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Maxwell Fishman
Prof. Barnhart
English 113B
30 September 2015

The Lonely Road

What is the true definition of being alone? Is it having nothing left to live for, or having
nothing left to lose? Being isolated from the world can turn men into total savages when
humanity stops paying attention or make them simply wish to end it all so they can live in peace
instead of being shunned by society. In this scenario we see specific members of a dystopian
world, we get an in depth look of what it truly means to be left alone in a world out to rid itself of
whatever is left of human society.
Cormac McCarthy, author of The Road, clearly defines what a broken society looks
like. It is not a simple lets all band together and rebuild from the ground up mentality, it is
survival of the fittest, where the strong will survive and the weak often will become the prey of
the strong. People plainly segregate themselves from those who are deemed to be more of a
nuisance then an asset causing a barrier between the weak and the strong survivors. The Man and
the Boy are the best examples of this process as the Man understands how this putrid world
works.
The basic premise of the world in The Road is that the whole of society has fallen apart
with no sense of the human world remaining among the remnants of survivors. People young and

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old have a darker side, a more curious side to things deemed inhuman that they would think but
never express, not even to their closest family and friends. Once the idea that the world is no
longer watching and judging them this dark side bursts out and takes hold.
As time progresses these people meet others with the same interests and they begin
forming alliances. They begin wreaking havoc on those stupid enough to accept their offers of
shelter. The Man knows this better than anyone, pulling a gun, on a man trying to get the Boy to
join their party. He understands that there are no free rides in an apocalypse and there will always
be a catch, a price to pay. This creates a negative sense of trust with the boy as every encounter
the two have usually starts and ends with a form of threat. This gives the idea to the boy that they
are alone in this world, going as far as to say they truly are isolated from whats left of humanity.
Does the life of one person make up the whole universe of an individual; to some people
yes but deep down there is always that one tiny voice in the back of their minds reminding them
that there were better times before this. The Man has dreams showing a better world in his mind
back when he had so much more than he does now. He remembers a happy father preparing for a
child to be brought into his life, but are these truly dreams? The novel visibly portrays the idea
that the Man has all these visions of a time prior to the apocalypse, however the sequence from
dream to reality shifts with little to no warning almost as if, the were simply visions.
The Man like clockwork, has these "dreams" of what life was like prior to the death of
human society and strange other forms of realities. The man tries to fight off his dreams so he
can stay in reality, and focus on the time he had left with his son, but the recurring dreams
strongly show the Man truly wishes his old life would return.

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This challenge can be seen as the Man being torn apart between two separate worlds. In
one world are his loving wife and family where human society still exists. In other world
everyone is out to kill their fellow man and the chances of survival are slim to none. The most
significant factor as to why he even wants to try and survive in this war is simply because of his
son which in a certain way shows the bond between both realties. In the previous world it is all
the Man has left from his loving wife and in this world they live in now it is simply so he will
have something to live for.
Research I have conducted showed during the bombing of Britain throughout World War
II, soldiers who have lost entire families seem to experience the exact same visions. Their
families are still there watching over them, even after further examinations of the soldiers it was
deemed that some acquired a sense of PTSD and also schizophrenia. The combination of these
two illnesses together is an absolute nightmare to the mind. Bringing a constant reminder that
they are the sole remainder of their family to going as far as making them relive the experience
that caused such a travesty utterly destroys the mind and makes them empty husks.
The Man is far from becoming a hollow but one could suppose him having schizophrenia
with these visions of his previous life. The constant mental stress the Man has to go through from
protecting the Boy from harm's way to making sure that they both have enough food and water to
make it through another day could also be another reason for these types of episodes to help him
make it through the day. A world against them what else can a man do then remember the times
where he didn't have to palm a weapon as he sleeps. When you look deeper into the book the
isolation they are currently experiencing could also be considered pure alienation.
There are also the thoughts of complete alienation from the rest of the world as whoever
they meet has these ulterior motives for them. The only named character that was not a complete

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monster towards the Man and the Boy is named Ely although it was not his actual name
according to him. Elys kindness was minimal despite the fact that the Boy gave supplies to him
Ely was more of a harsh anti-prophet speaking in riddles, saying such things as "There is no god
and we are his prophets." (pg. 237) and exclaiming that death would soon abandon the world
once humanity is gone. It actually made it seem as if the whole world was against them, or at the
very least has no care for what happens to them.
This sort of experience can be seen in less intense scenarios such as during the times of
Japans recovery from World War II. The world did not see Japan as an honorable ally due to its
great betrayal of China and joining the Axis forces. This specific time was called "Calendar of
Japanese Treaties, 1951-1970." They struggled to try and regain broken ties with the world but
everyone was on edge and very cautious with doing any business with Japan, they were
completely segregated from the world this includes any Japanese people that were in the U.S.
and other countries in the world.
The biggest difference between this situation and the novel is that this did not make Japan
unwary and detestable towards the world but instead gave them a form of determination that
made them want to try and make amends for their previous mistakes. At the end of the day both
Japan and the Child had the same goal but for different reasons.
I understand that the societies in these two scenarios are completely different as
obviously one is not a doomed civilization and one is however the idea of both trying to fix
what's broken is the same. The Boy holds a strong sense of diplomacy and kindness like Japan
and is basically treated the same way Japan was being treated by the rest of the world. Trying his
best to express his love and caring personality and offering gifts

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Being alone can make you vulnerable which causes distrust among all survivors. The
Man preferred to be distant and even violent to strangers while the boy tried a more diplomatic
and friendly approach to see if they could better their odds at survival. Man knows this song and
dance all too well one false move and they are food for their friends. The boy is too young to
fully understand the desperation of the situation they are in and some would believe that the
actions the Boy makes could put them in danger fairly easily. Try as he might to maintain
composure the Man would not hesitate to kill to keep the boy is safe. This is another piece of the
fear of isolation for the Man. He deems the Boy to be the sole purpose of his existence, which
brings out an indirect sense of isolation for the Boy. Since the Man isolates the Boy, not letting
anyone near him, unless they want to get shot in the head.
The factors set into this novel, one would believe the Man would become as cruel and
unforgiving as the world they live in, but on the contrary he has become a caring and protective
father. The father has already experienced a better life and knows what he has lost, while the Boy
possesses none of these experiences. This creates a profound difference on how the Boy and the
Man view the world they are in. For instance when they were scavenging and found a Coca Cola
can the Boy was intrigued and curious while the Man simply saw it as a Coke can.
This truly speaks volumes of the separate worlds that the Man and the Boy lived in as the
Boy never got to experience really anything in life aside from witnessing the collapse of Human
society. The Boy is the embodiment of two separate worlds, but knows nothing about the
previous one, aside from stories his father tells him and through walking among the now deserted
cities. All one can really do in this situation is imagine what it was like; thankfully the buildings
themselves aren't truly damaged, but simply abandoned and covered in the ashes of the old
world.

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The echoes of an old and dead society with the grey hollow ash-covered world is what
the Boy must now experience instead of a fun and peaceful world the Man lives which also gives
another form of isolation to where they really don't have much to talk about as anything the Man
would say is simply foreign to the Boy and he will never experience the same things that the
Man experienced during his time on earth.
The amount of stress this put on the Man both physically and mentally begins to cause his
health to decline, until his unfortunate death in the end. Through the end of the novel all the Boy
experiences is hardships, betrayal, the horrors of a now forgotten humanity one would think that
the Boy would become anti-social and violent, but yet we see the Boy instantly join a whole new
group of survivors even though all the ones he had met had previously tried to kill them. Why,
that is a large question that comes to mind, why would you side with possible savages with all
that you have been through with your father?
The biggest fear is the fear of losing all you had left and truly being alone. The Boy in a
instant lost his Father and began a whole new journey with a group of strangers, truly surprising
the reader. One would think that the last thing the Boy would do is simply trust this group of
happy go lucky survivors who never resort to cannibalism. Sure the survivor says they have
never done it but in this world is trust really that simple to gain?
The whole thing seems strange but the Boy is not simply doing it because he wants to
make his father worry even in the afterlife, he is doing it because his fathers dying message
explained to the boy that a fire was shining inside him making him a sort of beacon for humanity.
With this knowledge he chooses to go with this group to have his very own experiences with the

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remnants of the world that remain and spread his hope among others who consider this life not
worth living.
This would make you say that he wants to break the illusion of being alone in this world
and being isolated in society, granted most people as of right now are hollow, selfish, and
bloodthirsty monsters but the Man and the Boy aren't the only ones that want to survive in this
world without losing their humanity. I believe he simply left so he could be connected to other
humans aside from his father. The Boy loved his father to the very end and wishes to spread the
knowledge he was given about surviving in such harsh conditions and try to stray people from
becoming cannibals through the scavenging techniques he was taught.
The fear of being alone is always in the back of our heads; no one wants to lose
everything they have. The Man in particular understands this above all else, the Boy has a grasp
of what the Man had before the apocalypse but that's all he really knows. No one could really
imagine how the Man was feeling throughout the novel, a man who was doomed with visions
from the past. Experiences of different realities like monsters and visions of his wife minutes
before the destruction of society can show that these thoughts are literally destroying him
mentally.
Cormac McCarthy truly did his research on the matters of the apocalyptic world showing
plain as day that once you lose something you can never truly get it back. All that I have learned
from the harsh experiences in the novel, to what I had researched involving war victims who
share symptoms nearly perfect to the "dreams" the Man experienced within the novel. That is the
most interesting part of this novel to me as it shows a far deeper form of torture on the people
who dare to live in the world they live in. They show that it is not only a physical journey, but it
is also a test of one's mental strength and the courage to continue to find hope.

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Works Cited

"Related Product." British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Sept. 2015

"How Policies Change : The Japanese Government and the Aging Society." How Policies Change : The
Japanese Government and the Aging Society. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Sept. 2015.

"Through Japanese Eyes. Volume I: The Past: The Road From Isolation." by Richard H. Minear, Leon E.
Clark; Through Japanese Eyes. Volume 2: The Present: Coping with Affluence.
.