The Road Reading #2: Pages 61-120

Howdy!

Welcome back to my blog! My name is Charlie, and I am back again to analyze Cormac McCarthy’s The Road. In this particular blog post, we will be going over our second reading section of the novel. This section is comprised of the next 60 pages of the novel in pages 61-120. Furthermore, in this post, I’ll be addressing the characters of the novel. It might just be a little crucial for me to analyze the characters in the novel before we get too deep into this blog post series. Without further ado, let’s dive in.

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However, just like last time, I’d like to talk about my overall feelings towards this particular section of the novel. After how incredible the first section of the novel was for me, I immediately jumped straight into the reading. The plot continued to develop and managed to continue to interest me despite the basic idea of “man and son go down road in burnt world” being very similar to the first section. While the basis is similar, this section felt unique in its telling. The section also managed to continue the horror-esque feeling I discussed in the previous blog, and I absolutely love it. Overall, the novel has managed to keep me hooked and even more interested than before through this section.

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As stated previously, in this particular blog, I will be analyzing the current characters as a whole alongside the characterization McCarthy does to develop them. In this section in particular, McCarthy does an excellent job at depicting the characters and how they act around each other. To begin with, introductions are needed. McCarthy has really only given us two solid characters and neither of them are given names. Essentially, they are known as “the child” and his father, “the man”. McCarthy gives neither the man nor the child’s age, leaving that up to the reader’s imagination. However, despite being father and son, their relationship feels constantly strained by the situation they are in and the predicaments that follow them through this section. 

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One thing that becomes clear through this section is that the man and the child are somewhat foils of each other. While both characters are very likable and unique in their own ways, there are many notable examples of the characters being opposites of each other who clash in personality. One of the more defined examples seen in this section is found at the beginning of this section when the man and child encounter a man in the woods while they hide. The foreign man grabs the child and holds a knife to his throat and the father immediately fired a shot at the man from his revolver, leaving the foreign man “with blood bubbling from the hole in his forehead” (McCarthy 66). Following this, the child refuses to speak with his father out of disdain for his murdering of another survivor, perfectly exemplifying where each of the character’s morals are grounded. While the man is focused on self-preservation, the child is more focused on helping others than themselves.

And this isn’t the only time we see this clash in values between the father and son. Later in the section, while in a town scrounging for food, the man is inside a house scavenging while the child sat outside on the porch of the house. He sees a young boy and desperately wants to help him. The man is furious when he comes out and simply asks him:

“Do you want to die?” (McCarthy 85)

The child refuses to give up on the young boy for a little while. He pleads with his father for them to return and help the boy. The man, of course, responds shortly with responses such as:

"he'll be alright"

"We cant."

"Stop it. We cant." (McCarthy 86)

The child is insistent on helping others and not wanting to inflict pain onto any remaining survivors they come across. In contrast, the man is set on protecting themselves and ensuring that his son and him survive, regardless of the cost. There are plenty of other examples of how the father and son are foils including age innocence affecting courage with the man being bold while the son is scared of most things they do. On top of that, the child will complain about his conditions such as being cold while the man never shows his weakness. However, a large portion of these foil traits could be in part due to the parental love the man has for the child without him truly understanding.

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A large portion of the foil traits we discussed could be in part due to the parental love the man has for the child without him truly understanding. Because we see the man’s internal thoughts, we can understand how desperately he wants to save and help his son. He constantly reassures the child by constantly repeating the same phrase throughout the section:

“We’re not going to die” (McCarthy 100).

He reassures his son constantly despite them being in very obvious near death scenarios. On top of this, the man’s repeated actions of putting the boy before himself displays his intense determination to not let his son die. He even is willing to go down the path of death and allow himself to be captured and likely eaten by a group of savage survivors in order to give his son a chance to live. However, when explaining to the boy that he needs to fire the revolver into his own head if the group somehow found him too, the man realizes that he can’t leave the boy after seeing his true terror. He looks at him and says:

“I wont leave you...I promise. I was going to run. To try and lead them away. But I cant leave you” (McCarthy 113).

After recognizing his son’s terror and inability to survive on his own, the man reconsiders what he thinks is best and stays with the child. His parental instincts pushed him to make a decision that may have not been the smartest, but was one that allowed him to keep his son in as good of an emotional state as any child could be in a post-apocalyptic world. McCarthy excellently manages to characterize the child as an innocent youthful child who has lost hope while characterizing the man as a loving yet stoic father who maintains his hopefulness.

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Overall, I felt this section did an excellent job at describing the characters and giving us some development as the father and son grow closer to each other through the incredible dangers they face in their journey. I do like both characters and am very excited to see how their bond grows as they develop individually. Despite being foils now, I have a feeling their differences will become less blatant as the story continues. I cannot wait to continue reading into the next section. Until next time,

  -Charlie