Theme of danger versus safety in the Road by: Cormac McCarthy

1. McCarthy uses the imagery of the motorcycle mirror on the shopping cart to illustrate a sense of danger that comes along with travelling on the road.

1.1. “ In the knap-sacks were essential things. In case they had to abandon the cart and make a run for it. Clamped to the handle of the cart was a chrome motorcycle mirror that he used to watch the road behind them”

2. McCarthy displays the sense of safety off the road by writing that the man and his son would “make a run for it” into the woods and off the road because that is where they could safely get away from the “bad guys” that could hunt them down.

2.1. This shows that the man is aware of the dangers and he wants to make sure that his son knows what their danger plan is in case of something happening.

3. An example of danger on the road is “Something woke him. He turned on his side and lay listening. He raised his head slowly, the pistol in his hand. He looked down at the boy and when he looked nback toward the road the first of them were already coming into view. God, he whispered. He reached and shook the boy, keeping his eyes on the road.”

3.1. McCarthy writes this quote to illustrate the terrible things that accompany the boy and man on the road.

4. McCarthy uses horrific imagery to describe a group of people that travel on the road to show how dangerous they are. this example is “They came shuffling through the ash casting their hooded heads from side to side. Some of them wearing canister masks. One in a biohazard suit. Stained and filthy. Slouching along with clubs in their hands, lengths of pipe. Coughing. Then he heard on the road behind them what sounded like a diesel truck.”

5. throughout the novel McCarthy uses the trees and the forest to symbolize a sense of safety, or a bunker to hide from the bad things that travel on the road.

6. McCarthy continues the theme of safety and shelter to describe travelling off the road. this example is What they came to was a cedar wood, the trees dead and black but still full enough to hold the snow. Beneath each one a precious circle of dark earth and cedar duff. They settled under a tree and piled the blankets and coats on the ground.”

7. when the man and the boy are not on the road they are warm because of the fire, but when they are travelling on the road they are exposed to the harshness of the weather, they are cold, and wet which could lead to sickness or death.

7.1. McCarthy uses the weather as another treacherous obstacle that comes along with travelling on the road. He also uses the weather to give the man and the boy another reason to go south and reach their goal of making it to the coast.

8. A main example of danger versus safety in the road is the bad guys. the man convinces the boy that they are the good guys and everything that they encounter on the road is bad. whether it be bad guys or just something he cant touch, The boy has trouble distinguishing him and his dad from the bad guys, because they are not very different.

9. McCarthy characterizes the man as a teacher, and the boy as a student throughout the novel. Throughout the novel the man is teaching the boy what is dangerous, and bad versus what is safe, and good.

10. McCarthy uses indirect characterization to show that the man is worried for the boy knowing that one day the boy will have to face the dangers of this new world alone.

10.1. This is shown when the boy doesnt talk for long periods of time the man confronts him about it. this shows that the man is worried about the well being of boy and wants to try and make the boy as happy as possible.