Jenny L.
Mrs. Johnson
AP English 4
February 22, 2014
The Road by Cormac McCarthy Research Paper Imagine a world where the skies are grey and the ground is torn to pieces. Where there is no civilization present, nor another human being to be seen. Where the feeling of hunger influences you to consider the idea of human flesh filling your insides and persuading you to do so. A world infested with murder, crime, and despair—which have now become necessary for survival. Imagine the air thick with black clouds towering over your very essence and having to muddle through 10 feet of snow and a strong gust of wind. A world where all faith should be gone, but amiss all bad things, it continues to linger through the eyes of the youth. Being …show more content…

The drastic change from contemplating death, to thinking about the life of one’s progeny displays that the man lives only to protect the boy, “that the boy was all that stood between him and death” (29). How the man would reach out to assure himself the boy was still there proves that the boy is the single most important thing occupying the man’s thoughts, a noble reason to continue to live. The boy is the only thing the man has left, and thus, he loves him endlessly. The quote depicts the story line with impressive accuracy from describing the weather, to the love that triumphs all. As well as when the man is dying and tells his son, “I know. I'm sorry. You have my whole heart. You always did. You're the best guy. You always were. If I'm not here you can still talk to me. You can talk to me and I'll talk to you. You'll see,” (279) the reader is moved by the father-son relationship. What is touching is that the dialogue is convincing and it is not hard to picture a father saying sweet things to his boy in such a manner. The man truly believes that the boy deserves this title of being the “best guy.”
Faith is the driving force for the man and the boy to continue on their path forward and stay alive. Although the boy has no memory of the previous world and was born into a world of violence, he continues to practice faith. Since, this is the lifestyle he was brought up in, the boy does not know anything other than what his father has told him, the boy