It is a post-apocalyptic story, a story of an unexplained ending of human civilization. The book The Road by Cormac McCarthy, all starts as a mystery and ends as a mystery. The man and the kid are traveling south as the winter is approaching them. With a tarp, a shopping cart, and a pistol, they come across cannibals and others that are desperate to find life on earth. Through cold sleepless nights on the road, they still had to worry to be on the lookout for the “bad guys”. When they came in contact with anyone, all they knew was that they needed to save themselves; they could not set out there trust. Everyone was a stranger; even they were strangers to themselves, as well as a danger. If they heard anything, saw smoke, or lights they would rush to hide their cart that had food to where it could not be seen. They never had enough food; they would live day by day waiting for their death to arrive. They knew it was near, but they did not know where exactly it was at because just when they were at their weakest point without any food, they found a barn full of apples, canned food, and sweet water. I recommend this book to anyone because even though it leaves you wondering, it is a great story of strength and power, and a story that gives you an insight on someone who does not have a home; an insight on the amount of courage a human can have during a death or life situation. It is a journey full of denial, confusedness, yet full of strength. It is an ashy, lonely, and destructive world that surrounds them. Only fate will lead their destiny.
The world they travel in is gray, colorless, like a dark tunnel. But their dreams are full of color. Ever heard that whatever you think of throughout your night is what you end up dreaming of? The author is trying to show how the man was trying to be strong and trying not to give up, by thinking happy thoughts as he fell asleep. The contrast between the colors emphasizes how desperate they were to finding life; it is as if they are walking through a maze trying to find the colorful grass waiting for them outside of a never ending walk. The author does a phenomenal job describing the loneliness around them. As I read the book, I felt the gloomy mood of the book, I felt dark inside, and I was able to feel the cold ashy wind blowing against my hair as I looked out into the nowhere.
You will never know who to trust until you take a shot at it. While traveling, they came across a family in a basement, a little boy, an old man, a robber, and a couple of other men. Any time they ran into someone, the kid wanted to help them out, to talk to them, but the man had no trust. The kid had a completely different mentality. Eventually were going to run out of food, so why not share it with others? When they came across an old man, the kid convinced his dad to give the old man a couple of canned foods that they had found in a barn shed. The dad even mentioned to the old man after they gave him food and a jug of water, “You should thank him you know, the man said. I wouldn’t have given you anything” (pg. 172). The man himself did not trust them with his real name; he lied about his real name being Ely, “I couldn’t trust you with it” (pg. 171). The man and the old man took a shot at giving each other a bit of trust, and they both eventually received a good from it.
“I want you to wait here” and “I want to go with you,” are repetitive sentences the author imprints in the reader’s mind throughout the whole book. The kid was scared whenever the dad had to go out of his sight for more wood or to try to find shelter. The father was trying to teach him how to be strong. I was able to visualize and feel the fear the kid had once his dad would leave. He had no one to depend on. He never knew when the “bad guys” would come out and kill them, or eat them. It was brave of him to stay put as his father told him too. With the author’s repetitive sentences, I was able to predict that death was near for the man, and that the kid would end up on his own, so he started showing him that they would not always be physically together. They are mentally strong, and this helped them get to where their fate led their destiny to.