Like Father, Like Son

Like Father, Like Son
Man’s goal in life is not to do something incredible during his lifetime, but instead to leave something incredible behind for future generations to act and build on. In Cormac Mccarthy’s The Road, a man and his son struggle for survival in a post-apocalyptic era. The majority of this struggle revolves around the lack of food in the world and the boy’s constant fear of life itself. In order to combat these struggles, the man is forced to have all faith and must keep trekking forward to teach his son never to give up on life. Although throughout the novel, these constant challenges never seem to be conquerable, the man never seems to lose hope up until the moment that he dies. The boy who acts cowardly and frightened during his adventures with his father has two choices to make once his father passes: he can become fearful and give up on life or he can continue the struggle that he and his father built and sought together. Because the father instilled such pride and determination in his son, the man’s legacy will never be lost. Even in such dire times, the boy’s willingness to continue to fight without his father allows for some sort of brighter future and does moderately redeem the generally bleak tone of the former part of the novel.
Throughout most of the novel, Mccarthy gives little hope for the man and the boy. It appears that the two of them are just wandering from one desolate place to the next, sometimes meeting new people who are either dangerous or of little benefit to them. It appears as if continuing with life is more of a punishment; choosing to live is harder than just letting one’s self to die or to commit suicide. In a conversation between the the man and his son, it is clear to see just how calamitous the situation, “go to sleep. I wish I was with my mom. He didn’t answer. He sat beside the small figure wrapped in the quilts and blankets. After a while he said: you mean you wish you were dead. Yes. You musnt say that. But I