Motifs

__//The Shopping Cart//__

When everything is taken away from you, who do you become? What do you call your own? In a world of convenience and materialism, we view our possessions with heightened importance. How would we therefore view a shopping cart? To the man and the boy, it became their home. A shopping cart, so finely crafted as a kindergarteners finger-painted drawing, became their everything. It became a personal sense of belonging to the world. The cart is so dear to them that, when the original shopping cart is broken, they looked for different ways to fix it, even when a better alternative presented itself. Clearly they grew a personal attachment for the cart. Of course, the cart was simply only a physical manifestation of what we would consider a home. The love, nurture, and care that came through this "home" is completed by the father and son.

-Chase

__//The Fire//__

A substance once considered one of the most sacred of the four elements of the earth. One that provided protection, a new way to efficiently cook food, and warmth. Fire. In the case of the boy and man it provides not only this, but more. The fire represents the ability to love, hope in its quintessential form, and the will to survive. Throughout the novel, the man refers to the fire as the differential factor between the good guys and the bad guys. Man's greatest capacity is lost when they begin eating each other and hunting one another. However, the man and his son carry hope and love and will continue until God takes them from the forsaken world man has created. The symbolic fire, much like literal fire, provides warmth to a cold-hearted, merciless world.

-Chase

__//The Beach//__

Relaxation. Vacation. Sun. Three words closely associated in many peoples' minds with the word "beach". To humans, this salty oasis is a source of respite in a hectic world. However, in //The Road//, it takes a slightly darker tone. The beach became the ultimate goal of the man and boy. They longed for the beach because they believed that it would be the end of their problems. The grass would be greener on the other side, they whispered in their sleeps. However, when they arrived, they realized that their oasis was in fact a gray ash-filled hell. The beach symbolized the end of life and the afterlife. They went as far southeast as they could and the ocean was the final barrier. The man and the child didn't know what was beyond. Likewise we don't know what's after death. However strongly they wish to see what may be on the "other side," they take a step back from "death" and keep searching, remembering that their time will come when they will be able to swim to the paradise that awaits them.

-Chase

__//The Abandoned Train//__

This symbolizes the indifference of nature. Everything man made is being destroyed. Nature is unbiased. We all die and are born in the same manner.

-Chase .... to be continued

__//Blankets//__

Throughout the novel we see the man and boy on a constant search for blankets. Every new dweling they come across they search for the things. In one particular house the man thought there may have been blankets upstairs and he tries all he can to reason with the boy that they need to go check. They are essential to anyone in such a cold, harsh world. However I think besides the obvious physical warmth they offer, they also stand for an iner warmth or comfort the father and son yearn for. The blankets symbolize the only bit of comfort left in this evil, post-appocolyptic world. At the end, when the father dies, we see the boy take all the blankets and cover the father with them. This shows that the only comfort he had, left with the father. However after the new family came and picked him up, he goes back and takes some of them and this shows that he now has comfort and love with these new people.

__//Shoes//__

In //The Road// by Cormac McCarthy we repeatedly hear the man emphasize the importance of shoes. He looks for shoes all the time and they are told how important they are. I believe the shoes represent protection from the outside world. They emphasize how much they need shoes and this is so that their feet are protected to walk around. Think about it, without shoes, one couldn't really go anywhere, the human foot is just too vulnerable to the outside world. This is why I believe the shoe symbolizes protection because it protects them from everything that would otherwise hurt them.