Words Through Actions

I cannot say that I would have picked up The Road of my own accord. After reading only the first paragraph on the back cover, the novel in question seemed to epitomize human’s natural obsession with the apocalypse. Only because of the insistence of a friend, did I finally open the black cover and begin the journey with the man and his son. I am glad I did. The book began as I had imagined, a desolate scene, vacant except for a constant fear. Immediately questions began forming in my mind while I read: “How did this happen?” “What happened to the rest of their family?” “Who else was out there?” “Where was the danger?” and most importantly “Where were they going?” It soon became clear that although my questions where logical, the answers were not important. I had placed too much significance upon the destination. My initial questioning would probably be considered normal. We all at some time or another mindlessly complete the steps set out before us to reach an objective. Some people attend high school in order to attend college, etc. However, The Road tells a different story; one without answers. The Road is rather a depiction of the best and worst aspects of human nature through the same journey. Faced with the same challenges, humanity has the ability to outshine dark impossibility, while it can also be lost to impossibility’s hopeless depths. The man and his son are able to survive starvation, cannibalism, theft, and greed without succumbing to the darkness.

Cormac McCarthy’s genius derives from his ability to lead the readers to a conclusion without directly expressing his own. His writing in the The Road is a great example of how much can be said without actually saying it; which to me, as a reader, makes his writing much more sincere. In my own relationships, I believe that actions are better suited than words. By describing the journey alone, he is able to more clearly emphasize his opinion of human nature. A great example of these would be his non-inclusion of names for his two main characters. Although the son sometimes calls his father “Papa,” the two main characters are most commonly referred to as the man and the boy. This lack of identity helps transfer the emphasis of the individual characters to the relationship between the man and the son. In a world of hopelessness, the tenderness between the man and the son is the only goodness in the world, the only thing that makes the readers believe all hope is not lost. This human goodness is the light that is so important to the son. Ultimately, the goal is the journey and the preservation of the light against all odds. That is the responsibility passed from father to son at the end of the book, the most precious gift the father could give to the son. The Road is able to use language to show readers the stalwart nature of goodness in humanity without giving us the answers we thought we needed to know (511).

Books I have read this summer… 1. The Road, Cormac McCarthy 2. The Post American World, Fareed Zakaria 3. Blink, Malcolm Gladwell 4. Dune, Frank Herbert 5. The Maltese Falcon, Dashiell Hammet 6. The Catcher in the Rye, J.D. Salinger 7. Pretties, Scott Westerfield 8. Outlander, Diana Gabaldon 9. Dragonfly in Amber, Diana Gabaldon 10. Voyager, Diana Gabaldon 11. Being Peace, Thich Nhat Hanh