BA#1 McCarthy's The Road

One secret that is being kept in the novel "The Road", is a secret the father is keeping from his son. The son was born after this catastrophe has occurred and therefore doesn't know what the world was like before. The son asks his father what it was like and wants to know but the father refuses to tell him. "Sometimes the child would ask him questions about the world that for him was not even a memory. He thought hard how to answer. There is no past. What would you like? But he stopped making things up because those things were not true either and the telling made him feel bad" (page 53). Another secret that is similiar to this secret is the secret that the author is keeping from the reader. This secret being what exactly the catastrophe was and what caused it. "A long shear of light and then a series of low concussions" (page 52). The author doesn't clarify what this statement means so far in the novel. The two secrets compare because it's something that can't be dwelled on and isn't the most important aspect of the story. The author doesn't think what caused this situation is as important as the journey and survival. The father doesn't want his son to dwell on the past and what it used to be like because the past no longer exists and most likely will never be the same again. I think the secret is important to understanding the narrative because the father is keeping the past a secret to protect his son. The father wants to keep his son's hope of survival and not give him more facts to dwell on that would make him lose hope, especially since the son has already said he wishes he was dead like his mother. The father just wants to protect his son.