Tuite 3
Logan Tuite
Darkness Unrelenting
A post apocalyptic world is a fantasy that is sought for by science fiction fans and video game fanatics. But in Cormac McCarthy’s novel The Road a post apocalyptic world is a reality for a father and his son as they venture to the coast trying to stay alive. Their journey is riddled with hardship, frustration, and near death encounters. Throughout their journey, the man and his son learn an important lesson about the world: darkness shrouds every corner, and the only light is the light you make yourself.
One of the most memorable scenes in The Road is one that occurs about halfway through in the novel in which the man and his son are starving and pick through the wreckage and ruins of a house that they would have otherwise never come close to in the hopes that they would find food. After finding nothing but a corpse floating in the basement the man acknowledges the futility of the situation. McCarthy writes:
He walked out in the gray light and stood and he saw for a brief moment the absolute truth of the world. The cold relentless circling of the intestate earth. Darkness implacable. The blind dogs of the sun in their running. The crushing black vacuum of the universe (110).
This scene is extremely powerful in the grand scheme of the story. Throughout their journey the man constantly reminds his boy that they are “the good guys,” and he says that they are “carrying the fire.” He advises the boy to never let “the fire” extinguish. The “fire” is the boy’s hope in the world. It is the light that he and his father carry with them to light the darkness in the world. At the end of the novel the man dies, and the boy is left all alone. When approached by a man from the road urging the boy to come with him, the boy asks, “Are you carrying the fire” (238). Even though his father has died, and even though he is living in an implacable darkness, he continues to carry with him hope of happy future. He shows that not everything is lost.
This passage is particularly effective because of the emotional response it demands. The man has all but given up on his journey; failure after failure ensues, and the only reason he keeps going is for his boy. The man has finally admitted to himself that their journey has no happy ending, but he keeps going for the sole fact that his son is his light and happiness, and he will not let the world take that from him too. The man’s actions elicit a feeling of sympathy. He puts on a façade of hope even when he thinks there is none just so that his son can be hopeful.
Cormac McCarthy’s The Road is filled with memorable instances that teach lessons about life, but few could be characterized as being as memorable as the scene in which the man “stood and he saw for a brief moment the absolute truth of the world” (110). The man finally acknowledges the despair and futility of their situation, yet he keeps going for his son. He keeps the light going in the darkness that shrouds the world.