Doomsday

The ending of The Road was rather lackluster for me. Knowing the neo-apocalyptic structure, I didn’t expect the story was going to end happily.

The father’s symbolic death on the road that was going to lead to them to anticipated salvation of the coast functions as his cold, asphalt deathbed. The pair has feared the road but believed that had no choice but to travel on it to get to their destination. I’m still not certain why the southern coast was the place to go (but honestly I don’t the man was either). The father knew his was dying, trying to hide the bloody ominous signs of his death from his son. He broke his promise to stay with his son because when the time came he abandoned him in death. When the time came he broke their unspoken suicide pact. So the question remains, was it better for him to keep his son of alive, enduring the harsh world, or kill him, along with himself, when his mother wanted to die. The only answers that come to mind are the final words of Angels in America – more life.

The barren world, McCarthy creates with nameless characters seems to be very neo-apocalyptic but there a glimmer of hope when the boy finds someone else who has the fire. While the boy has found a family to protect him, he still faces the problems he faced before – there’s no renewable food source so they will not be able to sustain themselves. McCarthy leaves the reader hanging with no real conclusion but the inevitable, eternal end of death.