Cormac Mccarthy The Road Violence

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Mankind’s Fascination with Violence In a world without reason, what serves for order? In some of the darkest recesses of the world--and the mind for that matter--torture, violence, hate in general serve to propagate life as some people know it. In Cormac McCarthy’s The Road, Cruelty acts as a reminder of what man can-and is-capable of doing to one another when deprived of life’s necessities. What causes people to be or become violent is the question that I should address first. For some time, some 20-30 years ago, everyone believed crime and murder was left for underdeveloped and uncivilized lands. It is recognised now that this is not the case. In terms of social causes, there are plenty: how their family bonds, the person’s own characteristics, …show more content…
There is a clear connection between education and crime today and the same would apply for The Road, as well. It is quite possible that whenever the unknown cataclysmic event occurred, many of the hostiles encountered in the story were likely in their teens or maybe even children. Unable to process the world around them and forced to take action in order to survive. The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini is able to give a much more modern but equally gruesome scene. This would be when Amir and Baba are attempting to leave Afghanistan and are searched at the Soviet military checkpoint by the young recruit who was demanding to sleep with the married woman, only to be stopped by the more courteous officer who has likely gone through much more rigorous training to rise to his …show more content…
Ely is not a violent man. William Kennedy of the New York Times compared him to the prophet “Elijah, Herald of the Messiah”, who appeared as “a pile of rags fallen off a cart”(McCarthy, 162). He may not look the part, but he does speak pessimistically of their world where “There is no God and we are his prophets”(McCarthy,170), which only adds to the theme of meaninglessness in the story and stands as a foreboding sign for the protagonists. In the end, most would agree to consider Ely either a psychologically cruel character or at the very least inconsiderate of other’s
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