As any other novel, McCarthy's The Road contained many quotes. They were put in place for us to decipher in order to achieve a better understanding of the text (kind of like a riddle, how fun .. NOT!). A quote that I grabbed from the text was a discussion between the boy and his Papa (Pg. 83). He asked him if they were going to be okay and the man replied with, "And nothing bad is going to happen to us because were carrying the fire." Yeah right man, you really think so? The "fire" he speaks about is not a physical thing, but more so their passion for survival. Because they are (technically) the only humans left in this post apocalyptic world, they are the hope of the world. The fate of the human race lies within them. Great, what are the chances of us surviving now?
One night as he rocked the boy back and forth he thought about the single round left in the revolver. He then proceeded to say, "You will not face the truth. You will not." (Pg. 68) At this point the man has already lost his faith (Surprising, huh?). However, he is worried that if his son loses his faith he will no longer have the will to live. This may jeopardize the fate of the human race which then takes us back to the man reinforcing the previous quote to his son.
His mother, at one point, even said that "The one thing I can tell you is that you wont survive for yourself." (Pg. 57) This just goes to show you how much love they had for their son. Yet, she had no faith in their chances of survival and chose the easy way out. That left Papa fighting for his life in order to keep his son alive. His son, in a sense, then becomes the only reason for his continued existence. Same can be said to the quote on pg. 54, "All things of grace and beauty such that one holds them to one's heart have a common provenance in pain. Their birth in grief and ashes. So, he whispered to the sleeping boy. I have you."
Corny much?
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