Response Paper on The Road by Cormac McCarthy

Cormac McCarthys novel The Road, while telling the tale of the endless effort for survival of a father and a son in a post-apocalyptic world, mainly focuses on the human relationships, the incredible strength of the love that we can feel for each other.
The globe is perished. The wasteland offers no goods anymore. If one wants to live through, he has to search for the necessities, or even has to take them from the others who have it. But why would he? Why would he fight, why not just give up? Seemingly there is no outlook, why all the trouble in vain then, what could be the motivation? Even in a world of sorrow, in a landscape that is cruel to men and everything else living, in a situation where there is no place left for hope, a flickering light burns in the darkness, a light that will keep burning, as long as forever or beyond, the light that is called love, giving an only base for further struggle, a purpose when there would be none left, the fear for each other that keeps one moving, living and fighting, come on! Push it just some more, We’re almost there, take the gun, it will protect you if I can’t! Eat it all, I won’t need more! We have to go South, to the unknown, maybe nothing is better there, who may know, but for each other, it is worth it.
This clinging on to each other – McCarthy suggests – is what forces one to carry on in such desperate conditions, if not for one’s own sake, then for the sake of the beloved one. The point he makes here, cannot be argued, and hopefully, will never have to be.