Rediscovery of Reality and Genre in Cormac McCarthy’s The Road

Abstract

Cormac McCarthy’s post-apocalyptic world in The Road is eerily reminiscent of our own in numerous aspects. Material devastation is, nevertheless, in the background of this novel, although it is intertwined with the destruction of words and the very essence of humanity. This paper analyzes the key segments of McCarthy’s redefinition of both the conventions of reality and genre in order to show that The Road primarily focuses on the loss of humanity rather than on the obliteration of a system or a culture. The true demise lies in the depletion of meaning – the destruction of our world is of secondary importance. The main characteristics of the post-apocalyptic genre and McCarthy’s idiom are examined in order to argue this point. The two main protagonists are on a pilgrimage of discovery into the unknown and back to the origins of the New World, to the East Coast. Hope confronts hopelessness when the two heroes, as remnants of a true humanity worth preserving, rediscover the continent by retracing the steps of westward expansion back to the Ocean. The father provides a sense of loss, while the son represents the spark of a new beginning.