Essential Qu estions for Discussion

Cormac McCarthys The Road

1. Cormac McCarthy has an u nmistakable p rose style. What d o you see as the most d istinctive featu res
of that style? How is the w riting in The Road in some w ays m ore like poetry than narrative prose?
2. Why d o you think Corm ac has chosen not to give his characters nam es? H ow d o the generic labels
of "the m an" and "the boy" affect the w ay in w hich read ers relate to them ?
3. H ow is Cormac able to make the p ost-ap ocalyp tic w orld of The Road seem so real and u tterly
terrifying? Which d escrip tive p assages are esp ecially vivid and visceral in their d epiction of this
blasted land scap e? What d o you find to be the m ost horrifying featu res of this w orld and the
su rvivors w ho inhabit it?
4. Cormac doesn't m ake explicit w hat kind of catastrop he has ru ined the earth and d estroyed hum an
civilization, bu t w hat might be su ggested by the m any d escrip tions of a scorched land scap e covered
in ash? What is imp lied by the father's statem ent that, "On this road there are no god sp oke m en.
They are gone and I am left and they have taken with them the world ," [p . 32]?
5. As the father is d ying, he tells his son he m u st go on in ord er to "carry the fire." When the boy asks if
the fire is real, the father says, "It's insid e you . It w as alw ays there. I can see it" [p . 279]. What is this
fire? Why is it so cru cial that they not let it d ie?
6. Cormac envisions a p ost-ap ocalyptic w orld in w hich "mu rd er was everyw here u p on the land " and
the earth w ou ld soon be "largely p op ulated by m en w ho w ou ld eat you r child ren in front of you r
eyes" [p . 181]. H ow d ifficult or easy is it to imagine Cormac's nightm are vision actually hap p ening?
Do you think p eople w ou ld likely behave as they d o in the novel, u nd er the sam e circum stances?
Does it now seem that hum an civilization is head ed tow ard su ch an end ?
7. The man and the boy think of them selves as the "good guys." In w hat w ays are they like and u nlike
the "bad guys" they encounter? What d o you think Cormac is su ggesting in the scenes in w hich the
boy begs his father to be m erciful to the strangers they encou nter on the road ? H ow is the boy able
to retain his com p assion------to be, as one review er pu t it, "com p assion incarnate"?
More d iscussion questions for The Road

8. The Road takes the form of a classic jou rney story------a form that d ates back to Hom er's The Odyssey.
To w hat d estination are the m an and the boy journeying? In w hat sense are they "p ilgrim s"? What, if
any, is the symbolic significance of their journey?

ADAPTED FROM OPRAHS READING CLUB | http://www.oprah.com/oprahsbookclub/Readers-Guide-to-The-Roadby-Cormac-McCarthy

9. Cormac's w ork often d ram atizes the op p osition betw een good and evil, w ith evil som etim es
em erging triump hantly. What d oes The Road u ltimately su ggest abou t good and evil? Which force
seem s to have greater pow er in the novel?
10. What m akes the relationship betw een the boy and his father so p ow erful and p oignant? What d o
they feel for each other? How d o they m aintain their affection for and faith in each other in su ch
brutal cond itions?
11. Why d o you think Corm ac end s the novel with the im age of trout in m ou ntain stream s before the
end of the w orld ------"In the d eep glens where they lived all things w er e old er than m an and they
hu mm ed of mystery" [p . 287]. What is su rp rising abou t this end ing? Does it provid e closu re, or d oes
it p rom pt a rethinking of all that has com e before? What d oes it su ggest about w hat lies ahead ?

12. The sard onic blind m an nam ed Ely w ho the m an and boy encou nter on the road tells the
father that, "There is no God and w e are his p rop hets" (p . 170). What d oes he m ean by this?
Why d oes the father say about his son, later in the sam e conversation, "What if I said that
he's a god ?" (p . 172) Are w e m eant to see the son as a savior ?

ADAPTED FROM OPRAHS READING CLUB | http://www.oprah.com/oprahsbookclub/Readers-Guide-to-The-Roadby-Cormac-McCarthy