ASSIGNMENT #2

The fictional book, The Road, by Cormac McCarthy has a suspenseful tone in order to portray the constant threat of mortality that the main characters face. The post apocalyptic setting contributed to the father's awareness of death and the knowledge to survive in the wilderness. The father is very realistic about his options, when the boy asks if they will die his response is "Sometime. Not now." (10) Even in the beginning, the author emphasizes that the man knows that he eventually die. This character is in a situation where one wrong step can lead to his death, he can only survive for so long since the resources and hope are so scarce. After several traumatic experiences, the father acknowledges that death may be the answer for survival when he tells the boy, "You put it in your mouth and point it up. Do it quick and hard." (113) It isn't easy for any parent to tell his child to take their young innocent life away, but this man saw more than just another life being taken away. At that moment death sounded delightful because it would be an escape for all troubles of starving and being taken by the bad guys. The sense of mortality is present throughout most of the book and the father admits to the young boy, "If you died I would want to die too."(11) The young boy is seen as the man's reason for hope and motivation in a world of devastation and violence. If the man is left with hopelessness then he would feel like there would be no reason for existence because a despair and lonely mind seeks a way to ease the pain. When mortality is constantly present it can easily lose its connotation of fear and terror.