Symbolism In The Road By Cormac Mccarthy

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The use of symbolism is something that Cormac McCarthy, author of the post-apocalyptic book The Road, relies heavily on. Throughout the book, many symbols are constantly being thrown out, such as: the coca-cola, the flare gun, the charred infant, or the brass sextant he finds on a ship. The most prominent and consistently used symbols though would have to be the boy, the father, and the road itself. The boy represents the more hopeful and optimistic side of humanity, the father represents the darker and more desperate side of humanity, and the road represents the journey of life and the path they travel.
In the book, the nameless “boy” can be viewed as the last, best hope of humanity. Instinctively, the boy should be iniquitous and malicious when the world he’d been raised in is factored in, but instead …show more content…
The father and the son travel along the road, encountering numerous different hardships and tests-- some more deadly than others. In that case, the road can symbolize a number of things: the state of the world, the mental state of the father, or the desperation of humanity. The fact that the father and son encounter people on the road who eat other people, even babies, can symbolize the complete and utter loss of humanity that is occurring throughout the world.
The father, the son, and the road all have heavy significance in relation to symbolism of the state of humanity post-apocalypse. The father continually gets more and more desperate throughout the book whereas the son gets more and more benumb as the book progresses. Though he retains his compassion and want to help others, he comes to understand that he should be cautious as his father was attempting to teach him the longer they travel on the road and witness the atrocities humans have been reduced to. Ultimately, the father, the son, and the road are all symbols of the destruction and deterioration of
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