The Road: Character Analysis Essay

Character Analysis

The book that I read for this term was The Road by Chormic Mccarthy. It is a book about a post-apocalyptic world that is a survival of the fittest landscape. The book mainly has two protagonists throughout the story. There is a father and his son. Their goal in the story is to move south in order to survive the harsh winter that is rapidly approaching. They must overcome many obstacles in order to survive with each other, and for each other.

The Father, who is also called throughout the book only as the man, the father, and papa travels the road with his young son. He the man truly believes that his god given calling in life is to protect the boy and get him to a safer place. He isnt so worried about himself, but the boy means the whole world to him. He is willing to do whatever it takes. No matter the cost, the boy will survive, if that means that he will have to kill himself, or any other man in order to achieve this goal he will.

Because of this, the man is deeply paranoid. He constantly has the feeling of being watched by others. He naturally doesnt ever trust anyone they come into contact with, and for that matter avoids it at all costs. Even when there was a little boy that was in trouble, around the age of his own, with his own boy trying to get him to help out, he wouldnt. His boy often wishes that his father would be more lenient to others. This is perhaps cruel, but understandable. The man is always doing things for the boy. Even going without things they have enough of. At one point in the story, the man makes a pot of hot chocolate for the boy. There is enough for them to split, but he insists on the boy having it all. The boy refuses to drink any if the dad does not because he wants to be an equal to his father that he so lovingly looks up to. In another case, the man finds a can of coca cola and instead of sharing it, he quickly gives it to the son to enjoy on his own, not even taking a sip.

The man constantly has dreams about his dead wife. Throughout the book he has flash backs of surviving with his wife, which shows that this apocalyptic life style happened before the birth of their son because she is pregnant in some of these flashbacks. It is evident that he misses his wife and loves her, though at times he is rather upset at her. You late come to know why he is rightfully upset. Years after the birth of their son, she is hating life surviving with her family. They have a pistol with two bullets. She is upset that there is only two because if there were three all three of her family members could die. She one night goes outside and stabs herself with a sharp object.

The man grows sicker throughout the novel. This illness helps him push on because he knows he is on a limited time and needs to get his son into a safer place. His illness is showed through his persistent and violent cough that produces mucus and bloody spit. He fights until the end because he loves his son. He wants him to survive and help the world recover from whatever caused this world disaster. The man will eventually die next to a stream in a clearing in the woods. The son cries over his body for more than three days the man dies and does as his father says and pushes on. He later finds a group of people that help him survive.