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Cormac Mccarthy The Road Analysis

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Words 1158
Pages 5
Gabrielle Van Tassell
Professor Shadi Halabi
Journey of Transformation
8 December 2016

Hope Where All Hope Is Lost The novel The Road, by Cormac McCarthy, is a post-apocalyptic story that consists of underlying biblical references. McCarthy, with or without intention, incorporates themes and stories directly related to the Christian Bible. The boy and the man are living in a seemingly godless world trying to survive, and the novel describes this as “On this road there are no godspoke men. They are gone and I am left and they have taken with them the world.” (McCarthy 32). McCarthy creates a post-apocalyptic world in which a man and a boy are attempting survive off of hope, and he uses biblical references to exude this hope on their journey. …show more content…
Because the man is exuding his power, he orders the thief to remove all of his clothing, and goes on to say, “I’m going to leave you the way you left us.” (McCarthy 257). Opposing the moralities of the Old Testament, the son encourages the New Testament moralities that consist of love and forgiveness. This part of the novel can also connect to the New Testament story of the thief who was crucified next to Jesus. Jesus says so him, “To day shalt thou be with me in paradise.” (Luke 23:43). The thief in the bible saw the goodness in Jesus, and looked to him for mercy. The thief in the novel did the same to the boy because he saw his goodness, as well as his ability to love and forgive. The novel states, “The thief looked at the child and what he saw was very sobering to him” (McCarthy 256). The boy’s sense of divinity is reveled through these scenes by exemplifying the moralities of the New …show more content…
The article, Christianity and Cormac McCarthy's The Road, explains “The goodness of the boy is emphasized more subtly by his gift of extraordinary vision. Darkness has descended on earth, recalling the blinding darkness described in the epistle of John.” (Pudney 302). In this Gospel Jesus claims, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness but will have the light of life.” (John 8:12). Because of the boy’s innate goodness, he is not blinded by the darkness of the world. Like Jesus, the boy can be viewed as the light of this dark world that he was born into. His morals are not corrupted by the darkness that he walks through because he still possesses the light of life.
The encounter with the man claims to be Ely is another instance where a biblical reference is made. This character is actually very significant because he is the only one that it given a name in the novel. Ely tells the man and the boy that he is ninety and cannot see very well. According to the article, Christianity and Cormac McCarthy's The Road, “These details link him to Eli, who “was ninety and eight years old; and his eyes were dim, that he could not see.”” (Pudney 306). Eli is a virtuous man in the bible, but is punished by God because he was unable to prevent his sons from

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