Themes

Themes __Family Ties Hold the World Together __ One of the many themes Cormac McCarthy was most likely trying to relay in his book was the strong bonds that families share between each other. He states that family is the most important aspect of life and makes living worth while, no matter what type of disaster may have occurred. One can always trust family, and in a world of destruction and devastation, trust is not a very common aspect. Along with the trust comes true companionship. One may be very lonely and scared if one had to make the journey all by oneself. The fact that the father is with the boy practically the whole way also shows that love and compassion still exists in this world of disarray. Throughout the novel, McCarthy's two main characters experiance many situations in which they both feel that one would rather die than lose the other. A lot of times, it also seems like the man not only needs the boy for companionship, but also because he is older and cannot see or hear things that the boy does. For instance, the man looks through the binoculars to spot other people and sees nothing. The boy, however, notices smoke on the mountains, indicating that there may be other people there. This helps because those people who built the fire may have been hostile people who would have killed and eaten the travelers had they been given the chance. The boy also seems much wiser than the man, or at least much more cautious. This definately comes in handy because many times the man walks into an abandoned house along the road and tarries there for longer than he should need to. The boy is constantly warning him that they should leave and keep going for fear that the cannibals will come and find them. Most of the time, it is a very good thing to be extra cautious in this world. Surely, the man would survive, but not thrive without his son, and the boy could not survive without his father there to guide him.--Cassandra

__The Will To Survive Is Stronger Than Morality **__ __Nothing Good Will Ever Last__ Cormac McCarthy uses //The Road// to portray the theme that nothing good in life can ever last. It begins with the very beginning of the novel when we start to see how much the father loves his boy and how much they need each other. The bond between them is so strong that even a post apocalyptic nightmare can not seperate them. However early in the book we begin to see foreshadowing that this perfect love will be ripped apart. It starts with the father coughing up blood on the side of the road. As the story goes on the cough gets worse and worse and eventually he dies. After this the pain from this lose is felt even by the reader, but it proves the theme that nothing good can last. From the beginning of the story wer knew that this perfect father son relationship was going to end painfully. The son essentially lost the only good thing in his life and now has to go on living without his only loved one ever. In addition to losing the father, the novel also puts the two main characters through a lot of other minor loses. After encountering the band of thieves on the truck they lose their cart and possesions, and up until that point it seemed that things were going along well with what they had. The entire novel in fact represents this theme because it is based on the assumption that the goodness we have on earth could not last, and that an apocalypse will happen and destroy it all. Also the father and son come across a paradise in the book. This however is short-lived; they get to stay there for a little while, but eventually must leave and go on with their dismal exsistence and the goodness of the shelter is lost. All of this just goes to prove that in the book, and probably in our lives as well, a common theme is that nothing good can last.-Lucas