Doomsday

Cormac McCarthy’s The Road seem to be a typical example of what Liz Rosen would call “neo-apocalyptic” literature. Two survivors, the elect, are living in a dystopia in the aftermath of some worldwide catastrophe. In the beginning, the child is called the voice of God. Food basically nonexistent—what the two find through scrounging can barely feed them and they often go hungry. They live in constant fear of being caught and eaten by cannibals, ostensibly representing the unelect. Only the cannibals have anything resembling an organized society, and they create one only by oppressing and murdering other people. The world is covered in ash, creating an endless stretch of gray. In short, they live in a never-ending Tribulation.

At second reading, however, I started to see the more biblical apocalyptic story. McCarthy obliquely hinted that fierce fires that burnt everything in its path ravaged the world, leaving behind the ash. The traditional idea of Hell is a place with lakes of ever-burning fire.  Food is often found spoilt, as if touched by Famine, the rider of the black horse in the Book of Revelation. Everywhere, you see the dualistic relationship between the living and the dead, young and old, and good guys and bad guys.

Then, you have to consider electism. The father and the boy are not elect. By the end of the book, the father is forced to commit several acts that might have killed people. Even then, the father dies before the boy meets up with the new family, who might be considered New Jerusalem. Finally the child will have the company of other “good guys.”