Reading this book, I was forced to question myself. McCarthy placed these characters in a situation which we, as readers, have never experienced, thus we have never been faced with the same moral dilemmas. However, because of McCarthy's gripping writing style, I was drawn into the story so strongly that I found myself trying to answer these questions that the pair must ask themselves.
The most prominent and probably most complicated question I came across was At what point does life become meaningless, if at all? I don't remember at what point in the book the father had this thought, but he mentioned that most nights he envied the dead. This habit of weighing life and death seems like a rather obvious theme of the book, but it isn't s simple enough question to dismiss. While reading, I was constantly in awe of the father and son's ability to pursue their trekk through the desolate unknown on their quest for an indefinite end which would supposedly bring them happiness. It was fascinating to me that although the boy was born after the apocalypse, and knew nothing but the hell he was in, he was willing to pioneer on with his father. Did this come from an inherent faith in the goodness of humanity and an unbreakable hope that light would be found because there had to be other "good" people in the world.
How much must one suffer in order for the possible peace of death to outweigh the lack of faith there is good left in the world? Throughout the story, despite the constant onslaught of bad luck and terror and horrible encounters, there is an underlying positive feeling. The father and son are each other's worlds; their faith in each other is enough to sustain their trust that there will be an end to this hell.
If this is, in fact, the question that McCarthy is trying to answer (when does life become worthless?), then it seems that McCarthy provides a very positive answer. He seems to claim that as long as we are pursuing a better future, life is too valuable to throw away. The father and son's struggles are rewarded in the end, when the boy is found by another "good" guy, regaining the reader's faith in humanity.
The most prominent and probably most complicated question I came across was At what point does life become meaningless, if at all? I don't remember at what point in the book the father had this thought, but he mentioned that most nights he envied the dead. This habit of weighing life and death seems like a rather obvious theme of the book, but it isn't s simple enough question to dismiss. While reading, I was constantly in awe of the father and son's ability to pursue their trekk through the desolate unknown on their quest for an indefinite end which would supposedly bring them happiness. It was fascinating to me that although the boy was born after the apocalypse, and knew nothing but the hell he was in, he was willing to pioneer on with his father. Did this come from an inherent faith in the goodness of humanity and an unbreakable hope that light would be found because there had to be other "good" people in the world.
How much must one suffer in order for the possible peace of death to outweigh the lack of faith there is good left in the world? Throughout the story, despite the constant onslaught of bad luck and terror and horrible encounters, there is an underlying positive feeling. The father and son are each other's worlds; their faith in each other is enough to sustain their trust that there will be an end to this hell.
If this is, in fact, the question that McCarthy is trying to answer (when does life become worthless?), then it seems that McCarthy provides a very positive answer. He seems to claim that as long as we are pursuing a better future, life is too valuable to throw away. The father and son's struggles are rewarded in the end, when the boy is found by another "good" guy, regaining the reader's faith in humanity.
4 comments:
I think that that's a really great question and a very interesting question. In my opinion, life is already meaningless, because no matter what we do while we are living, in the end we will die and the people it impacts will die, etc etc, and then no matter what you did it will not matter. The way I see this is also not in a depressing way, but in a more live life to the fullest and do what you want because in the end if you mess up it won't matter kind of way. Although I don't think the man had that exact view of thinking, I think that in his situation, his thinking and my thinking can translate to the same thing. I think this because it was clear the father knew he was going to die soon, especially as he began to cough up more and more blood, so he was able to take risks and go to dangerous places, because he knew that if he didn't he would die anyways, so he might as well give it a shot.
I agree with you both. Amanda you make a very good point and approach to the question that McCarthy is trying to answer through his book. I feel like your question sums up everything in the book. There were many points in the book where the value of their lives were down to nothing.
Alessandra you also make a good point, becuase at the end we do all die, however life doesn;t have to be meaningless. It depends on what you while you are here on this earth, so if you're just living just because then yes your life ismeaningless, but if you're trying to make a change and have an impact on someone's life then your life matters and affects other people.
I think that this question does sum up the book's meaning very well, as well as your answer that you gathered from the author's "message," let's call it. It's answered by nature as well, with our natural instincts, and because we are human, I feel that we can sometimes forget that.
Alessandra, though you claim that life is meaningless because we're just going to die in the end, don't you think that the short section of time we are on this earth means something? I agree with Chavon, because I feel that the purpose of life is a life of purpose. And having an impact on people's lives is a life of purpose.
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