BA#2 McCarthy's The Road: The Boy's Morals

In class we had a discussion about where the boy's morals come from considering his upbringing in a devastated world. McCarthy keeps this a "secret" from the reader. As readers, we are never quite sure how the boy has such morals and hope.

This concept really brings up the whole nature vs. nurtue debate. I am a person who believes that children become the adults they are through both the "nuture" in life (environment,parents, etc.) as well as "nature" (genes, biological, etc.)"The Road" demonstrates this combination through the morality and compassion of the boy.The father does in a sense teach the child to be the "good" guy. He teaches him to be carrying the fire. The concept of carrying the fire can relate to optimism and hope--which can lead to morals over utter desperation.This is seen on page 83:

"We're going to be okay, aren't we Papa?/ Yes. We are./ And nothing bad is going to happen to us./ That's right./Because we're carrying the fire. Yes. Because we're carrying the fire."

This shows a little lesson to the boy kind of saying "do unto others as you would like done to you". Since they are so hopeful and optimistic about life, they hope other people will be the same and not do "anything bad" to them.

The boy is the only thing the father really cares about. He always comments on how the boy is just skin and bones.

Page 38:"The boy so thin it stoppped his heart."

The father also always wants to shield the boy from the desperation and constant death surrounding them--though it is not always possible.

Pg 236:"In the shallows beyond the breakwater an ancient corpse rising and falling amonng the driftwood. He wished he could hide it but the boy was right. What was there to hide?"

At other times it seems like the boy has so much more hope than the father, and far more caring for others. Since the child has grown up in devastation through a scavanger lifestyle learning to trust no one--it's surprising that the boy is so compassionate towards the people he encounters.

I think this is where the nature kicks in. It's almost like the biological innoncence of being a child. Children are always very trusting of others and very concerned when others feelings are hurt or they are physically hurt. (I work in a daycare and see it all the time) I think the boy really carries out this innoncence which as he ages and learns lessons from his father becomes compassion for others. When then man on the beach steals their cart, it's the boy begging the father to spare this man and just leave him be. The father is angry and ready to kill him but the boy, for some natural, innate reason, feels sorry for the man.The boy realls seems to understand what others are going through because it is just like what him and his papa are going through.

The boy's moral sense keeps the father going many a time. Some of these moral lessons he learned from his father directly, others the father inadvertenly taught him and others he just had in him to begin with.