Where He Left Us

It is difficult to keep up hopes, but easier to give up or hide the slightest, most dismal form of it deep inside one’s heart. Many of us, human, don’t like bad surprises and tend to avoid seeing what we don’t want to. McCarthy helps presenting the readers with many human characteristics we want to close our eyes upon.

Every time the man and the boy find food and shelter, they don’t show much hope in the circumstance getting any better. For an example, when they found an underground storage of essentials, they have this conversation:
“How long can we stay here Papa?
Not long.
How long is that?
I dont know. Maybe one more day. Two.
Because it’s dangerous.
Yes.
Do you think they’ll find us?
No. They wont find us.
They might find us.
No they wont. They wont find us.” (McCarthy 148)
Even though the father reassures the boy that no one will find them, he says that they have to leave soon. The scene introduces hope to the reader as well. However, like the characters does, we quickly get rid of any hope, or at least attempt to. We don’t want to be unprepared for any dreadful thing that could happen. In this liminal society with no order, especially, it makes people feel better to not get too comfortable anywhere. It only makes one more naked, in a sense. One would have a much larger chance of facing danger. That feeling keeps the characters and us uncomfortable.

The boy points his finger at the reader when he insists on looking at what is in front of him—the reality:
“They’re already there.
I dont want you to look.
They’ll still be there.” (McCarthy 191)
Not looking at the horrors of the world doesn’t remove any of them from it. I think many of us can find ourselves closing our eyes on horrific sights. However, that only makes us ignorant and no better, if not worse. The boy points his finger to those of us that tend to do that, and criticizes the ignorance. I was stabbed with his bony finger.

There are many other ways and elements McCarthy points out to the ugly side of mankind. He drags us into liminality and leaves us there to make us think about the ugliness inside us.

McCarthy, Cormac. The Road. New York: Random House, 2006.