Ryan Chartrand“The Road,” the newest book by author Cormac McCarthy, describes a time in America when nothing good remains. The Earth has been destroyed by some sort of apocalyptic disaster, leaving most of humanity dead amid tons of debris.
The only people left are described as cannibalistic beasts who roam the cold Earth in search of food. Also still alive, however, are our protagonists: a father-son pair, journeying together across the barren landscape in search of a warmer place to go.
The father and son are thought to represent the good that is now so scarce in the world. They travel together for months toward what used to be the Southeastern shore of the United States.
The father is an intelligent, well-educated, vastly traveled man, who draws on his experiences and knowledge to survive.
However, the blood he coughs up each morning is a daily reminder of his illness and impending death, which will leave his son completely alone in an already desolate world.
In contrast to his father, the boy is innocent; in his father’s opinion, he is far too trusting of strangers. He seems unaware of the depth of their despairing situation, even optimistic at times.
This conflicts with his father’s ever-present fear of calamity and the potential evil of other humans they encounter.
This profound dread increases to the point that he carries two guns with him, to be used by him and his son to commit suicide, if they were ever faced with capture by an evil stranger.
Even more dramatically, he contemplates euthanizing his son, in order to spare him the experience of living after his father dies.
The boy and his father stand out against this dire backdrop as instruments of light, as two of the final beings on earth that represent what is good.
And, while the story takes an even darker turn, McCarthy doesn’t leave his characters or his readers stranded on the ominous road forever. The novel ends in hope, although perhaps not in the way the readers might expect. There is no happy, warm, comforting ending, although it is a slightly optimistic one.
Many critics believe that McCarthy is trying to represent the current state of the world through this book; some think the story is about finding faith even in the worst of situations, which could easily apply to current events. Whatever McCarthy is really trying to say, though, requires the reader to decide for his or herself.
The general themes will become easily recognizable from the very beginning. The title sets up the entire book as a metaphor, and the dangers that the two encounter mirror the risks of life.
This thread continues throughout the book, until the very end. Also similar to life, the book is long, and sometimes horribly gloomy.
Depressing or not, almost everybody agrees this book qualifies as good literature.
It won a Pulitzer Prize on Monday and Oprah Winfrey selected it as her latest book club pick.. Also (and maybe due to this recent publicity), “The Road” is topping bestseller lists all around the nation.
Perhaps its message of finding hope in the direst of situations is what most appeals to American readers. Maybe it’s the reputation of McCarthy, who many say has cemented his place as a legendary American author with this book.
Or maybe it is the centuries-old story of life as a journey that applies to all individuals, and that has already resonated with millions of readers.