With a little more than fifty percent of The Road behind me (though still in mind), I have started to sense the budding fruits of thematic ideas. If you read my previous blog post pertaining to the characters of The Road, you will remember that I predicted a thematic concept to be the necessity of human connection. While the idea still remains relevant, there haven't been many significant passages relating to the idea of human connection. And of course, this is why we make predictions. Even if we are wrong, we still learn something. With the absence of the emphasis on human connection, two thematic ideas/questions have been brought to the surface: the struggle between defining good and evil and the fickleness of one's beliefs in a time of crisis.
Even today, we struggle with defining the line between the good and the evil. What one may perceive as evil, they may soon perceive as good in another situation. The conditions the survivors in The Road are enduring make the famous line from Shakespeare's Macbeth all too real, "Fair is foul, and foul is fair" (Act one, scene one) How's that for your daily chiasmus? In this section of The Road, the dialogue between Papa and the boy highlights their views on who the good people in society are and who the bad people are. The boy frequently asks, "are we still the good guys?", and with every inquiry, Papa responds "yes" (77). Papa had just shot the man that was threatening his son through the head, killing him. Papa had done what was necessary to keep him and most importantly, his son, alive. However, with this "do what's necessary to survive" mentality, blending arises between good and evil. Aren't the gangs that patrol the roads and enslave people doing everything they can to survive? Are the cannibalistic clans not starving and resorting to their last chance of survival? What moral costs serve as the line in the sand between good and evil under such desperate circumstances? Who draws that line? God?
For Papa and the boy, the main action that serves as this line is cannibalism. Papa notes that "no matter what"..."[we wouldn't ever eat anybody]"..."[because we're the good guys]" (128). This passage follows their escape from the barn, prison to helpless people, food to the gangs. Papa and the boy would rather face Death head on than compromise their morals and become cannibals. Through their eyes, Papa and his son, this is what separates them from the evil that remains in the barren world around them. Papa and the boy use a symbolic phrase that means that they are still the good guys. "We're carrying the fire" (129). This phrase is symbolic for hope and God. "The fire" is the hope that perseverance will prevail and that one must keep positive morals to triumph through a desperate time. Papa and the boy still have hope that they can make it south and find salvation. Another way of looking at "the fire" is the belief in God. As long as they keep true to God, and understand that he is watching over them, they will overcome their circumstances. While the bad guys are cannibals and murderers, they are keeping true to the power of God and maintaining hope that they will survive. Those are their distinctions between good guys and bad guys.
Once again, I would like to emphasize the quote from Macbeth, "Fair is foul, and foul is fair" because this is the thematic idea that McCarthy is conveying. When crisis dominates our society, when life itself begins to fall apart, the line between good and evil becomes gray. The struggles the reader of The Road must go through when thinking about the similar motives between the gangs and Papa and his boy, survival, highlight the dissipation of that line in the sand, the one that tells us right from wrong.
The other thematic idea that became apparent to me during this section of The Road is that one's beliefs are fickle under undesirable conditions. In the beginning of the novel, Papa expresses his anguish towards God. "Have you a neck by which to throttle you? Have you a heart? Damn you eternally have you a soul? Oh God..." (12). The perceived unresponsiveness of God by Papa leads him to these angry questions. As discussed earlier, Papa believes that they are the good guys, and it is reasonable to assume from this passage that he is angry with God's lack of protection of the good guys. The questions Papa asks the sky or thinks to himself (it is not clear), help dehumanize his view of God. When people think of God, they traditionally visualize a man. By dehumanizing God, McCarthy allows to reader to infer that Papa's belief in a higher power that preserves the goodness of mankind is beginning to weaken.
Side note: This thematic idea is very relevant in today's society. The common question "is there no God?" is asked when dealing with traumatic scenarios such as death, accidents, and disaster. For many people, their belief in God fluctuates throughout their lives and especially in times of crisis. I find it interesting and even more so captivating how McCarthy has begun to illustrate this idea in his plot.
Back to the discussion, we start to see Papa's faith in God return when he is rationalizing his actions during the confrontation with the gang member. He says that he "was appointed to [protect his son] by God", the same God he wishes to throttle the neck of (77). His loss of faith earlier in the novel is retrieved in this passage where he cites his motivation to get his son through the terrible world as God's decree. Later, just after escaping the cannibalistic gang, when Papa thinks that this could be the end of their survival, he grabs the gun from his son and thinks to himself, "Can you do it? When the time comes? When the time comes there will be no time. Now is the time. Curse God and die" (114). Papa ordered his son to kill himself if the gang members found him, but seeing that the boy was much too shocked to act, he took the gun and prepared to liberate his son himself. This passage is when Papa's faith is lowest, and he is seconds away from giving up on God and succumbing to Death.
The last fluctuation in Papa's faith is when he finds the bunker packed full of survival supplies, clothes, and food. In the short passage that captures the reaction of Papa to the fortuitous discovery, Papa says "Oh my God" four times. Like most people with a vacillating life such as Papa's (hopefully not an apocalyptic world), his faith is situation-dependent. When events are going relatively well his faith in God and that he looks out for the good guys is strengthened. When the events take a turn for the worst, he loses his sense of faith and lashes out at God.
The other thematic idea that became apparent to me during this section of The Road is that one's beliefs are fickle under undesirable conditions. In the beginning of the novel, Papa expresses his anguish towards God. "Have you a neck by which to throttle you? Have you a heart? Damn you eternally have you a soul? Oh God..." (12). The perceived unresponsiveness of God by Papa leads him to these angry questions. As discussed earlier, Papa believes that they are the good guys, and it is reasonable to assume from this passage that he is angry with God's lack of protection of the good guys. The questions Papa asks the sky or thinks to himself (it is not clear), help dehumanize his view of God. When people think of God, they traditionally visualize a man. By dehumanizing God, McCarthy allows to reader to infer that Papa's belief in a higher power that preserves the goodness of mankind is beginning to weaken.
Side note: This thematic idea is very relevant in today's society. The common question "is there no God?" is asked when dealing with traumatic scenarios such as death, accidents, and disaster. For many people, their belief in God fluctuates throughout their lives and especially in times of crisis. I find it interesting and even more so captivating how McCarthy has begun to illustrate this idea in his plot.
Back to the discussion, we start to see Papa's faith in God return when he is rationalizing his actions during the confrontation with the gang member. He says that he "was appointed to [protect his son] by God", the same God he wishes to throttle the neck of (77). His loss of faith earlier in the novel is retrieved in this passage where he cites his motivation to get his son through the terrible world as God's decree. Later, just after escaping the cannibalistic gang, when Papa thinks that this could be the end of their survival, he grabs the gun from his son and thinks to himself, "Can you do it? When the time comes? When the time comes there will be no time. Now is the time. Curse God and die" (114). Papa ordered his son to kill himself if the gang members found him, but seeing that the boy was much too shocked to act, he took the gun and prepared to liberate his son himself. This passage is when Papa's faith is lowest, and he is seconds away from giving up on God and succumbing to Death.
The last fluctuation in Papa's faith is when he finds the bunker packed full of survival supplies, clothes, and food. In the short passage that captures the reaction of Papa to the fortuitous discovery, Papa says "Oh my God" four times. Like most people with a vacillating life such as Papa's (hopefully not an apocalyptic world), his faith is situation-dependent. When events are going relatively well his faith in God and that he looks out for the good guys is strengthened. When the events take a turn for the worst, he loses his sense of faith and lashes out at God.
Really thoughtful discussion of thematic ideas in the book, and perhaps there should be bonus points for including lines from Macbeth?
ReplyDeleteDo you get the sense that the father was religion before the events that occurred in his apocalyptic world?
I agree, I should get some bonus points for my Macbeth references. I do get the sense that he is religious before the world took a turn for the worse because of what he says. I'm not very religious, and if a situation is poor I would not blame "God" because that is not my belief. He is blaming God (at some points) and lashing out at God because he does believe in him. If Papa was not religious, it wouldn't make sense that he is blaming God, something he wouldn't believe in?
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