The Never to be Versus What Never Was

In the book The Road it is questioned, “How does the never to be differ from what never was?” (32). What this means nobody is quite sure of. How exactly does what will never occur differ from what will never exist? It seems to me that the answer is nothing. If an event will never happen then it will never exist, and if it never existed it is the same as not occurring at all. So why is this question asked? Is it rhetorical? Not meant to be answered, its only purpose to leave the readers questioning its meaning and why it was asked? Who exactly asked the question? It seems to me that the narrator did. Is he attempting to inspire us to think in a way we never would, is there a point to asking such a confusing question?  The narrator is telling the readers the story of the boy and his father’s journey, and suddenly he stops to ask us a question. What is the meaning of that? Why is he questioning the readers?

Perhaps the never to be represents something entirely different. Maybe the never to be is supposed to be what used to occur but never will again. There used to be life in the world of The Road. There used to be people who lived their lives as we do today. Children who went to school and parents who had jobs to attend to. None of that takes place now. It is hinted that the world used to be that way. The boy and his father go to a grocery store to scavenge for food, showing that places as such used to be frequented as we do today. The father also takes his son to see his childhood home. Everything is dirty and deserted but it seems that it used to be full of life. There used to be more living people, as shown by all the dead bodies lying around the road. Life was different before the event that caused the start of the apocalypse occurred. Perhaps that is what the narrator is trying to get us to see. 

What is the difference between what used to occur but never will again, from what does not exist and never will? It seems to me that the answer to that question is neither of them will happen once, or again for that matter. For the never to be this question gives off a somber feeling. What used to be of it was great, and the fact that it is now gone forever, I find depressing.