Cormac Mccarthy The Road Analysis

Cormac McCarthy’s novel The Road contains an excellent example of survival instincts in a destructive world and of how a person’s love can motivate someone to continue on the right path. Since the novel is dedicated to McCarthy’s son John Francis, some readers like Oprah Winfrey have stated that the novel is similar to a love story. The narrative describes a post-apocalyptic world where two main characters, the man and the boy, travel along the abandoned state roads to reach the South for better living conditions. However, while traveling, the father and son face numerous obstacles that test their sanity, relationship, and humanity. According to Donovan Gwinner, “The Road makes evident its pragmatism by highlighting the protagonists’ application . . . of knowledge to the work of interpreting their surroundings to exist in them” (138). As a result, the knowledge the two characters possess offers the reader insight into how the characters cope with the various struggles they face …show more content…
However, the man’s ability to suppress his memories signifies his motivation to focus on the survival of his son, believing that “you forget what you want to remember and remember what you want to forget” (McCarthy12). Furthermore, the father’s suppression also suggests that he is willing to move on from the past, a willingness which is illustrated when he throws away the picture of his wife: “He pitched the sweatblackened piece of leather into the woods and sat holding the photograph. Then he laid it down in the road also and then stood and they went on” (McCarthy 51). At the end of the novel, the father finally welcomes his memories of the past because he realizes he is about to die. After this realization, the father’s memories become more pleasant images because he understands that he has completed his task of preparing his son for a future without