In the book The Road, I found it interesting when the man and boy made their way into a barn. "Inside the barn three bodies hanging from the rafters, dried and dusty among the wan slats of light" (McCarthy 17). There is no explanation as to why the bodies would be there. When the man saw the bodies he no longer had the desire to look for resources and immediately wanted to get out of the area. I think the reason they want to leave is because bodies mean the men were sick and chose death instead of turning into some kind of monster. There is a strong possibility that there is some kind of disease that people tried avoiding. For example, in the book it says people were "Wearing gas masks and goggles, sitting in their rags by the side of the road like ruined aviators" (McCarthy 28). I think people were trying to avoid a disease but were inevitably infected.
I still wonder why there are not other creatures around if this disease is, in fact, turning people into monsters. The man and boy are scared and do not want to die, but we really do not have any proof of what they are scared of. Is it some kind of monster that is created through a disease? Is it because they are afraid of other people that will go so far as eating humans? Is it both? If there is some kind of disease that is going around and turning people into some kind of monster why is the boy not affected by it? I think the man is infected. There are a few times where it is mentioned that he is coughing, and he even coughs up blood. It could be a sign that he is beginning to die. The boy has no sign of illness. Maybe he is immune somehow, and the people that they are afraid of are immune just like him. The Road has aspects that do not have answers. I find it hard to believe that the author will give the reader much in terms of answers. Maybe his real goal is to make it out so the reader creates their own answers as they read.
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ReplyDeleteI really like your take on this, I often thought the same thing while reading these passages in the text. Its interesting to think that the Man and Boy may be running from some sort of zombie virus. It is evident in the way they are always watching their backs and being cautious, even though we have not yet met another living human. The Man may have even contracted the virus which would explain his deteriorating state. Also, the cannibalism seen in the text could be due to a zombie-like creature as well as feral humans
ReplyDeleteYou make a very interesting point about the boy being immune to the disease which wiped out all the other humans. I thought similar to you while reading the text when the boy and the father came across the hanging bodies. I began to wonder if maybe it was a disease that killed all the other people and creatures as well. I definitely think think that the father is infected with a disease, but I wonder if it is the disease that wiped out the rest of the human race. The author does not seem to answer many questions which may be a good thing because it allows us as the readers to come up with our own observations and predictions of what happened along this road.
ReplyDeleteI agree with the information you have given from the story, a disease is a probable cause of this world of anarchy. The allusion of the bodies in the barn suggest that food is scarce, maybe the food was infected? The switch to cannibalism raises a few alarms though. If this was a disease then wont the bodies be infected meaning that most people would not commit this act? Well maybe the insane but the logical one wouldnt have taken this option. The man and boy are the only two so far that show they cant do that with the reason only as "its not right". This can show that the two characters being the only logical one prove that this is a slow killing disease which is why i agree.
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