Question 6 McCarthy's The Road (post 3)

6. What other remarks might you have about the books? Questions? Observations? Reactions?

One question that I have for Mr. McCarthy is why does the man insist on heading south knowing that it is highly unlikely for them both to make it. He claims going south is the answer to his problems but it does not seem that way. Actually, by going south he putting his son as well as himself in more of harms way. Yet at the same time, yet if his family stayed put they would ll die. The man and his son never seem to get a break from this turmoil. For instance, when his wife decided that she was leaving him and the boy, she called him out. She said that by continuing on this path he was only putting themselves more at risk. Ever since she left them her foreshadowing was correct. Encounters with thugs, having a knife to his sons throat, having his son watch the man shoot someone. It could not be any more clearer that by heading South is the wrong thing to do in my mind because you are scaring the kid for life. But of course i guess the man plans on telling the boy again his famous quote; "you forget what you want to remember and you remember what you want to forget". So does the man expect the boy to cope easily with these tragic events being that he has never been exposed to these kind of things. It just does not make sense to me.

In my mind I believe that if he really wanted to head south, he could have done so already but some things are holding him back. The death of his wife and the burden of taking care of his child. The boy only seems to get in the way of things, complicate things and causes unneeded frustration towards the man. The man may not want to say that to the boy but deep down he knows it is true. Some things the boy does are simply just to agitate the man. Like when his father tells him to stay put and he begins to complain about how scared he is. I do not think the boy realizes sometimes that the man leaves for a reason; in an attempt to find materials to keep them alive. So he tries every way possible to keep his father with him. This is ok to a certain point especially in this world. Sure the boy is young and timid but there comes a time to show some courage and habe no fear. The boy just never seems to do this and the man feeds into it and starts to feel sorry for his son because he thinks he is not being a good father. Then he looses sight of the task at hand. Days and days wasted in my mind taking several breaks and having to feed the boy multiple times.

I feel that the boy should not be so much of a burden but more of safeguard relationship. At first, the only thing keeping the man sane were his day dreams but now he needs to rely on his son for support. He could learn a lot from him. The boys sense of security is made by his father. Together they should rely on each other much more in order to survive. I have not finished reading the book yet, but if you break them up, I am not sure if either one would survive.