Wednesday, April 2, 2008
BA#2 McCarthy's The Road: The Boy's Morals and Hope
The boy knows nothing else. Endless grey days and ash covered roads. Hunger, biting coldness, and fear are everyday emotions for this child. There was never sunshine and play, the carefree ways of inncoent children. The boy was born and his innocence ripped away immediatly. He was not given a chance to flourish under normal circumastances, in a normal stable environment. He spent his entire young life, and more than likley, adult life, wandering from ruin to ruin. Seeking out the good in a desolate waste of land. However, dull and bleak his exterior we see from ealry on that he is not a dull child. He is extremley bright, warm, and loving. He is giving and compassionate. He knows what it is like to have nothing and is more than willing to share his meager allowences with those who need it. In several instances thruoghout the novel, the boy is willing to give uo his share to either his father, or those who he deems need it more than he. Like the old crippled man he gives peaches to. Durring the narrative the boy and father frequently argue about giving away precious stock to strangers. The boy is always in favor, the father always not. It is hard to share what one has when one has nothing. But I think the boy is more apt to share because he is used to having nothing. The man knows what it is like to live with luxeries, thus the little they have he hoards. The boy is ultimatly the small voice of reason to his father. I think he keeps him sane. The boy gives him hope, he is the future. Ultimatly the boy represents the good in humanity, the hope that even though all is lost and evil is abundant there is someone, somthing out there to bring hope, to bring caring, and to ultimatly keep the faith. The father raised the boy to beleive that there was good, even when all was going bad. I dont think the man ment to be harsh and greedy, he was acting out of desperation. A good passage showing how the boy represents hope in the novel is on page 60. "In the morning they came out of the ravine and took to the road again. He'd carved the boy a flute from a piece of roadside cane and took it from his coat and gave it to him. The boy took it wordlessly. After a while the man could here him playing. A formless music for the age to come. Or perhaps the last music on earth called up called up from out of the ashes of its ruin. The man turned and looked back at him. He was lost i concentration. The man thaught he seemed some sad and solitary changling announcing the arrival of a traveling specticle in shire and village who does not know that behind him the players have all been carried off by wolves." The boy keeps going, like nothing happened. He sees the goodness in people, places, and experiences. He is the voice of reason to the man, and to thier world. He gives hope to the man that there will be somthing better... there has to be somthing better. Ultimatly it is the child who keeps them going.
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5 comments:
The boy is being kept from a huge secret, what the world used to be like. The boy grew up only knowing diaster and survival like you said. He never got to see what the world was like before catastrophe. The father is keeping what the world was like from his son and makes up stories when he does talk about the world prior to diaster. When the boy asks the father questions the father doesn't elaborate about anything. For example on page 59, the boy asks the father if he had any friends and the father simply replies "They died." He doesn't want to talk about the past so he changes the subject and keeps moving on. It seems like the father doesn't want to dwell on the past because it's never going to be like that again and he doesn't want the boy to dwell on something he's never known and never will.
As true as it is that the father is looking out for the good of the little boy by telling him made up stories of what the world was like before the diaster, I believe that some of it is true. I believe when the boy asks him to tell him a story about his life the man actually tells the truth. At one point the little boy disagrees and tells the man that he is not telling the truth. I believe the boy says this because he has never known anything more then the dark ashy world he lives in now. He knows nothing about luxuries; nothing about living a better a life, therefore it is hard for him to believe his father when he tells the boy a story. For this, I disagree that the father is trying to shield the boy from the world and I disagree that the secret of the world is intentional.
I think the little boy was forced to grow up and face reality obviously sooner than other children have to. Yet, he is the most caring and hopeful young boy as a result of his fathers morals and outlook of the world and the future. No matter what they have hope for the future and even when the father dies the little boy is reassured that he always has the hope and faith within him. As shown in the novel when the father is dying he tells the boy that no matter what he has the "fire" within him. The boy has courage and hope that was instilled by his father and a sense of survival that will help him succeed at any obstacle. At times I believe that the little boy is a symobolsim of hope to the father, and he is the driving person behind their journey.
Although all the boy knows is darkness and gray, he was raised by his father to grow up and make the best of things. I agree that the way he was raised was a major part of who is he in the story, and also it could be natural. He could have been born with the intension to help others along the craziness, even though his father doesnt want/like to help others. I agree that the father did live through post-disaster, so he understands treasures and luxeries, while the little boy wants to share with other people along the way. In a way, when the father doesnt want to help others, he is only thinking about his son for the most part. And it is his main priority to take care of the boy.
"This is my child, he said. I was a dead man's brains out of his hair. That is my job." (Page 74)
I agree with what everyone seems to be saying. It's obvious that the father is trying to keep what the world use to be like before secret from his son. He lets his son know that the world was not always like this and I think that that's all he should tell the boy at times. I'm sure that the father wants to keep the way the world was from his son because it may be too much for the kid to handle. But i also feel like the father doesn't go into detail because he does know what everything was like before disaster. And thinking about it and recalling all those memories would throw him into a depression and make him unable to care for his son. I think he did the right thing in not letting his son in on everything, because this is what his son was born into. This is his son's world and all his son knows and letting him in on all that use to be would be very overwhelming to him.
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