Question 7 McCarthy's The Road

If every book is an author's attempt to answer one of life's questions, what question is McCarthy and/or Kerouac attempting to answer? Explain.

In the book The Road, written by Cormac McCarthy, I believe that the most important life question Mcarthy attempts to answer is, should we make time to enjoy the little things in life instead of drowning in regret. McCarthy showed us this message through the man and the boy's life. A prime example of this was when the man offered the boy the last can of coke. This was one of those moments to cherish with his son because he had never taken a sip of this beverage before and his father knew that he may not ever get another opportunity to enjoy one of Man's most delectable drinks. Instead of the man indulging on this coke, he gave it up to his son in spite of his hankering. Another example of this would be trying to understand the mother more before she died. When the mother of the boy started to loose her patience and temper with the whole idea that they where going to survive by heading south, she spoke he mind. In fact she was confronting the man in way that he was not prepared for. She was paranoid about people trying to molest and kill her family and due to the fact that she could not handle the situation anymore, she directed most of her anger towards the man. She did say that they would talk about death but because death was nearing they had nothing to talk about anymore. Well in my opinion if they had something else to talk about rather than death, maybe she would have lived longer and not of questioned her sense of security and support. She mentioned that she was thrown into this relationship and she really did not want any part of it. She also contradicted herself on numerous occasions throughout her argument. "My heart was ripped out of me the night he was born ...My only hope is for eternal nothingness and I hope it with all her heart"(pg57) This only shows more and more of her frustration with herself, her family and the choices she made in life until her decision to abandon her family. And for the man and the son to move on without her was hard for a few minutes but the only person who seemed to get over the situation quickly was the boy. The man has this constant regret in his mind whenever he starts to dream "what could have been" or "what should I have done". The by just seems to have no animosity towards anyone. Whether it was his mother leaving him or people trying to ruin his life. No one would bring him down