In "The Road", the man (father) keeps his sickness (coughing up blood) from the boy (his son). Whenever he feels a cough coming on, he either stifles is or leaves the boy and coughs until he no longer can, so that the boy does not hear him. There is mention of this on page 11, where the man questions if God is still there after one of his coughing fits.
Another secret that the man is keeping from the boy is what really happened to the boy's mother. All the boy knows is that she was with them, and then one day she just "left." The boy never asked for an explanation. The author leads the reader to believe that she went off and killed herself because she could not handle all of the running and hiding from the outlaws. The man keeps both of these secrets for different reasons. He keeps his sickness a secret so the boy does not worry about their fate and believes that the man is strong and can protect him. He keeps the other so that the boy does not lose hope, after seeing that his mother does.
These secrets are significant to the story because they both involove the relationship between the boy and the man. They are the only people they have to rely on and their relationship must stay stable. This lets you know that the man cares deeply for the boy and will do anything possible to keep him alive.
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I agree with what Bill has said about the relationship of the two secrets, the father being sick and the truth about what happened to his mother, and how they are significant to the story.
Through-out the novel the father keeps the secret of his illness and always tells the son it will be "okay", never explaining to him his illness because he does not want his son to be scared he will lose him. He keeps this secret from the boy up until the end until he can keep it no longer, until he knows he is soon to die. On page 270 he tells the boy that his death has been a long time coming and now the time is upon them, but he continues to instill hope in him by telling him that he will make it to the their detination without him and that he can always have his father with him and talk to him and hear him. This shows again how much the father cares for his son and that even when they are seperated by the fathers death, that they will still have a strong bond and that there is no reason to allow their seperation to cause the child to lose hope.
Along these same lines the father never tells his son what really happens to his mother. On page 58 when the father and son are leaving the campsite the son does not ask where his mother is, he just asks "she's gone isn't she?" and the father replies "yes she is" and that was it, they left and moved on and the son never asked about her again. He probably assumes that she may have dont something to herself but because he never asks, the father never tells him and this is so that son does not lose hope and think that they cannot survive. I remember later on as well, the boy does lose his faith for a little while and makes a comment on how he wished he were with his mother/dead so that he didn't have to go through all their struggles and the father got really upset with him saying that he musnt lose hope and that he should never say things like that.
Clearly the two have a strong relatioship that depends on one another. Without each other I think that neither of them would have made it as far as they did. By keeping both of these secrets from his son, the father is doing the son a favor and allowing him to keep what little hope he may have left just a bit longer and makes it possible for the son to continue on surviving even after his father's death.
I agree with the signifigance of the secrets to the story. The father goes to great lengths to protect the boy from parts of their environment. Such as when he keeps the boy out of the building with the dead bodies. The Fathers relationship with his son is the only thing that keeps him going. Without the boy he would not have the motivation to make the journey that they are attempting. The bond that they share is very apparent in the beggining of the book. On page 11 the boy asks what the father would do if he died, and the father replies that he would then want to die too. This is a prime example that without the boy the father cannot exist.
Althought the father tries to protect the boy by keeping certain secrets from him, the boy knows. He is well aware the father is dying, throughout the novel, not just in the end when the father tells him. They are eachothers "watchers". They keep eachother in check. The little boy keeps his eye on his father, as well as the father watching the boy. In multiple instances throughout the book the boy reminds his father to eat, drink, sleep, and even takes charge of the route. It seems that the father is more effeceted by the lifestyle than the child, he knows what it is like to have things, food, a perminant shelter, etc. The boy does not. The father, although telling the son some of these luxeries, keeps them to himself alot too. His day dreaming of the past shows us this. All in all there are many "secrets" each character wishes us to think they have kept from eachother. Ultimatly though, it is not true. Being eachothers one and only, shows us that in the end the only secret should be that there really are no secrets among the two men. It is only a farse.
I agree that the father kept the secret of the mother from the son so that the boy would not lose hope, because without it they would've been finished a long time ago. I believe that's why the boy keeps bringing up "carrying the fire" throughout the book. To me, "carrying the fire," means having some kind of hope, and without that hope, all would be lost.
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