Trout In The Road

In the last paragraph of The Road, McCarthy describes the beautiful brook trout that once lived in the streams. His description of the trout greatly contrasts most the novel. The landscape in The Road is barren, dark, cold, filthy, and devoid of life. However, after the death of the boy’s father, McCarthy chooses to end his novel with a description of trout whom “on their backs were vermiculate patterns that were maps of the world in its becoming” and who “in the deep glens where they lived all things were older than man and they hummed of mystery.” Depending on how a reader interprets this final paragraph, determines what they think will happen to the boy and his future in this post-apocalyptic world. I first saw the trout as a symbol