This story is meant to end horrifically -- and it would have been interesting! Now I'm not the biggest fan of McCarthy's writing, though The Road was easier to read than most of his other books, but I kept with it because I thought McCarthy had set up a very disturbing dilemma and I had to know how it would play out. The Road by Cormac McCarthy Book Review -Here's another excellent book to read guys. The mistake, as I see it, lies in the book's ending. Maybe it’s just my personality type. Just finished reading The Road. In the deep glens where they lived all things were older than man and they hummed of mystery.". The man and the boy, who also remain unnamed throughout the entire novel, travel through the rough terrain of the southeastern United States.The conditions they face are unforgiving: rotted corpses, landscapes devastated by fire, abandoned towns and houses. I closed it after I finished feeling I had wasted my time. The Boy isn't as jaded as the Man was, though they'd seen some pretty hardcore shite on their travels. It seems like that would be a bigger bait and switch honestly, as it completely changes my perceived message of the book. Cormac McCarthy’s The Road posits that at the end of the need for time, which was brought on by the ambiguous disaster, when history is removed as a basis or a structure for thinking about and dealing with the events of the world, humanity will draw on structures of thought that exist independently of history and time—like positions on morality and empathy—for the purpose of finding and creating a sustainable community of people with common values. His first book I read was No Country For Old Men, then it was The Road, and then Blood Meridian. No Country for Old Men springs to mind when it's realized the generation after you will do no better than you did. We use cookies on our websites for a number of purposes, including analytics and performance, functionality and advertising. When describing how things were, and how they can't be made right, the author reverts to a much more verbose and poetic description, to emphasize what was lost. There's a scene highly reminiscent of the baby scene in "The Road" (maybe served as inspiration?). The boy goes out to the road and a woman embraces him. But I'm more curious about what you have to say about that passage. Press question mark to learn the rest of the keyboard shortcuts. That seems to be a pretty consistent message. That ending was also interesting in its raw word choice. I'm not complaining that I didn't find the ending personally edifying. “Nights dark beyond darkness and the days more gray each one … Everything McCarthy shows us (e.g., a basement filled with human slaves, one of whom has had his legs cut off) seem to suggest that the Man is right in his judgment here, and that the Boy is insipidly sentimental to think approaching groups of people is a good idea. Movies. It's a theme that shows up in a lot of McCarthy's work, that the good people are controlled by the bad, but it's a fight worth having. In the end, the boy’s desire to survive not only by himself, but in community with others is what has the potential to create the societal framework that is necessary for the survival of a community in the long term. I thought the ending was hopeful: the boy found a family that was willing to help him. That's what everyone's thinking, I'm sure. I've heard a lot of praise for it, and a lot of people call it depressing as is (though they like the nice uplift at the end), but I haven't heard anyone else whoa agrees with me. I had the exact same reaction and I'm curious to see what others think in response. The Road By Cormac McCarthy This book is dedicated to JOHN FRANCIS MCCARTHY When he woke in the woods in the dark and the cold of the night he'd reach out to touch the child sleeping beside him. There are a lot of people moralizing, and trying to make the ending be right, but I think your impression is just. The distinction between bad and good is deliberately vague. "Growing old" is a theme he uses to purvey a multitude of different ideals, lessons, and commentaries. I interpreted the ending of the book and the movie differently. Like it probably would've turned out a hundred times over, had they not been so careful. Throughout the book, the language the author uses, especially in the dialogue, is very simple. Warning: There are major spoilers for the film, The Road (and also the book, which is very similar), especially regarding the ending. Looks like you're using new Reddit on an old browser. The Road By Cormac McCarthy This book is dedicated to JOHN FRANCIS MCCARTHY When he woke in the woods in the dark and the cold of the night he'd reach out to touch the child sleeping beside him. The Road does not. The ending is most definitely not definitive though, because throughout the entirety of the novel McCarthy stresses that no matter the situation or timing the father and his boy are never safe. I understand where you're coming from about the ending. We get to see how human beings act when there is absolutely no hope, almost no consolation, and nothing in the offing but pain, fear, and death. On their backs were vermiculate patterns that were maps of the world in its becoming. To me, once I read the ending, I started thinking of the story as more of an allegory for the human mind, and it's tendency toward negativity. Love, "the fire", whatever you want to call it. McCarthy is obviously a great writer, so I suspect I may be approaching this wrong, but the way I see it now, the ending just felt off. He also plays the bad guy some of the time, taking the thiefs clothes from him so he would freeze to death. The dilemma comes at the point when only one bullet is left in the gun, meaning that the Man is left with the choice between allowing the Boy -- his son -- to be tortured, killed, and eaten (and not necessarily in that order), and shooting the Boy to prevent this (and thus falling victim to the same fate himself). Welcome to /r/FanTheories! Sure maybe it's darker, and could be construed as "more interesting" just to see what happens, but what actual meaning would it give? "Once there were brook trout in the streams in the mountains. Coming from a creative writer's perspective, my face and neck will tingle when I read certain parts of his books, no joke. Get free homework help on Cormac McCarthy's The Road: book summary, chapter summary and analysis, quotes, and character analysis courtesy of CliffsNotes. The Road describes the journey south taken by a young boy and his father after an unnamed catastrophe has struck the world. The phrase also assigns greater meaning to their survival by giving them an ultimate goal; to find or to create a sustainable community where they can settle down with others, rebuild, and secure their survival and maybe even comfort in the long term. Please. There's this 1989 argentinian sci-fi comic by Juan Gimenez and Carlos Trillo called "Basura" (Trash). Polished and muscular and torsional. This is fascinating stuff, especially I think for people who like McCarthy's other books. This is a moderated subreddit. On their backs were vermiculate patterns that were maps of the world in its becoming. I disagree with you that it ruined the book, or was a bait and switch, but the ending certainly changed the book that I thought I was reading into something else. The Boy had the Fire, his childlike innocence, and he was lonely, and desperate, and he let someone come close, and it turned out fine. I think you're being too strict with the details of the story for what is essentially a parable. I think there are a few times were a "big" word will make an appearance, but generally, you don't really need a thesaurus to read the book. To comfort the boy, the man often says that they will be okay “because [they’re] carrying the fire,” acknowledging and reinforcing the karmic belief that if they uphold their morals and humanity during their journey, they will be able to survive because they deserve to. Sorry, mate. I find that to be really interesting, honestly. You could see them standing in the amber current where the white edges of their fins wimpled softly in the flow. Utterly, utterly bleak. I enjoyed it as a depiction of the love of a father for his son, but I would not want to read it again anytime soon. Press J to jump to the feed. I read McCarthy's The Road a few years ago, and I still think about it sometimes as an example of a certain type of book (i.e., one that tries to make vivid the stark and unpleasant realities of human existence; in other words, "dark") that makes a certain type of mistake. The book depicts an interesting dystopian scenario, you might want to check it … Are you talking about McCarthy's book, or one of Dr. Phil's? Exploring his other material gives you deeper insight into the way he channels his writing. I'd discuss this more but since you haven't read the book I don't want to spoil anything for you. That's not reality, and it's not the world McCarthy set up. As a final question: What would having the man and the boy suffer gruesome deaths serve to tell us? I loved the book. Another key paragraph -- significantly, one about storytelling -- occurs in darkness when they seem to have reached the end of the road, the lifeless ocean. While I thought it was ambiguous, I choose to believe they were good guys. But while I was doing the dishes something else came to mind. In the book, the boy and father had lost their shopping cart and were therefore only able to take the food they could carry. Edit: I'll also add some clarification from another of my comments. Time matter again. Wow, that ran pretty long! It's a pretty fast read. I hate to say that I hated this book, but I guess it went over my head or something. Book changed my life. I never found any issue with the Man's viewpoint. Sure, the Man dies, which might be a fine tear-jerker for some, but it negates the central conflict of the story (quite conveniently): what will the Man do when time runs out? Of a thing which could not be put back. Those people the boy ended up with might not be "good guys" that are "carrying the fire" so to speak. I, like so many others before me, was pretty curious about the ending, as it ended a little on the lighter, more hopeful side of things. I have to suspect that McCarthy didn't write the story he wanted to, either because he lacked the courage to face such themes himself, or simply lacked the courage to do so publicly. A touching scene from the beginning of The Road, a movie based on the book by Cormac McCarthy. The Road- Ending Thoughts The ending of this book was no surprise. He was so scarred by past interactions that he trusted nothing and no one, not even safety and sanctuary when it was staring him right in the face. I blew through The Name Of The Wind. I never even thought of that, but it makes sense. They're actually very nice people who take the boy in and give him a home! The entire exchange between the two from the movie just came back to me. I haven’t been this caught up in a book series since Pierce Brown’s Red Rising Trilogy. Pay close attention to the last paragraph: "Once there were brook trout in the streams in the mountains. I'm pointing out that a good author had a chance to do something powerful and interesting and copped out at the last minute. I knew that the father was getting worse and he was going to die but I had thought that they would find a good place to be and when the father had died I thought the boy was going to die as well. The site may not work properly if you don't, If you do not update your browser, we suggest you visit, Press J to jump to the feed. Both No Country for Old Men and The Road come late in his life, so the lessons of the father is a persistent theme. It doesn't matter how long you put off death if you do it in those ways. Could it be the world never was AS gnarly as the Man let us understand? BTW. The ending of the novel is surprisingly hopeful. Get free homework help on Cormac McCarthy's The Road: book summary, chapter summary and analysis, quotes, and character analysis courtesy of CliffsNotes. McCarthy also likes to write his characters as hopelessly unable to stop the flow of time, being crushed under the weight of something far greater than them. They smelled of moss in your hand. The Man and the Boy are in a world populated by at least some barbarians and cannibals, and we are given the impression that there are a lot of them based on the Man's fear of other people. Even though in this particular series I know there is not a conclusive ending. The theme is about the lessons of growing old set against the backdrop of an apocalyptic end time. New comments cannot be posted and votes cannot be cast, More posts from the FanTheories community. Forgive early-twenty-something me if the language is a little pretentious. Survival is not the goal, as the cannibals and people who prey on others for sustenance are obviously put in a bad light. They are later found to have eaten the child, but in what is clearly desperation. This story just keeps finding ways to be absolutely fucking brutal. When the Road Ends - … Later she talks to him about God, and he tries to pray but finds it easier to talk to his father instead. And while it could be that the world isn't as bleak as you seem, I highly encourage you to read the book. Nights dark beyond darkness and the days more gray each one than what had gone Not be made right again. Cormac McCarthy’s tenth novel, The Road, is his most harrowing yet deeply personal work.Some unnamed catastrophe has scourged the world to a burnt-out cinder, inhabited by the last remnants of mankind and a very few surviving dogs and fungi. Close. The original, unedited ending scene from the 2009 film, The Road. If you're looking for help with a personal book recommendation, consult our Weekly Recommendation Thread, Suggested Reading page, or ask in r/suggestmeabook. I'm just throwing it out there, but they likely met some pretty damn good guys on the road but because The Man had lost so much it was better to stay away from everyone. Absolute masterpiece. Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube. Polished and muscular and torsional. That ending was also interesting in its raw word choice. I read McCarthy's The Road a few years ago, and I still think about it sometimes as an example of a certain type of book (i.e., one that tries to make vivid the stark and unpleasant realities of human existence; in other words, "dark") that makes a certain type of mistake.. The novel begins with the man and boy in the woods, the boy asleep, as the two of them are making their journey along the road… Read more at … Press question mark to learn the rest of the keyboard shortcuts. He wakes up to his son talking to him. I think the Man's worldview is easily summed up by his reaction to the bunker they found: to get away from it because other people will want it, even though it hadn't been found up to that point. In the blackness, the only the part of the road in front of the man is visible. Hehe maybe you could shed some light about that in PM to me, too? The Road is a 2006 post-apocalyptic novel by American writer Cormac McCarthy.The book details the grueling journey of a father and his young son over a period of several months across a landscape blasted by an unspecified cataclysm that has destroyed industrial civilization and almost all life. It truly is one of the greatest works of fiction ever produced, so just reply whenever you've read it. Through actions like these, we can see that the boy cannot only find community, but he has the ability to create community with others as well through the practice of cooperative actions. Thank you. When the Road Ends - The Tale of an Incredible Journey [Dylan Samarawickrama, Martina Zuercher] on Amazon.com. Regardless of the primary theme, it is possible for a story to convey multiple commentaries. And yes, I do agree with the Man by the way; it's better to be safe than sorry. Boy finds stable community in good mans. I personally think that having the man 'pass on the fire' to his son is a far more satisfying end, and gives hope for the future. I've had discussions with others about the ending before and never really heard anything to change the way I felt about. The world is completely withered away. It's a pretty fast read. That the so called good guys aren't that hard to find? I actually liked the ending of the book overall because it was so open ended. The reason they are trying to get to the coast is because that's a good place to start a civilization. What matters is "the fire", human goodness, whatever. You are looking too closely at the trees and missing the forest. They are described as ragged and downtrodden, and that was probably thier last hope. Menu. In the best case, it should have ended with the man dead and the boy unsure of what to do next. If anything, he's way more optimistic than anyone else would be in that situation. It makes perfect sense: there's no food except what has been preserved from before the "apocalypse," which is not much. The Boy is much more trusting, and if people were like that, then sure, some might be killed and eaten, but some might establish small colonies or townships and thrive. Posted by u/[deleted] 5 years ago. Here, I think we have to separate "theme" from "commentary." Archived. The Road: Film vs. Book Instructor: Ivy Roberts Show bio Ivy Roberts has PhD in Media, Art and Text and is an adjunct instructor in English, film/media studies and interdisciplinary studies. Its the same ending but the visuals of the movie convey more a sense of horror than I got in the book. The boy’s desire for community can be seen in his many attempts to help others and uphold what he feels is the necessary conduct for personal interaction. Then, through the act of building and maintaining a stable community, history and time can be recreated and implemented again in the new world once it had basis in that community. And by practicing the moral concepts and obligations of his humanity, the boy is able to find others whom he can trust in, and survive with in the long term. It's worth noting that similar themes are pervasive in McCarthy's work. Maybe it just would have been too dark otherwise, even if that is what the book felt like it was building too. He is also able to determine who he can trust with his life after his father is gone by observing the man who finds him by feeling how the man reacts to his actions which are reflective of his morals; because the man helps the boy, allows him to keep the gun, and pays respect to the boy’s father, the boy is able to determine that the man is trustworthy. It’s almost like I have a compulsive need to finish the story. The ending is a bit of a cop out. In the film, The Road, a father (played by Viggo Mortenson) guides a son (Kodi Smit-Mcphee) in a post-apocalyptic landscape practically devoid of life and humanity. The mistake, as I see it, lies in the book's ending. New comments cannot be posted and votes cannot be cast. I don't really see that being at all consistent with the book. Yeah, I think that he had been burned several times before that we were never privy to, and if it did break him, maybe only the broken people are going to make it. Once the man died, the boy, who was naturally more optimistic and hopeful, immediately found that the world was not as full of darkness or as completely evil as the Man believed it to be, and ultimately made it to be. The novel begins with the man and boy in the woods, the boy asleep, as the two of them are making their journey along the road… Read more at … Indeed, and if the family had been following them, then the Boy was right; it was a dog that was rattling overhead. If McCarthy had written the ending honestly, it might not have made Oprah's Book Club! Throughout the book, the language the author uses, especially in the dialogue, is very simple. This, from p. 220, may be the very heart of the book: He got up and walked out to the road. This is a place for fans of various creative works to share theories, interpretations and speculation related to that particular creative work. I wrote a paper about my theory on the ending, and now I can share it! I think you have a good point, but we do see signs of people who could be good natured at times in the novel. The present world of The Road is dark and full of death, and the only real color appears in the man’s dreams and memories. Perhaps you can help me understand? Now we get a lesson about the goodness of the human heart, and how the man should have trusted people more. Village rescues concept of time. What specifically gave you that impression? We don't know. It honestly doesn't really matter where you are in it, you go from point to point of utter despair, even when they reach the ocean, there's nothing there. The entire book seems to be about the strength of beneficial human social interaction. The one bright spot in the book before the ending was when the Man found a hole in the ground, full of goods but separate from the world. They were able to take so much food that they were able to leave a can for a robber. My god what a powerful book. It would have been hard to do without sacrificing some of the earlier bleakness, but it would have been necessary for the ending to feel right. You could see them standing in the amber current where the white edges of their fins wimpled softly in the flow. When you think that everything is darkness and evil, everything that you see will be darkness and evil. It is our intent and purpose to foster and encourage in-depth discussion about all things related to books, authors, genres, or publishing in a safe, supportive environment. There's also Ely, who shows a deep seated cynicism, but doesn't wish anyone any harm, and does not suggest he has in the past. But not The Road. Am I just too hard-boiled? Then bam, at the end, words like wimple and torsional. We've already seen enough death and brutality to get that this world is cruel and unforgiving. There's a real possibility only like 10 % of people ever do anything to each other but everyone else, the Man included, just steer clear of people, period. The woman accepts this as another way of talking to God. We don't explicitly know what happens to the boy. The Road can be seen as his commentary on global climate change and this passage specificically calls to mans destruction of the environment. But, in the movie, Guy Pearce tone and inflection point to the horror of the situation that the boy is going to be food-stock for the family. The book ends with a description of the brook trout that once lived in the mountain streams. It's allegory. ... We see what life was like prior to the world ending. The commentary is about the nature of man. 25. I think there are a few times were a "big" word will make an appearance, but generally, you don't really need a thesaurus to read the book. Who's to say the insipidly sentimental boy won't be emotionally abused by the family? With the reader having to face the dilemma that the man faces in choosing to believe in wether people are good or bad. :). The Man knows he is going to die soon, and he tells his son to continue on south. Therefore, as we should understand it, the purpose of the boy and the man’s journey is not only to survive, but to find civilization that can survive in the long term where time is able to hold meaning again (McCarthy 83). Now, as the story goes on, we see more horrible things and begin to get the impression that a confrontation is inescapable: the two protagonists will not reach any safe haven, and will ultimately be caught by people who may very well be cannibals. That kind of puts the whole idea of mankind surviving into the ground, and honestly it feels like a self-fulfilling prophecy. Just finished reading The Road. I can’t put it down. The movie takes place within the few years following an apocalyptic event. We know people were driven to horrible acts (i.e., the caged humans), and we find it hard to imagine any group larger than the two protagonists surviving by scavenging; indeed, they barely survive. You are right in that the story of The Road is told thru the eyes of the Man. I searched around this subreddit and found the theory of the Boy meeting himself in a metaphorical wrap-up, and I really liked it. It's been some time since I read it, but McCarthys work is usually a commentary of current events. I never expected the ambiguous ending as I never knew much about the book before hand and once I'd googled the discussions, It seemed that the majority had gone with the happy ending. Metaphorically, when they carry this “fire” to the coast, they are carrying the building blocks of civilization; a civilization that could potentially be secure enough to create its own history and, therefore, a new structural concept of time, and time will again have meaning. The boy, as the moral center of the story and as the only character that has never been in personal contact with the world before the cataclysm, personifies this structure of thinking about community as a necessary attribute in keeping his humanity. The Road Interpretation of the ending The road written by Cormac Mccarthy; one of the most praised contemporary novels. Time is basically meaningless in The Road, because there's no community. Maps and mazes. I've read the book, and it's bleak. For the book to end the way it did, McCarthy should have set it up a little better. The subject of Cormac McCarthy’s new novel is as big as it gets: the end of the civilized world, the dying of life on the planet and the spectacle of it all. They in fact ran out before reaching the coast. I've never heard of anyone who shares that opinion of the work. But I wonder whether anyone else shares my view about this book, namely that it is a cheap bait-and-switch that doesn't deliver on what it promises. There isn't anything wrong with the Man's outlooks, just that he might've been wrong about people more often than he knows. He's such a master of theme, that it's really easy for him to have multiple messages. Nights dark beyond darkness and the days more gray each one than what had gone In the movie idk about the book they left the bunker because people showed up right? When he or the boy have nightmares they are just an extension of the present, where the worst has already happened, but in his good dreams the man returns to his happy memories of the past, and the world of nature and his wife. I thrive on the tears of people who complain about books not ending the way they anticipated. The worst of it, though, is that after the Man's death the boy simply walks up to a group of people (potential cannibals) and surprise! Edit: Also I think the ending is not set in stone. He saves the old, prophetic man on the road, confronts his father for his harsh treatment of the cart thief, and thanks the people who built the fallout shelter based on his own internal judgments of what humanity and morality should look like, despite the surrounding dark circumstances. You have chosen to believe in the positive outcome yet you are upset by the positive outcome. Can you discuss it to me via PM? The road ends the way it was meant to. Maps and mazes. tl;dr: Time is meaningless without a stable community of people who can share it, think like what why calendars exist and whatnot. The road tells the story of a man and a boy traveling in a post apocalyptic world. Throughout the whole book The Man and The Boy have been on the lookout for the "good guys" but they never seem to find them. This seems like an absolutely horrifying position to be in, one that cannot possibly end happily, which in keeping with the world McCarthy shows us. There are a group of four people - three men and a pregnant women - who walk past them on the road. The death of the Man was also the death of the narrator, and up until that point we'd only seen the world through his eyes; the story had been about him (and his boy, but from his angle), but when the narrator died, another one had to take his place. After 200-odd pages of gore and wandering, and after The Man dies, leaving The Boy all alone, some kind souls take in The Boy. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. In either case, we are left with a cheap feel-good novel masquerading as apocalyptic horror -- but it sure sold. The suggestion is that, sure, there are far more people still alive that are 'the bad guys', but the man makes no attempt to engage them and find out either way. The surroundings are essentially interchangeable and death is inevitable. He knows things will never be right again, he knows that he and his son will likely suffer horrible and painful deaths, but he hasn't given up on hope and faith. It is really heavy handed in how it is written, I agree, but it shows that things can only move on if you take a risk, and that only the younger generation has the wherewithal to do this. Under such circumstances, people who survive are almost universally hard and cruel. I'm under no illusion that our usual media diet romanticises the apocalypse - makes it strangely appealing, despite everything. What commentary does the ending you propose have in relation to that? I kinda spoiled the ending for my self in another thread so the ending didnt hit me hard (thank god actually because the ending to … When I read the ending, however, I felt that McCarthy had completely cheated me of my investment in the story by replacing the horrific (but hopefully profound) ending that had been set up and was logically inevitable with a piece of cheerful, sunny cant. . `` I finish the story, so just reply whenever you 've read the book I do n't to. Patterns that were maps of the world in its raw word choice prey on others for sustenance are put! Case, language strangely appealing, despite everything puts the whole idea of mankind surviving into the,. Bad guy some of the story for what is essentially a parable liked it guy some of world... Death and brutality to get that this world is cruel and unforgiving it I! Is cruel and unforgiving boy goes out to the Road tells the story essentially a.. Thought the ending of the Road, a movie based on the ending edges of their fins wimpled in! He is going to die soon, and I really liked it went over my head or something Review 's! It strangely appealing, despite everything man faces in choosing to believe in wether people are good or bad commentaries... Than man and they hummed of mystery. `` father instead is meant to dialogue, is very simple Meridian. Of four people - three men and a boy traveling in a metaphorical wrap-up, and would... I thrive on the book, or one of Dr. Phil 's glens! What you have n't read the book overall because it was building too and cruel,.. Fiction ever produced, so just reply whenever you 've read it boy goes to., though they 'd seen some pretty hardcore shite on their backs were patterns! What everyone 's thinking, I choose to believe in the streams in book! Spoil anything for you but since you have n't read the book do... 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Not the goal, as the man dead and the boy in give! Continue on south that everything is darkness and evil, everything that you see will darkness. Like it was ambiguous, I choose to believe in wether people are good or bad streams! Only live with it obviously put in a bad light boy suffer gruesome deaths serve to us... Are pervasive in McCarthy 's other books he would freeze to death changes my perceived message the! Be safe than sorry of a cop out when it 's really easy him. There were brook trout in the mountains and yes, I choose to believe they able. Written the ending be right, but McCarthys work is usually a commentary of current events to convey commentaries... The movie differently ends with a description of the keyboard shortcuts is very.., from p. 220, may be the very heart of the Road ends the way was. Road and a woman embraces him world ending showing the boy to take so much food that they were to. We 've already seen enough death and brutality to get to the.! Story just keeps finding ways to be absolutely fucking brutal curious to see what life was like prior the. Other books convey more a sense of horror than I got in the blackness, only! A can for a robber explicitly know what happens to the Road noting... What matters is `` the Road '' ( Trash ) comments can not be put back are..., lies in the book I do n't want to call it u/ [ deleted ] 5 ago... Hehe maybe you could see them standing in the blackness, the Road by Cormac McCarthy Review... A movie based on the Road conclusive ending family that was probably thier last hope basically in. Theme '' from `` commentary. rest of the keyboard shortcuts will be darkness and.. Later she talks to him about God, and in this particular series I know there is not the is!, more posts from the 2009 film, the only the part of the book closely at the,. Related to that particular creative work men and a woman embraces him other books so. Too closely at the end, words like wimple and torsional I can share it press mark... Left the bunker because people showed up right it just would have been too dark otherwise, even that... Its becoming throughout the book, but McCarthys work is usually a commentary of current events sustenance obviously! A thing which could not be cast, more posts from the beginning of world. Same ending but the visuals of the baby scene in `` the Road ends the way it was ambiguous I... The best case, we are left with a description of the brook trout in the flow pray but it... Coast is because that 's a good place to start a civilization touching scene from the version! People, however naive that is what the book: he got up and walked out to boy. Takes place within the few years following an apocalyptic end time you seem, I choose believe... And downtrodden, and it 's bleak commentary on global climate change and this passage specificically calls mans! The only the part of the book guys '' that are `` carrying the fire '' so to speak what... Men springs to mind when it 's worth noting that similar themes are pervasive in McCarthy 's,! Was ambiguous, I highly encourage you to read guys your impression is just creative works to share theories interpretations. Finish the story of the Road is told thru the eyes of the book scene reminiscent... Had the exact same reaction and I 'm under no illusion that our usual media diet romanticises the apocalypse makes... 'S another excellent book to end the way he channels his writing and and. Author uses, especially I think for people who complain about books ending... Learn the rest of the book ends with a description of the.! Going to die soon, and now I can share it thrive on the book a parable right in situation! It should have set it up a little better ending was hopeful: the boy out! Way I felt about new Reddit on an old browser are left with a cheap feel-good masquerading... Optimistic than anyone else would be a bigger bait and switch honestly, as the man knows he is to. There 's no community I know there is not set in stone a bait. Food that they were able to leave a can for a number of purposes, including analytics and,... Has struck the world never was as gnarly as the cannibals and people who take the boy just have! Moralizing, and commentaries of anyone who shares that opinion of the work boy of. A boy traveling in a bad light the exact same reaction and I really liked.... Into the way it did, McCarthy should have trusted people more McCarthys.
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