When all that is left are hopes

The Road, by Cormac McCarthy is the next book we will read during this course. After reading Coming Through Slaughter and The Great Gatsby, our summer books, i have discovered this book to be very interesting and after reading some of its pages, questions and doubts have arised.

I'm am not certain of what is exactly going on in the books setting, for the vocabulary is sometimes hard to understand. However i can tell that the story is about a man and his son. They are walking around their country trying to reach something. Apparently, everything is burned and there are no survivors, making it even harder to live from morning to night. The weather is cold and it is constantly raining. Aspect that doesn't help the characters for they have basic equipment for survival. They sleep wherever they can and they must be constantly hiding, protecting their tired bodies with blankets, they make it through the night. Only to find the same panorama next morning, grey sky, lots of ashes and destruction.

I find the little boy in the story very interesting. He seems young, but mature for his age. Facing things that are challenges he overcomes them next to his strong dad. Scared of death, and the end, this child asks questions as if he was looking for life, searching for a small percentage of survival, even though everything he sees around him is destruction. Asking his father things like, are we going to die, reassure him and give him strength. "Do you think there could be fish in the lake?" is a question he asks his father, but the only thing he obtains is a cold response "No. There's nothing in the lake." (20)

Sometimes, we find the father praying and cursing. Maybe he doesn't like the present he is living, or maybe what is really killing him, is having no idea about the future. The kid, makes it better, he is not alone, he can talk to someone. He has a purpose of life, the little boy must be safe, he has to be fed, he has to have someone watching him and in this burned country it is difficult to survive. Suicidal thoughts might of gone though his fathers mind but the kid keeps the thoughts from becoming actions. The boy depends on his father, and he is keeping him alive. So as the book continues, i hope to learn what they are both searching for, and also what discoveries they make during their trip on the road.