Going Through The Road Of Good And Evil

The Road, by McCarthy is a story in which human kind has gone to its darker side. During pages 100 through 150 we see how the boy and the father have to face a new human being that leaves all decency behind, and becomes a monster that would do anything for survival.

In this story we see the creation of two groups, the good and the bad bad guys. Good guys represented by the boy and the man, are the ones that would rather starve than leave the little humanity they still have after the catastrophic events that lead to the end of human society as we know it. The bad guys, are those who leave morality on the side, creating confusion and fear between one another, and preventing human race to recover from this tragic event.

The good guys, or this two brave people not only survive and maintain their morals no matter how hungry they are, but they also are able to help they do although they may fight about it. An example of this is the scene of the old man when the boy and the man have the following conversation,
"He was just hungry, Papa. He's going to die.
He's going to die anyway.
He's so scared, Papa.
The man squatted and looked at him. I'm scared, he said. Do you understand? I'm scared.
The boy didn't answer. He just sat there with his head down, sobbing.
You're not the one who has to worry about everything.
The boy said something but he couldn't understand him. What? He said.
He looked up, his wet and grimy face. Yes I am, he said. I am the one." 
At the end helping the old man was the answer because in a world turned into ashes we only have one another.

Is it maybe that all the ashes named on the story where created by human mistakes? maybe the author is trying to tell us how we where the bad guys all along and how all our daily actions are converting this world in the piece of land full of ashes and bodies that The Road shows us. Global Warming and war are driving us into that world of destruction in which animals and people are no longer distinguished. Something as normal as calling a friend a really bad name is causing humanity inside each of us to decrease more and more.

Surviving is the excuse for this people to eat between one and other and to kill others like if they where only miserable animals. Is Surviving an excuse? as economics has showed us, there is a substitute for almost everything and this is not the excuse. McCarthy is showing us how we can survive without leaving our morals to the side by his two main character the boy and the man. Maybe this lesson is not only useful in catastrophic events such as the one described in the book, but maybe we can use this new teaching in our daily life. There is always a way to survive a fight or a broken heart without leaving our morals. An example is the book by Meg Cabot The Mediator in which a girl kills herself just because her boyfriend left her. Life always has other options and those options are almost always in favor of decency and dignity.

Never forgetting our humanity is what will give this world another chance to become the Utopia we want it to be.

Gabriela