Although there are many secrets held throughout "The Road", one of the major ones is the secret of anybody's name. None of the characters that appear, be it the man, the boy, or the people they meet along the road, have names. We know that the main character is called "Papa" by the boy, but that is it.
"The boy turned in the blankets. Then he opened his eyes. Hi, Papa, he said.
I'm right here.
I know." (p. 5)
This is the type of conversation seen throughout the entire novel. When McCarthy used "he" there was much confusion over which he was meant by it, and during the conversations, as you can see above it is very difficult to decipher which character is speaking. There are no other specific personification other than "the man" "the boy" and the occasional "papa". With the people they meet along the road, we get vague descriptions based on their appearances. This is a secret that is kept from the reader, AND from the characters. It could be a secret kept for the mere fact of the boy and the man not actually knowing eachothers names, but I believe it's a secret kept to add to the effect of mysteriousness and uncertainty in the novel.
This secret relates to the secret or the seemingly secret in "Carried Away" when Arthur says that he does not know the names of the factory workers. That he goes through day in and day out with these people knowing not much more than their physical appearance. This relates to "The Road" because the man and the boy seemingly go through each and everyday not knowing the other's name, calling eachother, sometimes, nothing at all; just acknowledging that the other is there.
Knowing the answer to this secret is not vital to understanding the plot or to understanding what is happening. It would, however, help in understanding who is speaking when. Since both main characters are males, there is no distinction of who is who. Both of their vocabularies are similiar. Neither of them are too wide or too developed so there is no distinction there. Also, when another male gets thrown into the picture for example, the man i n the doorway, or the man who got "struck by lightning" it becomes very confusing because there are no distinctions to go by other then following the text and re-reading passages a few times before comprehending it.
1 comment:
I agree that the secret of the names that is kept from the reader is a big one an it definitely can get pretty confusing with the pronoun "he." I also agree that it is not necessary to the plot to know the names. When they meet the old man on the road who they decide to help, I think McCarthy gives a little bit of a clue to why he doesn't use names. The father asks if the old man's name is really Ely and he replies saying it's not his name but he doesn't want to give his real name. Then he says, "I couldn't trust you with it. To do something with it. I don't want anybody talking about me. To say where I was or what I said when I was there. I mean, you could talk about me maybe. But nobody could say it was me. I could be anybody. I think in times like there the less said the better. If something had happened and we were survivors and we met on the road then we'd have something to talk about. But we're not. So we don't" (p 171).
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