What Would Be A Name Used For?

Throughout reading the novel, many questions popped in my mind. I guess the same thing happened to you. This kind of things tend to happen when readidng a book or watching a movie of suspense. This novel treats a very intense subject as it narrates a struggle for survival. As soon as I began reading, the first question I had in mind was, who is this little boy to the man? Of course I only had to read some more pages to find out who the child was. He was the man's son. However, that wasn't my only question. Everytime something happened, like when they entered one of the houses, I got worried. I asked, would this be end?

Besides the blurr of the dreams, something I could never get out of my mind, was the absence of names for the man and his child. I can't really know what is the real reason for this, but I have my own theory.

McCarthy wrote this book, based on what he imagines the world would be in about 5 to 10 decades from now. Everything gone. Desperation. A destructed world. Due to this situation he imagines happening, people lose their values and their sense. Food is scarce, therefore they have to use other alternatives. Cannabalism. Murder. Robbery. People are dehuminized, treated like animals. Not only their actions, but people take the role of animals aswell. Hunting other humans. Escaping. Migrating is search for food. No one at this point is important anymore. Not in terms of power or possesions, but no one matters at all. People were just like dogs of different breeds. Based on my interpretaion and message the author wants to give, I believe names aren't important then. What would a name be used for if people don't matter? Seeing a human at that time was the same as seeing a wild animal now a days. Who really cares what their name is? They are just a small part of nature, trying to survive daily. Or what aboy a jew 65 years ago? Who cares what their names were? They were just supposed to be animals working for the Nazi soldiers. A number would be more than enough. Just like labeling a cow. I mean, if humans are dehumanized, what would be names used for?

Always Together, Never Apart

Starvation, coldness, fear, the old man, the boat, the beach, the thief, the dead, the little boy, the people, escape. They had been through too much. But they were always together. The man always held his child next to him. He protected him from all the bad things. The man did everything he could to save himself and his little boy from the cannibals and mainly everything.

"He knew only that the child was his warrant." (5)

The boy was the only reason the father could go on. He had already lost his wife, and the only thing he had left was his son. He wasn't just only his son, he was his life, his hope, his everything. The boy also only had his father. Unlike the little boy they had found, he had his father to protect him and look out for him. The father trained his son in case he died, but at least I never expected for him to use his training. Not until the man was shot. He kept going for a while, but the situation was complicated. Both of them knew the man would die. Everything they had done now seemed like nothing. All the sacrifices were now going to be lost. But no. The father wouldn's permit his son to die with him.

"You need to keep going... You'll be lucky again... You have to carry the fire [that's] inside you. It was always there. I can see it". (278)

It was all about faith now. The father knew his son would be alright. He had learned and now he would have to do it on his own. But never alone though. He promised the kid he would never leave him. "You can talk to me and I'll talk to you", (279) the man said to his child. Just as the man had said, the child would be lucky again. He found the good guys. A man that kept his promise and woman that now cared about him.

His father was right. They would always be together, never apart.

Would It Be The End?

A shot.

A scream.

Fear.

Pain.

Coughs.

Bravery.

Blood.

Fatigue.

Surrender.

Death.

Not the end.

Hope.

Life.

Yes, the boy is still alive.

The Firegun

Jesse and Sean walked through the coldness of Alaska looking for their father. He had had a plane accident and was now missing. They had to do something. They couldn't just wait for him to come back. He might be hurt, he needed help and they knew it. It seemed stupid for two young adults to look for their father alone. There were many dangers. But they weren't actually alone. They had Cubby, the polar bear who was now their companion. If you have seen this 1996 movie, you know what a flaregun is. The father used it, and that's how Jesse and Sean found him.

The father and his son tried to escape from their destroyed habitat. Everything was now different. Not many people were left alive. Food was scarce, the weather was cold, there was fear. They couldn't just wait for their death to come. They had to fight for their survival. It was dangerous and perhaps pointless since at some point they would probably had to give up. But they weren't alone. They had each other. The situation got evertyime worst, but the boy was still a child. Many things to learn and play with. The father had found a flaregun to show him how it worked. This distraction almost cost them their lives. "The tarp was gone. Their blankets...Everything...They took everything". (253) It would be harder to survive without their stuff. They had to find the thief, and they did. Luckily they got everything back. But it was still scary. The boy knew the thief would die. He didn't have anything to help him survive.

At the end, the good guys always find a way out. It might be hard, but they always find the way out.

Déjà Vu

Seems as if it had already happened. Hope once again. We were starving, slowly dying."[I] looked across the fields at a house perhaps a mile away. (202) Not much time had passed since we found the previous house. We were scared, didn't know who or what could be inside. But that time it was good. We had found a house full of food and blankets. We stayed there a couple of days resting and eating. The good guys had helped us survive. We had to go because we didn't want to be found, but now, here we were again. "We wandered through the rooms like skeptical housebuyers". (206) It was the same as the last time. At first scary, but then, our hope. I think they call it déjà vu. The feeling of being here before, even though we weren't. I think my father has the same feeling. We went to the beach. I swam in the ocean. It was cold. "[My] teeth were chattering".(218) It was something very different, something they used to do before. Like, something my father would know.

Dedicated to John Francis McCarthy

In an exclusive interview with the famous Oprah, Cormac McCarthy admits The Road was somehow a love story to his son John Francis. As people ask themselves from where did this tragic love story come from, McCarthy answers it was inspired in his son as they were in a vacation in El Paso. The author tells us he got his ideas as he stared through the window of the hotel in the city, and imagined the place full of fires in fifty or a hundred years. However, he only wrote some pages until he realized four years later in Ireland, that this would become a book. At a first glance, we could have thought that the novel comes just from a picture, but as learning it involves his relationship with his son, we understand that the father-son relationship of the book, might aswell relate with his life. Knowing the information attached to the novel, the novel becomes much more vivid and real. Even though we know the characters and the situation McCarthy describes are only fiction, their lives become a reality. Therefore, everything the father says to his son in the novel might be interpreted as McCarthy's imagination, or much more than that, McCarthy's real love for his son. Through an exageration of tragic life, McCarthy may transmit the real message to his son, "You can't give up. I won't let you". (189) The situation may be fake but the love will always be real.

A Drop of Hope

Struggled to survive, confronted other humans, starved. The man and the child from McCarthy's novel had dealt with too many difficulties leading us to believe it would soon be over as it would be time for them to give up. Humans can only survive a few days without food, meaning that even though they don't give up, death will soon catch up with them. However, just when it seemed they were really close to total starvation, they found a solitary house, full of food, clothing, and all their needs. As they searched the house, the boy found many boxes and things they could use. "It's food... Chile, corn, stew, soup, spaghetti sauce." (139) Together they ate "the best pears [they] ever tasted" (141). They had the chance to eat several times, bath, change to clean clothes, sleep, and cover themselves with blankets. It had been a long time since they had so many luxuries that they boy said to his father, "[he] wished [they] could live there". (151) Although they had had a wonderful time in that house, they knew they had to leave if they didn't want to be found.

Too Much Desperation

Cormac McCarthy's The Road, is much more than a story of a man and his child trying to survive. McCarthy introduces us to the future world, one full of corruption and desperation. As he focuses on the relationship of father and son, he walks us through a path of darkness, bigger than just what he literally describes. Together, both characters travel south throughout the road just like the other few survivors. Along the way, they encounter many difficulties such as lonileness, fear, and hunger. However, behind each of these complications there is a bigger story. At this point people are running out of options, making cannabalism an alternative to face hunger. The father has known this trouble all along, but it is now time that the youngster understands the bigger picture. The child has always known they have been running away, but as  they move forward, they have been forced to see the real situation.

Cannabalism is a scary word. When thought of it, most of us think it only happens in movies. However, this is not true.  As I read The Road and learned about this subject, I remembered a book I had read in the past, Milagro En Los Andes. The book written by Nando Parrado, narrates a true story of a plane crash, where at a certain point cannabalism was also an option. After the tragic accident of the famous rugby team, the few survivors had to deal with hunger, therefore decided to eat their teammates. Despite how cold it sounds to eat another human being, sometimes its the only way out in order to survive. Even though The Road is a ficticious novel, it deals with bigger aspects that one could have thought.

Living similar situations dealing with survival, cannabalism is present in both stories. However, this option is banned for some as they think it won't be a remedy for their survival struggle. This is the thought of the father in The Road, who transmits the same message to his son. When the child realizes the people they had seen in the house were going to be eaten by others, he is concerned and asks his father if they would too. However, since they are "the good guys" (77), the father decisively responds, "No. Of course not... We are starving now"(128). The drastic decision of eating someone else, is not the one adopted by this small family.