Preview

Symbolism In The Road By Mccarthy Mccarthy

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
575 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Symbolism In The Road By Mccarthy Mccarthy
McCarthy portrays the man through the novel as a symbol of self-preservation due to the fact that he will only fight for his son as well as himself. "Their birth in grief and ashes. So, he whispered to the sleeping boy. I have you" (54) it will not matter what kind of outcome McCarthy will always choose to protect given the choice. “What if I said he was a God?” (172) McCarthy characterizes the boy as holy and the will of why the man is able to survive and symbolizing that the boy is hope for him, he only fights for the sake of the boy. He only cares for himself and together with the boy, “You cant go with us...”(165) directed towards Ely, the McCarthy chooses to not to take the man on the road for the reason that he is only willing to provide for him and the boy. There are motifs around death throughout the novels showing that death is always an underlying theme throughout The Road. McCarthy shows an instinct to protect the boy, “I will kill anyone that touches you.” (77) Protecting his son from the unknown, he forces him to come up with a deal, “You put it in your mouth and point up.” (113) instead of leaving him in the world alone he plans to have the life taken from him. …show more content…
“McCarthy “...watching for any sign of fire or a lamp...” (25) Poses that the view of the fire can either be a favourable outcome or an undesirable outcome; McCarthy views the fire can show that a sign of people are dangerous, but on the other hand they could be the good

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Throughout The Road by Cormac McCarthy, the boy works his way to the top of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. The boy grows and progresses through the different levels until a certain event at the end of the novel shows he reaches self-actualization.…

    • 278 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    “They sat in the ashes by the side of the road and looked out to the east where the shape of the city was darkening into the coming night. They saw no lights,” (McCarthy 159).…

    • 359 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The road is a dark, gloomy and almost horrific book. At the beginning of the book we start with man, and his young son trying to survive in a dying world. The effects on the characters actions is mostly affected with their new environment.…

    • 468 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Road by Cormac McCarthy is a story of the importance of morals no matter what the situation. This novel highlights how morals can truly lead you through any situation. The Korean War relates to this novel because it was the ultimate battle of good versus evil. One side was just trying to survive while the other viewed themselves with higher moral standings than the other. This relates greatly to the battle between good and evil within The Road. The Road and the Korean War show great similarities in the idea of what good and evil resemble.…

    • 610 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the Pulitzer-winning-novelist Cormac McCarthy’s The Road, the protagonist and his wife express contrasting views on death. In the middle of an apocalypse, the man holds onto hope, while the woman is resigned and wants to die. Even though the man opposed his wife’s bend towards death in the first half of the novel, he shifts towards the stance of his wife as he himself nears death by the end.…

    • 429 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    In Cormac McCarthy’s book The Road, a father and his son try to survive in a post-apocalyptic world where the majority of people have turned to cannibalism and the environment is twisted and dark. Despite their being glimpses of hope and the Son being showed as the next Messiah, a message of hope could in no way be conveyed in the book. The book is depressing, sad, and makes readers feel grateful for what they have and that they do not have to go through what the protagonists face everyday day.…

    • 1054 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    What makes a story acceptable? An acceptable or well written story needs strong relationships and an identifiable conflict. The author must use these two criteria in order for the story to be popular or for people to want to continue to read the book.…

    • 365 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Cormac Mccarthy The Road

    • 1533 Words
    • 7 Pages

    looks like yesterday rather than today. They are desolate for a new day and an array of…

    • 1533 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    McCarthy, Cormac. The Road. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2006. Print. The Road is set in a grim atmosphere. It is after apocalypse world where all signs of life are extinct. People and animals are starving, and predatory groups of savages wander around with pieces of human bodies stuck in their teeth. It is both oppressive and disheartening. McCarthy sets an atmosphere like one mediately after the world wars. It is not far-fetched to imagine the possibility of such a sad environment today. The novel tells a story of an unnamed man and his son in who struggle to survive in this horrific environment. I feel that the language in the novel is verbose. McCarthy is blunt in his descriptions. He uses repeated struggles and similar scenes forcing the reader to share the tough experience of the characters. I agree with the author that The Road is the picture of a post-apocalyptic world. I also agree with the opinion that suffering might never end, like the novel indicates through imagery at the very end. The author manages to combine happy moments with sad ones even though the sad ones takes the larger share. In addition, he accomplished his aim of having an audience that is glued to the book all along sine it is both engaging and informative. The author has a perception that the world is composed of more bad things than the good ones. This novel will be important to me as I explore the themes of post-apocalyptic fears and human struggles. However, I do feel that he leans too heavily on sadness…

    • 495 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the short story “The Boat” Alistair MacLeod writes a story that predominately deals with the power of the past over the present. She uses symbols such as the boat which eventually transforms into books. From the father’s strong perspective, the boat symbolizes the means of survival for his family and imprisonment whereas, from the father and daughters point of view the books, which replace the boat symbolizes liberation and escape from the traditions of fishing. The main symbol in “The Boat” is the boat itself. The family thought the boat as their means of survival and that without the boat they would not have a house at the harbor, nice food and clothes to wear. Meanwhile, in the fathers perspective the boat is an ever-lasting trap that without it is impossible to sustain life and with it life is an…

    • 1030 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    With the daunting task of facing a derelict, volatile world, an eight-year-old boy manages the unthinkable - survival. Cormac McCarthy illustrates how the boy in The Road encounters many obstacles during his childhood, and in spite of these hardships, resists numerous temptations to give up in life. The combination of growing up in a dysfunctional family as well as a bleak, barren, cataclysmic environment affects his psychological and physical development and makes his life extremely difficult to bear. The environment in which the boy inhabits is nothing short of hellish. As stated by Janet Maslin in her criticism of The Road, “the boy was born a few days after [the mother] and [father] ‘watched distant cities burn.’” (Maslin 2). The boy grows…

    • 2407 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Better Essays

    In a world where everything has gone to chaos, where there is cannibalism, where food is sacred, and sky is charcoal grey; people will do anything to survive. In order to survive one needs the basic elements: food, water, and shelter. Having others, to help one stay sane; having a sense of direction, in order to know where to go and where not to go: and also knowing who and what to trust is also need in order to survive. In the post-apocalyptic novel The Road, by Cormac McCarthy, it displays many themes, but the ones that prevails the rest is sense of trust and compassion; whether it be to trust or not to trust, to be compassionate or not. Both the father and son have different views on who to and not to trust, and when to be compassionate…

    • 1306 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Better Essays

    Cormac Mccarthy The Road

    • 932 Words
    • 4 Pages

    The novel “The Road” by Cormac McCarthy addresses the fundamentals of humanity. As a reader were constantly torn between the ideals of humanity and the darkness displayed during this post-apocalyptic time. Did “The Road” put forth a positive vibe of humanity or one of darkness and distrust? The novel telling the story about the fight for survival. In the dark apocalyptic world being portrayed, can someone remain “good”? McCarthy is portraying a dream of humankind that demonstrates that the most delicate and genuine feelings can exist in the most awful conditions. In the post-apocalyptic world survival by any means necessary is the only thing that is important.…

    • 932 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Better Essays

    People often make sacrifices in order to benefit someone or something else. What people sacrifice illuminates their values and morals. In The Road by Cormac McCarthy, the main character has to make sacrifices that allow him to take care of his young son. This story is set in a burned, post-apocalyptic United States and follows a father and son duo as they endeavor to survive in the harsh, new environment. From an objective standpoint, the man’s son is certainly an inconvenience when it comes to the man’s survival. The son is another mouth to feed, another person with whom the man has to share the supplies he scavenges, and another body that the man needs to protect from both human and non-human afflictions. However, the man is still willing to sacrifice an easier survivalist lifestyle for the benefit of his son. By having the man sacrifice his personal survival advantages in order to provide for his son, McCarthy depicts the man’s immeasurable love for his son and conveys the tremendous strength of father-son bonds.…

    • 932 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Imagine a desolate and dismal world that deteriorated with scarce supplies of food and shelter and there is only a few survivors left--including yourself and one of your family members. In hopes of survival, what measures would you take? Would you go to the extreme by cannibalism or committing suicide? On the other hand, would you choose to be on an ethical route by grasping on life delicately? In the midst of the unflinching and empty world with virtually no hope, the father and son in the novel, The Road by Cormac McCarthy, choose to be the “good guys” by staying alive and refraining from cannibalism and thievery. They tried desperately to remain alive by roaming as nomads looking for shelter, edible foods, and avoiding the “bad guys” from preying on them for food. The unconditional love between the father and son sustained their struggle to live and try to stay ethical as possible.…

    • 970 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays