The Child, The Boy, and The Old Man

There are no names in the road. The two main characters are simply referred to by their age and gender, the child, the boy, the man, and sometimes their relationship to each other, papa. This invites us to think about them less as individuals and more as archetypes existing in relation to each other and the world around them. It is interesting that the boy is sometimes referred to as the child. Both are young, both are innocent, but a child is more innocent, more full of possibility and wonder than a boy. A boy will eventually become a man. Unlike a child, a boy’s path is laid out. His innocence is finite because one day he will outgrow it. One of the first times the man’s relationship to his traveling companion is described McCarthy writes: “He knew only that the child was his warrant. He said: If he is not the word of God God never spoke” (5). He man views the child as having some quality of divinity that must be preserved. The man must survive so he can make sure the child and his naive absolute goodness servive. This is what gives both of them hope, “The child had his own fantasies. How things would be in the south. Other children.” (32). Their goal is the south and so their goal is to find a place where innocent morality can thrive. The point of survival is to reach a place where they can no longer worry about surviving. However, this innocence is shown to give the child morality and kindness which the man is often at odds with. “Cant we help him? Papa? No. We cant help him. The boy kept pulling at his coat. Papa? he said. Stop it.” (27). The man is trying to keep the child alive, but in making the choices necessary to keep both of them alive the man is killing the morality of nievity by teaching him what is necessary to survive. That brings the child closer to the man which makes him a boy. This change reaches a turning point where the man starts to listen to the boy’s advise. This change begins after they raid an apple orchard. Biblically apples are the fruit of knowledge. The timing of this shift reinforced the idea that knowledge and goodness are antithetical. This chang marks the moment the child becomes a boy. If a boy must become a man then a man must become an old man. This gives an interesting context to the man’s conversation with Ely. “There is no God and we are his prophets. I dont understand how you’re still alive. How do you eat? I dont know. You dont know? People give you things. People give you things. Yes. To eat. To eat. Yes. No they dont. You did. No I didnt. The boy did.” (170). The man believes in god to motivate his own survival. The old man, if he is to be believed, does not care about goodness but benefits from it anyway. What does it mean that he names them both prophets of a none existent god? It is because would not share what they have. They are not kind. They follow the teachings of survival. God is humans better nature that does more than survive.