A moment that truly stood out for me in the The Road is when The Man declined to take a can of home canned tomatoes. “In the pantry were three jars of homecanned tomatoes. He blew the dust from the lids and studied them. Someone before him had not trusted them and in the end neither did he and he walked out…” (McCarthy 22) This seemed very peculiar to me. In a society, or lack thereof, where cannibalism is a (while maybe not accepted), fairly common practice, The Man declines to take the tomatoes. I wonder why. The first thing that comes to mind is that maybe he is afraid the tomatoes have gone bad, they might not have been sealed properly. Though I think the more probable reason he didn’t take the tomatoes was that he was afraid they were poisoned or tainted. His fear of other humans is greater than his fear of starvation. He would rather take his chances with the elements of mother nature, than with the creatures she created.
A question one might ask is, why would anyone bother poisoning food? I don’t know why, but I think it is a reasonable assumption that The Man is not picky, he is afraid. Why else would he decline much needed vitamins and food? A possible reasoning for poisoned food would be that the previous inhabitants of the house was trying to protect themselves from scavengers like The Man.
All of this leads us to a conclusion that while The Man and Boy are desperate, they are not yet willing to needlessly sacrifice their lives for one more meal.
I agree with your statement that his fear of humans is greater than starvation. With starvation you basically know what you are getting yourself into. With other people and cannibals you do not know what they will do to you. I also believe the can of tomatoes may have been a trap from cannibals. The food may have been poisoned like you mentioned and once someone eats it they will capture them. Also if he believes the tomatoes are poisoned, it makes sense for him not to eat them. If he decided to eat the tomatoes first, then he would have been killed and the boy would have been left alone in a house and world that is unsafe. I think the father made a good decision in not eating the tomatoes.
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