Entry 2: A Man and a Boy: The Characters of The Road

Well, it seems as though the world in Cormac McCarthy's The Road just keeps getting worse.  In my reading since my first post, as the man and the boy have continued their journey to the coast, it just keeps getting colder.  Snow is falling, wind is blowing, and our protagonists are beaten by an unrelenting mother nature.  Ned Stark once said "Winter is coming".  No Ned, winter is nigh.

There are two protagonists in The Road, and not much else.  McCarthy yolos so hard on this novel, he doesn't even give them names.  But don't worry, there is a reason.  They are simply refereed to as The Boy, and The Man.

The Man is a hardened, sympathetic, and protective individual.  In an unforgiving world, he tries to protect his family at all costs, even against their will sometimes.  During flashbacks it is explained that he had a wife who thought it better to commit suicide than to live in the apocalypse.  While it is horrifying to us, McCarthy does a good job at making us understand her point of view.  She is simply worried about the safety of her family.  In an argument with the man about a gang of bandits, she explains her point of view.

"Sooner or later they will catch us and they will kill us.  The will rape me.  They'll rape him.  They are going to rape us and kill us and eat us and you wont face it.  You'd rather wait for it to happen." (48) 

She does not believe the man can possibly protect them from the evils of the world they live in.  The novel is about his attempt to prove the woman he desperately misses wrong.  Along with his love for his son, it drives him on in the toughest of times, and there are some tough times.  He does not survive for himself, he does it only for his child.

The boy is the source of light and hope in an otherwise solemn world.  He represents ignorance and foolishness, but also compassion and kindness.  While his father only thinks about their survival, the few times they meet others on the road he feels the need to help them, even if his father resists.  He loves his fatherly deeply, but he also worries about him, and what the world has turned him into.  He sees weakness in his father that he cannot see himself.

Ultimately, The Road is story about the power of  the father-son connection.  Leaving them unnamed makes his biggest statement: these man and the boy could be anyone.  The genius of this decision is that it lets the readers insert people from their lives into the place of the man and the boy, making it much more relatable.