Cause for Hope throughout The Road

Throughout this morbid post-apocalyptic novel, The Road provides the reader with a bleak outlook on the end of the world, with "nights dark beyond darkness and the days more grey than each one than what had gone before." The cold, hard truth of the surrounding world post-apocalypse leaves the reader weary with hopes of goodness and life; however, the only life to be found on the road as that of a father and a son, ruthless cannibals, and wandering loners willing to do whatever is necessary to survive. While nearing the end of the book the reader loses all anticipation of a miracle. You would think that a novel about the apocalypse would be chock full of dreary and depressing happenings, but there are many things throughout the novel which require hope for the main characters in The Road: the father and his son's survival day by day. Yet, can there really be a happy ending to the end of the world?

To the extent of The Road, its plot is cynical. Everywhere they go, the man and the boy constantly stumble upon old abandoned structures-houses, a boat, a supermarket-and vigilantly scour them for useful items to ensure their survival. As they keep a wary eye out for other survivors, the signs of life are distressing. No longer is the world inhabited by people who can look out for others as well as themselves; rather, any survivor is distrustful of everyone else's motives. McCarthy describes the boy and man's relationship as "each other's world entire," which gives the reader a perfect idea of exactly how much each depends on the other. The father cannot survive without the son, and the son certainly cannot survive without his father.

Some say the end of the world will happen suddenly, such that a meteor will strike the earth and leave it dead within a matter of minutes. Others consider Cormac McCarthy’s approach to be more believing, because a wide-spread idea of the end of the world as humans know it today is through theories that we are slowly but surely killing the earth. Either way, McCarthy’s bleak and desolate novel has earned its way to the Pulitzer Prize and gained notoriety with Oprah’s Book Club list. I find it rather ironic that Oprah would suggest reading such a dismal novel to the public. Yet, as you read this narrative of a father and son heroically surviving the worst of the world post-apocalypse, you cannot help but think Oprah actually knew what she was doing when she posted this book on her web page.

An occurring theme throughout the novel that proves to be interesting as well as terrifying is the man's constant struggle with his faith. There are times where he wants to curse his God for the things he and his son have to endure, and yet there are times where the man is almost certain that God does in fact exist. Although, we can see this recurring theme even today, where people blame their God for the bad things in life and praise him for the good things. In the very beginning of the book we read several passages of the man's faltering faith. When it begins to snow, the father reaches out his hand and catches a flake, where he "watched it expire there like the last host of Christendom." However, if we lived through an apocalypse, would we be able to keep our faith when all the world has died?

In a sense, the book is oddly reassuring with its never-ending despair and grief. The reader knows not to expect a miracle to come along, so when a miracle does happen the reader is stricken with curiosity. When the father and son have gone five agonizing days without food, proper footwear, and sleep, all hope seems lost to them. Someone would have to be ridiculously morbid to not think that their finding of the bunker, stored to the ceiling with everything they would ever need, was a miracle that was long overdue. As the father and son contemplate what they have as their first meal in the bunker, the boy decides on pears, which the father thinks to himself, “[t]hese will be the best pears you ever tasted. The best pears. Just you wait.” For the next several days, as they wash and prepare themselves for when they have to leave, it is perceptible that they are going to make it to the ocean; their original destination.

As depressingly morbid as McCarthy wrote The Road, it is wonderful to read to gain a sense of desperation for those involved in the novel. When the father and son stumble upon goodness, as well as food and shelter, the reader acquires new hope for them. The son, having been raised in a cruel and unloving world is the most compassionate of the characters throughout their journey. Yet the father, having lived most of his life in the pre-apocalyptic world, is the most cautious and hesitant of anyone they encounter on the road. With the shifting of these roles one has to wonder how either of them can survive the other. The son continually wants to help the people they run into along the road, such as the boy they find in a deserted town. However, the father’s reluctance to help anyone frustrates and angers the boy throughout the story. At one point in the novel, the father and son come across an old man traveling alone. The boy suggests that they give the old man something to eat, and after a long deliberation the father curses under his breath and succumbs to his son’s everlasting will to help someone. However, the father makes it eminently clear that they will not allow the man to travel with them, in which case the boy replies, “I know,”. With this conversation the reader sees the boy grasping his father’s idea of not trusting everyone; even though this exchange happens a bit later in the book, it helps us understand the events at the end of the book.

In a review of The Road on nybooks.com, Michael Chabon’s article, titled “After the Apocalypse”, describes his views and varying opinions on themes in the novel. He uses an entire paragraph to depict his feelings on the singed bodies the father and son find lying on the road as charred and horrifically life-like. Chabon describes the world post-apocalypse as “a dead planet, full of human corpses, grotesque and pitiful and vividly depicted, living in it.” Although Chabon found McCarthy’s novel to be “morbid to the last page”, others would say that the miracle at the end of the narrative is a blessing. Other reviews, such as this one by Michael Helm of The Globe and Mail, portray The Road as the darkest novel you are likely ever to read... With reviews such as these, what sort of person would even dare to read something so forbiddingly described by the Publishers Weekly as “a haunting and grim novel about civilization's slow death after the power goes out”?

As the novel comes to an end, the boy has learned to be cautious of other travelers. This is an important feature the boy has learned from his father, albeit he comes to no harm. The surprising miracle at the end of The Road was both a reassurance and a blessing. With all the death and grief throughout the novel, all hope of them finding the ocean or surviving the next day is lost. Nevertheless, when the father and son continue trudging on through the ash and harsh weather conditions, the reader knows that some sort of miracle will happen. It would only make sense, don’t you think? To make the reader lose almost all hope for the father and son and then have a miracle come along and save the day? McCarthy knew exactly how to write this perfectly depressing novel with the perfect ending. Perhaps this is why he won the Pulitzer and a spot on Oprah’s notorious Book Club. Or maybe McCarthy simply realized the world’s need to read a novel that would open their minds to what an apocalypse on this earth would mean to everyone. Either way, he has done a magnificent job of frightening all his readers into hoping the apocalypse will not happen in our lifetime.