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Emily Daniels

Mann

AP Literature & Composition

28 April 2017

Thrown into the Apocalypse

Humanitys biggest fear is mortality. Our constant fear of death shapes our everyday

lives, whether we are aware of it or not. We take actions based on our eventual death that looms

over our heads it turns some of us cautious, some thrill-seekers. No matter how we

approach our own mortality, we cannot prevent it. Death is one of the deepest

concepts humanity can probe, since it gives us a chance to explore the meaning of

existence and whether anything else exists beyond life. Because we are so afraid, few

of us speak openly about it. Cormac McCarthy is one of those few individuals who

does, and he expresses his understanding of death through writing novels like The

Road. He argues that death is the major issue in the world and that writers who dont address it

are not serious (Kennedy). By throwing the reader into a harsh landscape that makes them

question lifes purpose, Cormac McCarthys The Road reminds us of the power of perseverance

and the goodness of humanity that prevails in the most hopeless of situations, making it a literary

classic.

The Road wipes away modern society with its post-apocalyptic setting, making us

question which parts of life are insignificant and which parts persist. The character of the father

is the one that reveals the origins of the apocalypse to the reader, as they boy is too young to

remember when it began. The man explains little, only that the clocks stopped at 1:17. A long

shear of light and then a series of low concussions. A dull rose glow in the windowglass
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(McCarthy 52). A disastrous event like this is one of the greatest fears of a human society, since

it forces us to recognize how frail our way of life is. A specific scene highlights this frailty at the

beginning of the novel, when the man offers the boy a Coca Cola that they find in a vending

machine. Since it could be one of the last sodas on earth, he chooses to give it to the boy

because [the boy] wont ever get to drink another one (McCarthy 24). It is a stark reminder

that an object recognized in culture can disappear in a near instant. On top of this, the boy cannot

recognize the Coca Cola, showing culture can be devastated by the mere passage of time. Brian

Donnelly states that as the iconic residue of a post-apocalyptic society, the extinction of Coke

marks the texts endeavor to demonstrate in the severest sense the discrepancy between reality

and the Real Thing, the last representative of a consumer fantasy that is no longer tenable

(73). The setting of the apocalypse wipes away all of humanitys illusions, including our

construction of culture. The concept of the apocalypse was considered futuristic twenty years ago

but is becoming more prevalent as time passes (Winfrey). However, this concept is timeless

because humanity will always fear the destruction of society. The point of a society is to keep its

inhabitants safe from certain dangers that come with the real world. When we begin to detach

from our need of society, we must fight for survival and confront the true nature of reality. In a

sense, McCarthy uses the post-apocalyptic wasteland as a way to shove the reader out of the

safety of culture and examine his or her own questions about reality. This is the ultimate test of

humanity, as the throwing away of our manufactured distractions force us to comprehend the

human condition without distraction. The post-apocalyptic scenario of The Road brings up the

most horrific situation that would challenge any humans sense of faith and morals, which is part

of what defines a classic.

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On top of a thought-provoking setting, McCarthy also uses biblical symbolism to discuss

the complex theme of whether a divine power exists in the universe. The man is driven to survive

in the harsh environment because of his belief that the boy is a sort of messiah, as he believes

that if he is not the word of God God never spoke (McCarthy 5). This belief is the only thing

keeping him from a life of savagery or succumbing to death altogether. In his mind, a God that

does not speak is a God that does not create. Thus, the mans declaration is that either his son is

the word of God, or, for all practical purposes, the universe is a godless one. (Wielenberg 1).

Even the boy has accepted his fathers ideology. When crying about the fate of the thief that tries

to steal their supplies, the man tells him that you dont have to worry about everything, in

which the boy responds that yes, I am I am the one (McCarthy 259). There are also

miraculous events that allow the two to carry on, such as their discovery of the bunker full of

food or how the veteran chooses to adopt the boy after the father passes. In the Cormac

McCarthy Journal, Professor Erik J. Wielenberg wonders if such events are little miraclesthe

hand of God reaching into the burned-out hellscape to protect the childor are they just strokes

of good fortune? The answer to this question remains unclear. There are hints of divine activity,

but they are never more than hints. (1). In the apocalypse, the presence of a divine being is just

as unknown as it was back when society still flourished. It is up to the mind to decide whether

these supposed miracles are the work of God or luck. The presence of the old man who calls

himself Ely on the road brings up this point (McCarthy 165). According to Weilenberg, this

stranger is symbolic as the prophet Elijah from the Old Testament:

Elijah predicted a drought he knew that the catastrophe (or something like it) was

coming. Ely is fed by the boy and possibly mistakes him for an angel (McCarthy 172).

In the book of Malachi, the final book of the Old Testament, Malachi foretells a day of
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judgment, a day burning like an oven, when all the arrogant and all evildoers will be

stubble; the day will leave them neither root nor branch (Malachi 4:1). Malachi

declares that God will send Elijah in advance of this fiery day of judgment (2).

Despite being the supposed prophet of God, even the old man is skeptical that such a being

exists, saying that where men cant live Gods fare no better (McCarthy 172). The uncertainty

around whether a divine presence exists is used by symbolically divine characters, showing how

McCarthy can manipulate symbolism to prove his own points on the human condition. In fact,

these miracles handed to the boy and the man question if it truly matters that a divine being

exists at all. Through his use of biblical symbolism, McCarthy suggests that there does not need

to be a presence of God in order for humanity to retain healthy morals. When the man and the

boy meet Ely, he tells them there is no God and we are his prophets (McCarthy 171). In a

sense, the contemplation of whether a divine being exists is a distraction from what actions we

choose to take. Even this far into the future, the everyday survivors are just as lost as the reader

when considering if a divine presence exists, so it is likely a question that humanity will never

answer. Whoever gave them these opportunities is not important, divine or otherwise, as long as

they thank them and move on. These are just one of many complex questions that McCarthy

delves into in his novel.

The Road discusses several controversial and complex themes that can intrigue a reader

from any place or time, causing him or her to question the truth of the human condition. In

contemplating a divine power or lack thereof, lifes ultimate purpose is also questioned, leading

the reader into another controversial and misunderstood concept. When the family is stripped of

their society, the wife believes that life is no longer meaningful as she argues they are going to

rape us and kill us and eat us and you wont face it. Youd rather wait for it to happen. You
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have no argument because there is none (McCarthy 56). Since the meaning of life is one of the

most complex topics to deal with, most people are incorrect when trying to reveal the truth. This

can lead to disturbing consequences, like the womans decision to commit suicide. Wielenberg

claims that it is not a lack of life purpose that the woman faces, but isolation from the human

race. What she truly fears is a lack of meaning and love in a post-apocalyptic world, which leads

her to suicide (11). The boy and the man survive for so long because they continue to kindle their

companionship with one another and hold onto the morals that were present in society long ago.

This brings up the next question: must we always follow this set of morals? In The Road,

carrying the fire is a metaphor for the higher morals that the man and the boy adhere to

compared to the cannibalistic cults that they live amongst (McCarthy 83). It is a sort of code that

decides bad guys eat people; good guys dont. This is what remains of the Categorical

Imperative: dont treat people as mere food (Wielenberg 4). However, there are several

occasions when the man breaks his own laws, despite telling the boy that they must be followed.

At one point, the man forces a thief to freeze to death after he tries to steal their belongings

(McCarthy 258). In a sense, he is still committing murder, which is approaching the behavior of

the bandits and cannibals. There is a clear uncertainty about their moral codes, as the boy tells

the father that he ha[s] to watch [him] all the time. If you break little promises youll break

big ones. Thats what you said, in which the man denies that he will ever let go of their laws

(McCarthy 34). Here, McCarthy looks into the gray area between morals and reality. Issues that

we see as black and white are exposed as a spectrum of decisions when the man and the boy are

faced with survival and the high likelihood of death. McCarthy not only addresses this grayness,

but pulls the reader into the man and the boys decisions so that they must experience the

questioning of the novels themes for themselves. In a sense, McCarthy tricks his readers to
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plunge themselves into deep philosophical thinking and explore some of their darkest fears.

Many people are unaware of their natural fear of their own deaths, but those who read The Road

are forced into such awareness, making the book crucial in literature.

McCarthy is able to submerge his readers into the thought-provoking situations of The

Road through his writing style, putting the reader into the situation of the characters and making

him or her experience of the end of all things. He has a very specific writing style, as a page

from any of his books--minimally punctuated, without quotation marks, avoiding apostrophes,

colons or semicolons--has a stylized spareness that magnifies the force and precision of his

words. (Woodward). The flowing style of McCarthys writing brings the reader into the present

moment of the book as if they actually have to experience the post-apocalyptic wasteland for

themselves. He is particularly descriptive in the gory and disturbing scenes:

[the man] had a magazine in his hip pocket and he took it out and tore some pages from

it and wadded them and got out his lighter and lit the papers and dropped them into the

darkness. A faint whooshing. He shielded the glare with his hand and when he did he

could see. Human bodies. Sprawled in every attitude. Dried and shrunken in their

rotted clothes (McCarthy 47).

This flowing writing helps the readers follow the mans exact thoughts and experiences, an

impressive feat for any writer. It is also clear in McCarthys writing when he leads the reader to

focus on something specific, as his sentences grow shorter when emphasizing the presence of

human corpses. This helps him deliver the novels themes, such as the realization of ones

eventual death in this specific example. On top of this, McCarthy chose to make the main

characters and much of the setting unclear. The characters are merely described as a man in his

late 40s and his son, about 10, both unnamed... walking a desolated road. it is through the
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voice of the father that McCarthy delivers his vision of end times. (Kennedy). Not much is

known of the characters origins, other than a few vivid flashbacks and that the mans wife chose

to commit suicide when the apocalypse came. Backstory matters little in this novel, as McCarthy

uses his writing style and his nameless characters to focus on the present experience of the post-

apocalyptic setting. The man and the boy are relatable to anyone. The reader can relate to the

father because he is the boys only source of knowledge of the fallen society. The amount of care

that the two have for each other is felt by any human being, as the boy asks his father in the

darkness. What would you do if I died? If you died I would want to die too. So you could be

with me? Yes. So I could be with you. Okay (McCarthy 11). With the characters written

ambiguously enough to simply be human and nothing more, the reader can understand the

journey they go through. Any being dropped into an apocalyptic environment would have the

same experience and emotions of the man and the boy. This allows McCarthy to explore the

concept of the apocalypse further, and the themes that he presents with it. McCarthy not only

addresses an apocalyptic scenario and addresses lifes purpose, but he pulls the reader directly

into the world through his characters and unique writing style, making it an important novel in

literature.

The Road is a literary classic that discusses the complex ideas of divine power and human

purpose in such a way that the reader can submerge themselves into the experience of the

desolate setting. McCarthys work reminds us of the important questions that we all must explore

for ourselves; the meaning of our existence, our inevitable fate, and the spectrums of decisions

we must face when dealing with such complex questions. People get distracted by the intricacy

of society, trying to find their place in the fabricated system. In reading The Road, the reader is

forced to let go of societal thinking and therefore the distractions that keep them from exploring
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the true nature of reality. If we can recognize what is vital to human existence and what is not,

then we can avoid wasting what little time we have. McCarthy helps the reader detach

themselves from society to comprehend the themes in The Road, but paradoxically, the reader

must be woven into society to share what they learn from it. If people can mentally remove

themselves from the group thinking of society, then perhaps we can even prevent the apocalypse

that we fear.

Works Cited

Donnelly, Brian. Coke is it! Placing Coca-Cola in Cormac McCarthys THE ROAD. The

Explicator, Vol. 68, No. 1, 2010. Accessed 17 April 2017.

Kennedy, William. Left Behind. Sunday Book Review, The New York Times, 8 October 2006.

McCarthy, Cormac. The Road. Vintage International, 2006.

Wielenberg, Erik J. God, Morality, and Meaning in Cormac McCarthy's The Road". The

Cormac McCarthy Journal, Vol. 8, No. 1, Fall 2010, pp. 1-14.

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Winfrey, Oprah. Cormac McCarthy Interview on the Oprah Winfrey Show. YouTube,

uploaded by Mohammad Farooq. 8 June, 2014. https://www.youtube.com/watch?

v=y3kpzuk1Y8I

Woodward, Richard B. Cormac McCarthys Venomous Fiction. The New York Times, April,

1992. http://www.nytimes.com/1992/04/19/magazine/cormac-mccarthy-s-venomous-

fiction.html?pagewanted=all. Accessed 13 April 2017.