Meaning of the Work as a Whole

My final thoughts on The Road are ones of mild awe.  The Road is a journey, an adventure to say the least.  It takes you through many hopeless nights, soul crushing days, and just plain exhausting experiences.  And so, with the conclusion of any adventure, The Road forces you to take some time to absorb what you read.  The Road questions much of what drives humanity. Specifically, The Road questions the relationship between morals and survival.  It is no debate that survival becomes much easier once you abandon your morals. However, this book challenges this idea, and forces the reader to question whether or not survival, by the means of eating a newborn baby, is truly survival.  

From my interpretations, the meaning of The Road is, to bluntly state the fact, humans are innately a "cruel species".  Most humans, under certain circumstances, will be willing to commit hideous acts to survive, whether or not this makes humans a cruel species or simply a rational species is up for further debate (however, through McCarthy's depiction of the main characters and the torch, it  seems as though he argues that this makes the human species innately cruel).  Furthermore, McCarthy then takes this idea of our innate needs for survival, and challenges them to our humanity, our sense of morals.  McCarthy does this through the contrast of his main characters and the world they are forced to endure.  The Road illustrates this horrible environment in which humans have turned to animals (and food).  The Road then throws two characters, still holding on to their humanity, into this world and has them face the challenges of survival which tests their morals.  In doing so, the reader begins to unravel this confusing, contradicting question.  Is to survive at the costs of your humanity truly survival?  Much of this idea I explore thoroughly in previous blog posts as this question is brought to the attention of the reader fairly early in the novel.  However, the conclusion of this novel and how it contributes to answering this question is a path left unpaved.

Towards the end of the novel, the man and the boy reach the coast. The man comes to the realization that he is dying and begins to give in to dreams of his wife and a much simpler time.  As discussed earlier, these thoughts imply that the man is giving into his passing.  In doing so, it is possible the man is losing some level of his morals as well.  While seeking to establish suitable conditions for his son's survival after his death, a thief steals all of their supplies.  The man and the boy chase down the thief and find him with all of their belongings.  At gunpoint the man forces the thief to remove all clothing and flee, an act surely sentencing him to death.  The boy protests and begs to spare the thief, but the man replies that the thief was doing no different to them by taking everything they owned.  After the thief’s departure, the boy convinces the man to leave behind his clothes in hopes that the thief will return.  In this section the man, for the first time, kills another man out of revenge rather than defense.  In past scenes, the man as been forced to kill an attacker and abandon a weak survivor (due to inability to care for him).  However, for the first time in the novel the man has essentially killed the thief out of revenge by casting him off without so much as the clothes on his back.  Furthermore, the man recognizes the wrongs of his actions as he allows himself to be criticized by the boy and seeks to make amends.  This sudden change in the man’s perception of right and wrong could be due to his impending death.  The man could have become more desperate for survival, or more accurately, the survival of his son.  Because of this desperation, he begins to lose sight of some of his morals and feels as though casting the thief off was the right thing to do.  This could be more support for the idea that as we become more desperate for survival, we may begin to lose morals and act irrationally (or in the eyes of some, more rationally).  

Overall, the meaning of The Road is a complex interpretation of human nature.  The Road analyzes the flexibility of human behavior and how it adapts to the circumstances.  It does this by delivering a fairly simple plotline with a brutally honest depiction of the post-apocalyptic world. It is truly a fitting novel for the discussion of human nature.

Why is it AP?

To be one hundred percent honest, I am not totally convinced The Road is of AP merit, or at least, certainly not one of the better books to read for the purpose of completing an AP question or assignment.  While The Road is an entertaining, deep, and advanced read, it is not quite what you would expect out of a standard AP novel such as Song of Solomon, Handmaid's Tale, and Brave New World.  These three titles generally go into great depths tackling issues with society and criticizing our social structure as part of a much bigger elaborate theme hiding just below the surface.  These three novels use technique and style as well as motifs and allusions to tell this second story. The novels flow nicely allowing for a fun face value read, while also providing layers for further analysis in class or in an essay for an AP exam.   While The Road certainly explores the nature vs. nurture debate and demonstrates the fluctuation of what's considered humane within society, and what's considered humane within a post apocalyptic world, I notice the novel missing some level of potential analysis.  Obviously, everything can be analyzed if you work at it hard enough, but some stylistic elements such as motifs and allusions seem to be missing.  The Road is a great novel that certainly elicits a higher level of thinking and reflection upon one’s self.  However, it is not a strong leader in the elaborate artistic style of writing.  Much of its beauty and meaning comes from the blunt truth of a situation.  This can be a breath of fresh air to any reader, however, it makes it more difficult for a teacher to use this novel as an example for strong technique and the use of literary devices to convey a larger theme.

This is not to say The Road is a terrible, unworthy book with little intelligence.  The Road is a great read with some elements that are certainly worth looking into on an AP level.  The Road has amazing character development and strong relationships between characters that very clearly alter their personalities and add an interesting dynamic to the novel.  As mentioned in a previous blogpost, the boy seems to act as an anchor for the man’s sanity.  The boy keeps the man’s morals in check and gives the man hope for the continuation of the torch.  In addition to this, the man tends to take all responsibility for the boy’s actions even when the action was clearly the boy’s fault.  This is seen in two different places as the boy leaves the gas on the stove on all night and leaves the gun on the beach.  In both cases the boy is clearly at fault, however, the man apologizes to the boy and takes responsibility for both situations.  In my opinion this is not normal behavior for the average father-son relationship.  This would be a good point in the novel to analyze how the father and the boy’s relationship could be affected by this new world.  It is important to note the shift in the man’s perception of right and wrong as he realizes he is beginning to die and will soon leave his son.  The man dreams more of his wife and happiness while becoming more brash towards the world in terms of survival.  The man focuses on survival more and begins to lose some value for morals, this is seen as he forces the thief to strip naked and abandons him in the road to die.  Needless to say this a post about the AP value of The Road so I will try to stay away from the analyzation of this scene but simply call it to attention as an example of the interesting character development that may be worth further study.  

The Road is a very intelligent, well written novel that is worth reading and certainly has some aspects (character development) worth talking about.  However, while the lack of motifs, allusions, and other literary devices may be a good change up and make the book a more unique read, The Road, in a  sense loses some of its analytical value which is very important for its use in an AP level course.