Feelin' the Breeze

          Throughout the story so far, the man and the boy's main goal was to travel along the road to reach the coastline in hope for a better life. When they finally reach the coast, it starts out to be very anti-climactic. Normal beaches usually have blue oceans and white sandy beaches, but when they reach this beach, it is completely covered in ash. Up to this point, the man has been telling the boy that he remembered the ocean to be a nice shade of blue, but once they see it, it looks just like a blob of gray slush. The mood is quite gloomy at this point because the whole description of the beach seems to be a total let down for the boy.

          However, the mood takes a huge jump upward when the boy asks his father if he can go into the ocean. At first, the man is slow to allow him to go in, but soon he allows him to go swimming even though it is very cold outside and in the water. The way McCarthy describes this event is great. He says, "He stood naked, clutching himself and dancing. Then he went running down the beach... Running naked and leaping and screaming into the slow roll of the surf" (McCarthy 218). This is pretty much most people often act when they first get to the beach after a long travel to finally get there. Even if it is not as he imagined it to be, the boy was still able to enjoy his first swim in the ocean. Like the boy, whenever I first get to the beach, my first instinct it to always go diving in the water just to see how it is. It doesn't matter what it looks like, the overall sight of a beach is usually an uplifting sight for most people.

          The beach has acted almost as a symbol of hope throughout the story so far. The boy and the man's constant goal was to reach the coast line, and now they finally did. Now that they are finally on the beach they can relax a little and do some lighter activities like searching the beach for washed up goods. Anything can wash up along the shore line so there is hope that something good may soon wash up right into the boy and the mans' hands. Hopefully this will be a turning point of more good things to come for the boy and the man.