistic naming scheme propels the reader
to imagine other possibilities.”11 What these other possibilities may be is not precisely outlined
by the novel, but they are hinted at with the almost deus ex machina ending in which the boy,
left abandoned after his father passed away, is found by “good guys” – those still adhering to
some basic moral principles of the once existing society, unwilling to conform to new-found
practices, such as cannibalism. Among them is a woman, implied she would serve as a surrogate
for the boy’s mother, who committed suicide prior to the beginning of the novel, unwilling to
face the possibility of being raped and then eaten by cannibals. It is at this point that the element
of hope that lingers on the pages of the novel becomes most apparent. And while the world
remains as equally grim as in the beginning of the novel, the very fact that their journey in
search of other “good guys” – something the man did not live to see, having died with the wish
that the boy could still continue “carrying the fire” of hope, was not in vain gives the closing
paragraphs a subtle hint of optimism. It may even suggest that the world of the novel is not truly
beyond salvation, and that the boy could carry the light of a new dawn for the world. 12

What is so haunting about the novel is the nihilistic tendency seen in the descriptions of
a deteriorating environment and morally degraded men, who have cast their humanity aside and
turned to cannibalism and slavery to survive, a tendency accentuated even more by brief, but
potent passages serving as memories of times long gone. Dowd mentions three passages in
which trout, an important motif in the novel, is mentioned, the final passage also serving as the
closing of the book. It describes the fish in such vivid detail, the picturesque sentences creating
the illusion of an almost tangible body, making the knowledge that the world is beyond
salvation – in every sense of the word, even harder to accept. There is a constant struggle
between dreams and reality in the novel, with dreams proffering the reader with a notch of
nostalgia for the world that is no more. However, the repetitive dreaming and reminiscing of
the man shows that he is either unwilling or unable to detach himself from the past

11
Kunsa 65
12
Kunsa 67