Assignment #2

Cormac McCarthy writes in a hopeful determined manner in his fictional story, The Road, a father and son's journey to reach a safe haven. The father and son are living during a post-apocalyptic time, in which safety is a very difficult level of comfort to achieve, they're both faced with the daily struggle of surviving. From the start of the story, the father sacrifices himself to do the best he can for the son, in doing so he speeds up his own demise. It's the father's action of sacrificing his own well being for his son what illuminates the meaning of the work as a whole; it is demonstrating the great lengths a father is willing to go and suffer through for his son. At the beginning of the story, Cormac McCarthy sets clear a very important ideology that the father has. McCarthy writes that the son is questioning his father, "What would you do if i died?...Yes. So I could be with you." (Pg.11) Given the following information, the reader can learn how much meaning the son has to the father. The son means everything to the father, he's the father's sole reason for living. This is very clear to comprehend since it's stated that the father would want to die if the son died as well; the father is willing to die just to follow and be with his son in the afterlife. Later on in the story, McCarthy writes more about how much the father does for his son, ""God he was tired. He leaned on the spade. He raised his head and looked at the boy. The boy sat as before. He bent to his work again." (Pg.134) Provided with this information, the reader can understand the full extent of the father's dedication to his son. Although the father continuously keeps pushing himself past his limit in an unhealthy manner and despite being worn out, it's his son that gives him strength to keep going. McCarthy states that the father is tired and wants to stop digging, but the moment he looks at his son, he goes back to work. Why does the father go back to work after looking at his son? It is because the father remembers that all his effort is for his son's well being and that is the driving force that keeps the father to continuously push harder and harder even when it's negatively consequential to his own health. Near the end of the story, McCarthy writes how the father says his last goodbyes, "I'm sorry...You can talk to me and I'll talk to you. You'll see." (Pg.279) With the given information, the reader can understand the strong emotional farewell the father says to his son. Throughout the entire journey, the father did all he could to keep his son safe and protected, it was his wish to do everything in his power to maintain his son's well being. In the father's farewell he apologizes to his son, this is because although the father did everything he could for his son, in the end it wasn't enough. Afterwards, the father tells the son what he meant to him and how even after he is gone, the son will still be able to talk and see him. This demonstrates the father's undying will to keep trying to be there for his son, even when he's in his deathbed. In, The Road, a father never stops pushing himself past his limit to keep his son as most protected, safe, and best possible state attainable. Although it's the father sacrificing his own well being for the sake of his son's well being, the father knows the consequences and he suffers for the good of his son's well being and does it willingly. The father knew his actions would result in his demise yet it is the love for his son that makes him accept his fate. It's his love for his son which illuminates the meaning of this work, because it's the beauty of a father's love that pushes a father beyond his limit and cause him to sacrifice himself for the sake of his son's well being.