The Road - Visual Project

All photos and photoshopping taken/done by me.

The Road: Passage Analysis

In Cormac McCarthy’s, The Road, he describes America after an unknown tragedy has occurred, which leaves the World in ruins. The novel follows a Father and his son, and their struggles to survive the harsh new world. Every day is a challenge, and the only reward is yet another day they must endure; death is never far away and often seems better then to continue existing. The Father and son have only each other to rely on and the following passage expresses the hopeless state in which they live.

“Do you want me to tell you a story?
No.
Why not? […]
Those stories are not true.
They don’t have to be true. They’re stories.
Yes, but in stories we’re always helping people and we don’t help people. […]
Okay.
I don’t have any stories to tell.
You could tell me a story about yourself.
You already know all the stories about me. You were there.
You have stories inside I don’t know about.
You mean like dreams?
Like dreams. Or just things that you think about.
Yeah, but stories are supposed to be happy.
They dont have to be.
You always tell happy stories.
You dont have any happy ones?
They’re more like real life.
But my stories are not.
Your stories are not. No.
The man watched him. Real life is pretty bad?
What do you think?
Well, I think I’m still here. A lot of bad things have happened but we’re still here.
Yeah.
You don’t think that’s so great.
It’s okay. (226)”

McCarthy often uses dialogue to portray a better understanding of the relationship between Father and Son. It is very similar to McCarthy’s own affiliation with his son. The Father, who remains nameless, is going out of his way to interact with his son and get him excited about life. He has hope in his voice and tries to pass on what little amount of optimism he has to his son by engaging him in happy stories. He sees the innocence in his son, and wants his son to hold on to it, but the boy is a realist, and despite his young age, knows that whatever happiness is left in the World is hiding, and feels no need to pretend there is more then what exists. He does not even indulge himself in dreams, an or any other escape from reality. Dreams are often symbols of hopes and wishes, but the boy has so little of that he either does not have any or feels no motivation to share them. To the boy, dreams are a waste of time because they will never come true, only provide a false sense of excitement or happiness, which in this world is bound to result in disappointment.

The darkness of the whole conversation comes from the young child’s acknowledgement of the bleak time in which they exist, and is comparable to the rest of the story, which matches this passage. There is a superfluous amount of melancholy in the World, and the whole novel emits a tone of despair and dejection. The Father’s tinge of hope is akin to the little faith left in the world, it is infrequent and miniscule, but manages to survive the unpromising state.

The conversation differs from most dialogue in novels because it lacks quotations. What each person is saying is separated by an entire different line, the Father speaking first. The lack of quotation marks results in the dialogue being less overcrowded and more realistic. It at times can be more difficult to follow, but it works well with the novel. McCarthy does invest in other traditional grammar such as indents either. It is his personal choice, and a way the author can express himself. The lack of quotation marks demonstrates that McCarthy is a simple man, straight forward, and avoidant of extras in life, which can complicate uncomplicated things. Please note that this remark is coming from a person who dislikes writing dialogue for the reason of quotation mark confusion. Aside from the bias, the lack of quotations and the minimalism of it illustrates the novel’s lack of surplus items. It adds to the tone of the story, which conveys the clear cut and depressing World they live in devoid of any excessive quirks.