My observation on The Road, by Cormac McCarthy, was that everything is simple in this world. The world is a bad place, there are good guys and bad guys, and the father loves his son. It's even written simply; the dialogue has hardly any quotation marks:
"I'm scared.
I know I'm sorry.
I'm really scared." (27)
And the descriptions, though beautifully written, are simple, and short. "They came upon the road unexpectedly, and he stopped the boy with one hand, and they crouched in a roadside ditch like lepers and listened." (69) McCarthy doesn't feel a need to go beyond a basic simile or imagery, he tells it like it is.
At the same time, there are lots of parts that aren't so simple, and that are moral grey areas. For example, whenever they come upon someone who needs help, the man refuses to help them, pointing out to his son that they can't because they have to survive. "And we couldn't help them because they'd eat us too." (127) On the other hand, the family trails him and his son, and despite the added burden, allow his son to come with them. Is the man in the right? Do the needs of him and his son overcome the needs of the many, in a world that's so unclear that even the snow is gray? I think that the father has to be selfish at times for the sake of his son. The result of his compassion for his son, is indifference, or even cruelty to others. He has to put his family first, no matter the cost.
1 comment:
I thought a lot about how the man puts his son first: making him take the gun in case they are captured by cannibals, giving him the most food so he can be stronger, and how those decisions make him seem unselfish. But at the same time, it appears that he relies on his son, or the idea of his son's survival, to keep going, so he does these things for himself, making his decisions a little bit selfish.
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