The Meaning Behind "The Road"

As I progress "along" The Road, I continue to enjoy it for its story elements and brilliantly written characters.  However, does Cormac McCarthy's book about two survivors struggling to stay alive in a post apocalyptic world have a deeper meaning behind it?  Put simply, yes; McCarthy inputs small messages throughout the novel which all relate to the bigger meaning as a whole.  Clearly, the strong message behind The Road is that survival must not take away our humanity.  Let's break this down a bit more so that that vague message can make more sense.

First of all, McCarthy incorporates two types of characters in the novel - good guys and bad guys, both having the same goal of survival.  Good guys are people like the man and the boy (obviously).  The man makes it clear to his son that they are in fact different from the savage cannibals they run into.  There are also those who are helpless in the story, like the prisoners in the cannibals' basement, and the man who was struck by lightning, who are all also good guys as they do not cause harm to others in order to complete their goal.  That is the key and defining trait of these good guys - they all want to survive, but these people still have values from a previous world and do not cause harm to others in order to live.  

On the other hand, the bad guys are those like the cannibals, who will ruthlessly murder people and eat them to survive.  Of course, it is morally wrong, but their goal of survival is just as important to them as it is to the good guys.  

The boy and the man, who are good guys, cannot necessarily help the helpless people because they know doing so could jeopardize their own survival.  The decision to leave behind the man who was struck by lightning upsets the boy, but the man knows helping out may require that they give up some of their precious supplies.  

Therefore, where does one cross the line between good guy and bad guy?  McCarthy's point in the story is that survival can bring out the worst in people, but people must retain their humanity.  He uses the main characters to explain his message.  Throughout the novel, the boy constantly makes sure his papa is doing the right thing.  He constantly asks him if they are doing what the good guys would do.  For example, on page 128, he says, "We would never eat anybody, would we?" to which his father responds "No.  Of course not."  The man even makes it clear that even if they were starving they would not eat anyone, which reassures his son, and shows that these two characters retain their morals even though they are faced with the challenge of survival.  When they find the food in the bunker, the boy gives thanks to those who left the food there, saying, "Dear people, thank you for all this food and stuff.  We know that you saved it for yourself and if you were here we woudnt eat it no matter how hungry we were" (146).  This shows that he still cares for other people despite how horrible most people in that world are. Additionally, we see the struggle that the man goes through with morals.  He thinks about killing his son in order to protect him from the bad guys who would seek to use him as a source of food.  He horribly asks himself, "Could you crush that beloved skull with a rock?  Is there such a being within you of which you know nothing?"  (114).  The man cannot conceive the idea because he feels it would not be morally right.  Therefore, the man is able to keep his morals, definitely making him one of the good guys.  

By including people in the story who share the same goal, yet go about completing that goal differently, McCarthy is able to show his point.  Survival is a dangerous goal, and The Road displays how far people will go just to stay alive.  However, there are some who survive while keeping their morals, like the man and the boy, who are our main protagonists.  Because we follow their story, we are able to see the struggles with crossing the line between good guy and bad guy, but overall, they are able to keep their humanity and morals.   

A Closer Look at the Style

The Style of Cormac McCarthy

Over the last week, I continued my journey reading The Road.  Before I continue, however, allow me to summarize what has happened thus far through the first half of the book (page 144). Obviously, if you read my last post, then you're familiar with the basic premise The Road: two nameless characters, a man and his young son, are struggling to survive in a post apocalyptic Earth.  Together, they travel to the southern part of the United States with only a small cart to carry supplies.  As they are on the move, they have several close encounters with other survivors who are threats.  Most recently, the two encountered a group of naked people with severed limbs who were locked in a basement, just waiting to be eaten alive by cannibals.  The man and the boy narrowly escaped the house before those cannibals returned (this was probably the most intense part of the book thus far).  Additionally, the man and the boy encounter problems with the world itself, like falling trees and intense snowstorms. However, finally, at the end of the last section, the man and the boy found a basement full of canned food where they intend to survive for a while.  Of course, knowing this book and how dark it is, more problems are bound to happen.                                                                                      
Thus, with this book being as dark as it is, we are lead to the first element of Cormac McCarthy's style - the horror.  Sure, it's not exactly "style," but McCarthy is definitely not going to shy away from disturbing ideas in this story, and it shows.  I already mentioned the presence of cannibals in the story, but what makes McCarthy's cannibals stand out from others that I've seen in movies or TV shows is that we don't really see what they do, and that is creepy.  It's an effect that is known as the Jaws effect - that is, what you don't see is actually scarier than what you do see (it gets its name from Steven Spielberg's Jaws, where the mechanical shark they planned on using malfunctioned.  Thus, many of the scenes with it were cut, and the result was an invisible, underwater threat which continues to scare audiences to this day).  I must admit, I don't think I've really encountered the Jaws effect in a book before, but in The Road, McCarthy utilizes it brilliantly.  Throughout the story, the man tells the boy that there are some really dangerous people in the world who he refers to as "the bad guys" (so that the young boy can understand).  For example, at one point, the boy asks his father "were they the bad guys?" referring a wave of people passing by (page 92).  The man then confirms that they were.  Earlier, when they are looking for food but must travel near some people, the boy hesitates, asking "What if it's the bad guys?" (79).

The man's wife also kills herself, showing that the world they live in is worse than death, which is a scary concept by itself.  Additionally, the man's wife speaks of the horrible things that the "bad guys" would do if they were to be caught: "They will rape me.  They'll rape him.  They are going to rape us and kill us and eat us" (56).  Again, there's so much build up for these cannibals, and even after the first half, there has yet to be any long scenes with them.  In fact, the most disturbing scene that we've gotten involving the cannibals so far is when the two main characters, hiding outside a house where cannibals lock up their victims, hear "the hideous shrieks coming from the house" (115).  Notice we don't see anything, but we definitely know what is going on.  McCarthy excellently builds up these nasty apocalypse cannibals, and his use of the Jaws effect makes them even more disturbing.

Another noticeable aspect of McCarthy's writing style is his lack of quotation marks and punctuation.  None of the dialogue uses quotation marks which can make it hard to follow at points.  I honestly don't really understand the lack of quotation marks.  While it doesn't necessarily take much away, it doesn't add anything either.  Sometimes, I've seen authors use this at certain times to indicate a type of scene in a novel.  For example, in Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale, quotation marks were only used during present scenes, and not during flashbacks.  In The Road, the entire book is written without quotation marks for dialogue, whether or not there is a flashback.

Similar to the case with the quotation marks, McCarthy also leaves out apostrophes in contractions.  At first, I thought apostrophes were only going to be used in the narration, and not the dialogue.  I also assumed that the dialogue would have no apostrophes to keep the style consistent.  But as it turns out, I was wrong.  Let me explain.  A good example is on page fifty-six, during the flashback conversation between the man and his wife.  The man says, "I dont know."  No apostrophe, that's okay.  But then, the wife responds, "It's because it's here.  There's nothing left to talk about."  Okay, so at this point, maybe only the wife's dialogue has apostrophes.  The man then says, "I wouldnt leave you."  Therefore, that hypothesis is supported because there aren't any apostrophes in the man's dialogue.  But then, the wife replies "I dont know..."  So now the wife's dialogue doesn't include apostrophes, even though before it did.  It gets worse actually, because the very next thing she says (in the same line of dialogue by the way) is, "It's meaningless."  That's right, "it's," with an apostrophe.  Are you kidding me?  Therefore, after much careful, deep, and thorough analysis about this style of writing, I've concluded that the use of apostrophes in contractions during scenes of dialogue is just made at complete random.  Like with the lack of quotation marks, I can find nothing that this style adds to enhance the story.  If it were consistent, I could at least say it organizes perhaps narration and dialogue by separating them through a difference of writing style.  But no, it's done at complete random, which adds nothing to the experience of reading the story.    

Additionally, the story is written without chapters, and instead we're given what I call "events."  In comparison to average chapter lengths, these events range from about a quarter of a page, to one and a half pages.  An event can be dialogue between characters, narration of a character's actions, a flashback, etc.  It could be as simple as the man traveling into the forest to obtain wood for the fire, or it could be as intense as a run-in with the "bad guys."  While these events can mark the beginning and end of scenes in certain locations, they are also very visibly noticeable on the page - a couple of lines of space separate the events from each other.  Therefore, each scene feels very separate, like a mini story that contributes to the overarching plot of the book.    

Overall, after reading half of the book, McCarthy's unique style of writing has definitely been on display.  I definitely love his use of the Jaws effect and his use of the mini "events."  However, I definitely question why he left out the quotation marks, and randomly left out apostrophes.  Again, it doesn't necessarily take away from the story, but it definitely seems like a random action to have taken while writing.  However, authors should try to be unique in my opinion, and maybe that's all McCarthy was trying to do.  When I really break it down, McCarthy's style succeeds in making The Road seem unique in its writing, and at the very least, even if a story fails to be interesting to an audience (which The Road succeeds at), I always have to admire a style that attempts to make a story stand out.

The Characters Within

The Characters Within

Meet the main players in The Road

I don't read books very often - there, I said it.  Seeing as this is the first post, I figured I should address the title of the blog first and provide some background on who I am.  I'm a movie guy, not a book guy.  People love books, but I just don't see the magic in them.  That said, when I read a good book, I do very much enjoy it - just not as much as seeing a good movie or TV show.  However, I recently bought the award-winning novel, The Road by Cormac McCarthy, and decided to give it a go - rest assured, I have never seen the 2009 film adaptation (although I am now very interested in watching it after reading the rest of the book).  Thus, with all that established, let's dive into my thoughts on the first quarter (72 out of 287 pages) of the book.  Specifically, this post will analyze the story's main characters.

The first thing I can say about the characters is that they reflect McCarthy's unique writing style, as none of the characters have names yet.  He refers to the two main characters as "the man," and "the boy."  The man is confirmed to be the boy's father as the boy often refers to him as "papa" (the first time being on page 5).  The story follows these two  through an apocalyptic Earth as they journey on foot to the southern part of the United States.

It's pretty clear that the man is the main protagonist, as the story centers around him.  We see his interactions with other characters, know what he is thinking, and experience his dreams and memories.  Even though we have yet to find out his name, we can easily learn and care about the man through his words and actions.  For example, McCarthy establishes early that this man is a survivor - an important quality for a protagonist in an apocalypse story.  The man comes right out and says "we're survivors," referring to his family (55).  Therefore, the man's main goals in this story are staying alive, and protecting his son - two qualities that are likable.  This creates a connection between us and the character, which makes us care for him.

McCarthy focuses the story around the man's parental relationship with his son.  Again, everything the man does is to ensure the survival of his family.  This is apparent in even the smallest lines of dialogue.  When his son asks him if they are going to die, he gives him hope saying, "Sometime.  Not now" (10).  The man is very protective of his son, especially when it comes to other people.  When the boy wants to stay by the river where he considers it to be "a good place," the man responds, saying "we cant stay ... the waterfall is an attraction ... for other people and we dont know who they will be and we cant hear them coming ... its not safe" (42).  When they both see another man who was struck by lightening, the man doesn't let his son get close to him.  The man even kills for his son, shooting another man in the head who was a threat.  This is where that connection between the character and the audience becomes really important, because if the man were not a likable character, we might see that as just an act of murder.

Aside from being a guardian, the man is also a teacher.  Many times, the boy learns from his father.  Once again, this is noticeable in small lines of dialogue.  For example, the boy asks, "What is that, Papa?" and the man answers "It's a dam... it made the lake" (19).  Later, when the two are eating, the son asks "What's morels?" and the man explains "They're a kind of mushroom... Take a bite" (40).  Again, showing the man as a teacher makes him more likable, because even with everything he has been through, and with all the ways the world has changed, he has not forgotten the value of parenting and teaching.  Parenting and teaching are things we, as an audience, can relate to, which helps us relate to the characters (whether it be to the man, the boy, or both).

There are plenty of other examples of how the man is a great father, specifically all those times when he comforts the boy when he is scared, but considering we haven't even gotten to the son yet, I'm going to have to speed this blog post up a bit.

However before I completely end my comments on the man, I have to address the scenes about his wife.  We are introduced to the man's wife through painful flashbacks in which the man horribly relives how she ended her own life after he begged her to keep fighting to survive.  "I'll do anything," the man says, to which his wife responds "I should have done it a long time ago ... You cant protect us ... Id take [our son] with me if it werent for you ... Its the right thing to do" (56).  The reason I bring up this scene is because it proves the importance of likable characters.  I liked the man for all the reasons explained above.  As a result, this scene was unbelievably powerful.  It was sad knowing how much the man goes through to keep his family alive, yet he couldn't protect his wife from herself.

Overall, Cormac McCarthy succeeds in creating a strong protagonist whom we can root for, feel for, and (honestly) read the book for.

The boy is our secondary character.  He follows his father on this journey to the south.  Judging from his lack of knowledge about the world before the apocalypse, and judging from the amount of times he is scared, I'd guess he is rather young (between age five and ten).

It is interesting how even though our main character is the man, we learn the most through the boy.  As the boy asks his father questions, we gradually learn more about the world these two live in.  One example is when the boy asks about state roads, and the man tells him that "they used to belong to the states.  What used to be called states" (43).  Therefore, we learn that somehow, states in this world cease to exist.  We don't know the details about what happened to the states, but through the boy's character, we learn just enough to raise more questions about the post-apocalyptic world, without being left completely clueless.  

One scene that I think shows a lot about the boy as a character is when his father wants him to drink coca cola.  The boy insists that the man have some too, but his father hesitates.  The boy says afterwards, "It's because I wont ever get to drink another one, isn't it?" (24).  The boy is able to make conclusions about the world they live in based on his fathers actions, which shows his cleverness.

However, if I could name one characteristic about the boy that really gets annoying, it's that he's constantly afraid.  It doesn't matter what it is, this kid will get frightened by almost anything, which is understandable, but simultaneously irritating.  I think that's normal, though, because we haven't had the opportunity to learn everything these two characters have been through, and how frightening the world is that they live in.  If there was more background, I'd understand more why he is always afraid.  At one point, the boy even gets frightened by visiting the house that the man used to live in.  Just in that three-page scene about visiting a house, the boy is prompted to say "I'm scared" three times.  In conclusion, while the boy isn't a dislikable character, I can't say I'd be too upset if he dies.  Actually, his death would be powerful mainly because of the effect it would have on his father, because that would mean he failed to protect both his wife and his son.  Of course, that's all hypothetical, and it's material to look forward to as I continue to read the story.

Overall, the two main characters are enjoyable to read about.  This shows the brilliance of Cormac McCarthy's writing, because he created strong, relatable characters and placed them into a dark world.  The result is a character-driven story that is emotional, compelling, and suspenseful.