The Road Lit Log #2

Oisin Hyland Dec 8, 2022 Giknis

In “The Road”, the author, Cormac McCarthy does not often go into the specifics of things. Roads, cities, brands, and even people remain nameless over the course of the story, sometimes making it difficult to follow along. From the very start of the story, McCarthy uses “the man” and “the boy” to address his main characters. The only time specific terms are used is when they find the Coca-Cola and the introduction of Ely, no road, city or person is named other than that. In my drawing I decided to highlight McCarthy’s austere form of writing by keeping the characters and their surroundings simple. In addition to McCarthy’s lack of specifics in the story, I also wanted to highlight how important the boy is to his father. Even though the man is older and has obviously lived in this world longer than the boy, on multiple occasions throughout “The Road” the boy is often there to lead his father. The boys development as a character from the first page is evident due to how much maturing he has to do because of his surroundings. The post-apocolyptic world that he has been faced with has made him grow up much faster than he should have. This is most evident when you ook at how many questions the boy was asking in the beginning of the story compared to that of the end. I chose to highlight this by drawing the boy in more color to symolise how important the boy is to his father and how lost the he would be without him. “The Road” by Cormac McCarthy can be interpreted in many different ways depending on who you are. But it is clear to most that this is a story of a father and son bond that can not be broken. No matter what obstacles face them they are going to keep walking the road to survive.