Ketchum 1

Zack Ketchum

AP Literature

Mr. Jiles

Sept. 9, 2010

Allusions Other than the Biblical Kind in The Road

After reading McCarthy’s The Road, one may acknowledge the presence of many biblical

allusions. The environment of the post apocalyptic world is itself an allusion to effects described

in the Book of Revelation. McCarthy’s text in the novel, which is “rich in religious, primarily

Christian terminology (Grindley 2)” , and his mentioning of words such as “Christendom”,

“creedless”, and the McCarthy patented “godspoke” is yet another example of a biblical allusion

in The Road. However, other allusions, possibly not as evident and obvious, lie within the pages

as well. In addition, there may be ways to further interpret these allusions, and not simply

identify them as biblical. And what is more, The Road holds evidence in the scenes that would

make it seem as though it is a sequel to one of McCarthy’s previous, popular works, No Country

For Old Men.

Similar to the former Charles, now Cormac McCarthy’s Irish roots, The Road is teeming with

allusions to works of William Butler Yeats, one of Ireland’s more profound poets. References to

Irish literature begin to appear early in The Road, when the protagonist father of the boy has his

dream described. In it, “they (the man and his son) stood in a great stone room where lay a black

and ancient lake. And on the far shore a creature that raised its dripping mouth from the

rimstone pool and stared into the light with eyes dead white and sightless as the eggs of spiders

(McCarthy 3 – 4).” Further on in the novel, about 50 pages later, McCarthy describes the dream

again, saying he and the boy “stood on the far shore of the river and called to him (the monster).
 Ketchum 2

Tattered gods slouching in their rags across the waste (McCarthy 52)” and, describing other

travelers, the author writes “Stained and filthy. Slouching along with clubs in their hands,

lengths of pipe (McCarthy 60).” Reading these three examples, and more that may be less

subtle, can bring one to the conclusion that McCarthy is alluding to a fashionable poem of Yeats,

The Second Coming. In the poem, Yeats writes of:

  A shape with lion body and the head of a man,

  A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,

   Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it

   Wind shadows of the indignant desert birds.

   The darkness drops again but now I know

   That twenty centuries of stony sleep

   Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,

   And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,

   Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born (Yeats 14 – 22)?

After reading the two works and seeing the similarities in the work, it is easily seen that both of

the writers, contrary to the popular views, do not think of a blessed return of a divine Christ who

has come to take his followers with him to the worlds of heaven. Instead they imagine what the

fate is of those who are left behind and of what horrors and “monsters” may arise to punish them

for their sins.

If it is not obvious McCarthy favors Yeats’ works, consider this: No Country For Old Men,

McCarthy’s 2005 novel, is a direct quotation from Yeats' poem Sailing to Byzantium. In the

closing paragraphs of No Country For Old Men, Sheriff Bell, the main protagonist whose

reminiscences serve as part of the book's narration, remembers a dream in which his father is on
 Ketchum 3

horseback on a snowy mountain path. In the dream, Bell’s father “was carrying the fire in the

horn… goin on ahead and that he was fixin to make a fire somewhere out there in all that dark

and all that cold (McCarthy 309).” In this section of the novel, the sheriff is recalling a story of a

man who is facing an unfamiliar wilderness environment that "[is] set down with a hammer and

chisel and carved out a stone water trough to last ten thousand years (McCarthy 308).” Bell is

stunned and amazed at the faith and perseverance his father shows and thought it to be an

obligation to supply for members of his family in future generations. Readers of The Road know

that the words “carrying the fire” appear frequently in conversations between the man and his

son. Most book reviewers decipher the phrase as the "fire" being a symbol for hope, spiritual

belief, or truth, but most importantly, it is, as described by writer Ron Rash, a “living memory.

However, a closer understanding of Celtic tradition reveals what McCarthy more likely meant.

In the Celtic culture, the hearth fire was the center of family activity, providing warmth, light,

and food for the family. As a "living memory" the hearth fire is the area where stories were told

among the families. It was a place share tales of the family’s ancestry and lineage. Telling

stories plays an important role in the context of The Road as well. McCarthy writes, “He banked

the fire against the seam of rock where he’d built it and strung the tarp behind them to reflect the

heat and they sat warm in their refuge while he told the boy stories. Old stories of courage and

justice as he remembered (McCarthy 41).” The boy hears stories from his father about the world

the boy has never known, the same world that the father once knew – the fathers “living

memory.”

There is no limit to the devastation in the setting of The Road, only new forms of its

expression, and McCarthy renders these up in lush, sensuous writing that is almost like poetry.

However, these s descriptions are a tease because nature as we know it exists only in the dreams
 Ketchum 4

and memories of the man and in the questions of his son, who was born days after the apocalypse

brought destruction to the world, the sun—now permanently obscured—and the blue sea. Early

in the novel, the man looks at a river now empty of life and recalls seeing trout: "He'd stood at

such a river once and watched the flash of trout deep in a pool, invisible to see in the teacolored

water except as they turned on their sides to feed. Reflecting back the sun deep in the darkness

like a flash of knives in a cave (McCarthy 35)." Trout is mentioned in the very end of the novel

as well, where McCarthy has finished with the main story line and describes how “Once there

were brook trout in the streams in the mountains…On their backs were vermiculate that were

maps of the world in its becoming. Maps and mazes. Of a thing which could not be put back.

Not be made right again (McCarthy 286 – 287).” The mentioning of the trout brings to mind

Sailing To Byzantium (inspiration for the title No Country For Old Men), again paying homage

to Yeats. The part of the poem it specifically refers to reads:

The salmon-falls, the mackerel-crowded seas,

Fish, flesh, or fowl, commend all summer long

Whatever is begotten, born, and dies.

Caught in that sensual music all neglect

Monuments of unageing intellect (Yeats 4 – 8).

North Carolina State University professor Barbara Bennett writes “In both places the fish are

remnants of the old world…a place where old men could still survive, as opposed to this new

world which must be inhabited by a different kind of being (Bennet).” To allow for the even the

possibility of the next generations of their families to flourish or at the very least accomplish its

destiny, the father in The Road, similar to Sheriff Bell in No Country For Old Men, must move
 Ketchum 5

and die, not being able to survive in the world of destruction and being unable to cope with his

sickness.

Whether McCarthy meant for his allusions to be more biblical, more Celtic literature, or for

both to be unified is uncertain. And certainly there is compelling evidence that suggests and

supports both. The importance of deciphering McCarthy’s work lies within the simple truth that

one cannot simply label it as one thing without a conduction of a thorough investigation. Work

and research may be required, not all connections and references are as obvious and direct as

others. It is hard to ignore the presence of Irish literature’s, specifically Yeats’, impact on

McCarthy’s work, though, and it provides for interesting ideas and thoughts.
 Ketchum 6

Works Cited

Bennett, Barbara. "Celtic Influences on Cormac McCarthy's No Country for Old Men and the Road -

Page 2 | Notes on Contemporary Literature." Find Articles at BNET | News Articles, Magazine

Back Issues & Reference Articles on All Topics. Web. 08 Sept. 2010.

<http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_6746/is_5_38/ai_n35542574/pg_2/?tag=content;col1>.

McCarthy, Cormac. No Country for Old Men. New York: Vintage International, 2006. Print.

McCarthy, Cormac. The Road. New York: Vintage, 2006. Print.

Yeats, William B. "Sailing to Byzantium by William Butler Yeats." The Literature Network: Online

Classic Literature, Poems, and Quotes. Essays & Summaries. Web. 08 Sept. 2010.

<http://www.online-literature.com/yeats/781/>.

Yeats, William B. "The Second Coming - Yeats." PotW.org - Poem of the Week. Web. 08 Sept. 2010.

<http://www.potw.org/archive/potw351.html>.