EN-270
Jeff Abernathy
Genesis II
“These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.” (Hebrews 11:13). The Road by Cormac McCarthy is paved with this sense of being a stranger and of being a pilgrim. Sometime after the catastrophe causing this post apocalyptic nuclear winter, the man finds himself a complete stranger in this world in which he grew and came to know so well. This is where the story of the pilgrimage in The Road begins. Without any place to call home and limited food supply, the man had to take this boy on a pilgrimage through this strange land. In this land, a land where society’s view was that the world was forsaken by God, the man had to insure the boy’s divine deliverance on this pilgrimage for a new creation.
Before the journey can be referred to as a divine pilgrimage for a new creation, the context of divine in The Road should be established. Divine is a slightly ambiguous statement in itself. What does divine mean in The Road, and where is the divine stemming from? Calling something divine could refer to that object being directly from a god or a supreme being, or divine could just mean that an object is spectacular or beautiful in a certain way. Specifically in the boy’s case, the boy is made divine because of the view of him we see through the father’s eyes. The most straight forward evidence that we have of this view in which the father holds is in a passage within The Road, “If he is not the word of God God never spoke” (McCarthy 5). Also as we delve into McCarthy’s intent as to the real meaning of this story, we can see the urgency in which he introduces this postulate. McCarthy shows the audience that the father believes this after only four and a half pages hence anchoring this notion of the divine related to the boy for the rest of the story.
Now that the notion is introduced from the early thoughts of the father, the boy, at least in his eyes, carries the divine spirit if not more. Throughout the story there is evidence that might create a slight urge to call him a savior, but savior for what? During the man’s and the boy’s travels during The Road they meet a very decrepit looking man. This man is on the edge of death, and the man, as with most people, reacted with a severe mistrust and coldness. The boy, however, had the overpowering belief that they should help him. This would seem a strange decision within the framework of their situation because the man and the boy had just replenished their food supply for a short time, and they knew the food would probably run out and would starve before they could find more. The boy continues to persist, and eventually the father gave into the valor of the boy. At one point the father questions the boy. “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.” (McCarthy 259). “The one” is an interesting choice of words. The boy feels that he is the only one that is willing to help in this world, and if he is the only one that gives any attention to the caring and safety of the people in this world, that would make him, in a sense, the savior of this post-apocalypse. As savior implies this also gives another reason for the boy’s portrayal in a divine sense, and this pattern of concern for the survival of humanity continues to be a theme for the boy throughout The Road.
The boy’s role as a savior in the story can be related to Jesus’ role in the world with a minor difference. As mentioned before, the boy has a continuing concern for the survival of humanity. Jesus said, according the King James Version of the Bible, “I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly” (John 10:10). If taken in a literal sense in the boy’s case, society is dying off very quickly. The only hope for the survival of humanity is the youth of this world. Along with the boy’s concerns directly for others and that in order to continue humanity the boy must grow to reproduce, the boy is literally brining new life to this society in darkness every moment he is alive. This parallels Jesus’ mission to bring life to society as long as he existed. This is where the only difference comes into view. Jesus was brought into the world specifically to die while the boy is in this world specifically to live.
Even with a minor difference, there is still another strong similarity between the boy and Jesus. To understand the next direct relation between the boy and the Savior, the notion of darkness must be put in the context of The Road. Darkness according to the Oxford English dictionary can mean the absence of “light” meaning death. Also darkness can mean gloom of sorrow, trouble, or distress. Both of these definitions apply directly to The Road. In the second sentence of the book darkness is something immediately introduced. “Nights dark beyond darkness and the days more gray each one than what had gone before” (McCarthy 1). Darkness is now introduced and the grayness in The Road can be read in a way that shows that even through all this darkness there is still some hope, but the hope is fading. With this reading the McCarthy’s statement then begs the question what is to be done? Jesus said, “I am come a light into the world, that whosoever believeth on me should not abide in darkness” (John 10:46). Jesus came to save the world from this gloom and evil that had taken hold because he was the light. So another way Jesus and the boy can be directly related is through a continuing dialogue that the boy and the father have throughout the entire story. This is their conversations that drift to the notion of “carrying the fire”. McCarthy usually introduces these comments that the boy makes when the boy is afraid. “And nothing bad is going to happen to us. That’s right. Because we’re carrying the fire.” (McCarthy 83). The darkness of The Road begins to engulf the man and the boy from time to time, but the boy always realizes that they are carrying the fire. The darkness is then pushed away for the time being. After so many of these occurrences, of the darkness can be said that the boy is the fire and hence the light, and he is carrying this fire with him for the survival of humanity.
In a post-apocalyptic setting as is The Road, the divine from a social stand point is an object that is not easy to come by and or recognize. The survivors, if they did believe in God, would think that God has abandoned them, and if God has abandoned this world then in essence they are living in a world with no God. The boy and the father met a man in the story who refers to himself by the name of Ely, the same man the boy convinced his father to help. Ely is interesting in that McCarthy uses him to give some insight into the divine nature of the post-apocalyptic world. “There is no God. No? There is no God and we are his prophets” (McCarthy 170). This statement was immediately disregarded by the man in the story, but what Ely said does reaffirm that McCarthy wanted to portray that there is a missing belief of God or God is missing himself from this world. The conversation comes back to God later when Ely says that he thought that he had died because he saw a boy. The man then says of the boy to Ely, “What if I said that he’s a God?” Ely replies, “Where men can’t live gods fare no better” (McCarthy 172). This short dialogue shows again that the boy has a divine presence at the very least in his fathers world. This also, again, shows more evidence for this world with the missing God.
What happened to God in this society? Throughout recorded history there have been many different types of societies that have had many different economic and political arrangements. Whether they are of the Egalitarian, Hierarchical, or class-based flavor there has been one constant throughout history, religion or the belief of a higher power. Working from the previous claim that there is no God in this post-apocalyptic world, this claim seems to contradict the historical constant. Each society has had their own form of a God or higher power, and these beliefs change over time so the forced formation of this new society has done away with the old beliefs and requires the formation of something new.
“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” (Genesis 1:1). This is probably one of the most recognizable verses from the bible. God created the world from nothingness which seems to parallel the situation the boy and the man find themselves in The Road. According to the Bible God started in the nothingness and created the world we know. In The Road this world that God created is finished leaving a new form of nothingness and room for a new creation. The new creation that seems necessary in the story is the creation of a new society for the continuation of humanity. At the root of this creation is the idolization of youth but more specifically the boy. If the youth then is held up so high on this pedestal then some may start to worship the idea of youth and the continuation of society. Because of the worship of this idea, the boy is inevitably to be worshiped and made into the new God of this society.
Now that there is an established reason to view the boy as an object of the divine, the question can be answered of why? Why did the author intend the boy to be more than merely a boy, and what does this have to do with pilgrimage and the full creation story? Pilgrimage is the most easily recognized theme of this story. One only has to look at the title in an almost literal sense, The Road. This title implies that there is most likely a travel in this book, and indeed the boy and the man travel the entire story. That doesn’t quite make it a pilgrimage yet, however. The American Heritage Dictionary defines pilgrimage as “a long journey or search, especially one of exalted purpose or moral significance”. A pilgrimage can also be referred to as “a journey, esp. a long one, made to some sacred place as an act of religious devotion” (Dictionary.com).
The act of pilgrimage in The Road is actually a combination of the previous two definitions. As far as “a long journey of exalted purpose or moral significance”, we learn during the story of the man’s main purpose which is to keep the boy alive. This is straightforward enough. We can also say that the father feels almost a moral duty to keep the possibility of the survival of the human race alive. The father continues to make his son keep moving in hopes that arriving at the coast will solve or at least postpone death which he feels is always upon them. With the high hopes the father has for the coast, the idea can be seen as deliverance to paradise, a sacred place, which is where the journey or pilgrimage begins to shift to the idea of the divine. As mentioned before of the boy’s divine nature, the man’s devotion to him as a father could also be viewed as a religious devotion. We are then left with what was alluded to before. This pilgrimage is a journey originally to the coast which is made divine by the presence of the boy.
In the modern form of pilgrimage there are usually a few stops on the journey of holy or divine significance. During the father and son’s journey through The Road they come upon a fallout shelter. This shelter is not only a place where they can avoid the elements of this nuclear winter. This place is full of various non-perishable foods, hygienic items, and beds where they can rest warmly. This can be viewed as a utopia in the midst of this forsaken and dangerous land. Eden was the same. God gave Adam and Eve all they needed for survival in the Garden of Eden. The man and the boy had all they needed for survival in this shelter, but eventually they leave. Perhaps the man thought that they would be found there, but really the man was thinking about the coast which was originally their final destination on this pilgrimage. Even though they had all they needed, the man wanted more, and so the father and son labored on into the wilderness so was the fate of Adam and Eve. They had all they needed, but they wanted more and took the forbidden fruit. For this God punished them by forcing them to labor to survive. In this story of pilgrimage and creation in The Road McCarthy uses this shelter to remind the reader of the original story of creation which transforms this shelter into a divine stop on their pilgrimage to the coast.
What is left for this divine journey to be truly called a pilgrimage? For this pilgrimage in The Road evidence has been shown for the journey to be called divine. There is a destination in mind for the journey, and there is a stop of divine significance on the way. One piece that is missing, however, is an overarching divine reason to start this journey. Even though the boy in himself is enough divine reason for the journey, McCarthy uses the words of the father to directly convey this further. The father says at one point directly to the boy, “My job is to take care of you. I was appointed to do that by God” (McCarthy 77). This is an interesting statement if the previous statement of a world with no God is taken into account. If also the boy can be considered the new God of this society, then he really was appointed by God. He was appointed subconsciously by the boy by the simple act of the boy being born into this world. The corollary of the last few statements is that the boy along with the youth of this society is truly the new religion of this world. Also the father’s statement relates directly to the previously mentioned definition of pilgrimage which is a direct act of religious devotion since the boy and youth can be called the new religion. So the divine parts are in place for this journey to be called a divine pilgrimage to the coast.
There is, however, a little snag in their pilgrimage which partially transforms this pilgrimage away from the original intention. As mentioned before, for a majority of this journey they where traveling for the coast but more importantly the idea of the coast. The coast was supposed to be their safe haven to start this new creation for humanity. Although as is learned in The Road idea of the coast becomes obliterated at the moment they arrive. The coast is as gray and consumed with darkness as the rest of the world. No warmth or light has carried over through the father’s idea of what the coast used to be. Even though the father has “the fire” with him to keep the darkness at bay, their pilgrimage to this new creation must be modified. The father decides to continue on with no real destination in mind, but as mentioned before, the father’s primary objective was to keep the boy alive for the continuation of humanity. So although there is no longer a destination, the idea behind the original pilgrimage, the boy’s divine survival, becomes stronger than ever and the primary focus.
How can the deliverance take place if there is no where to go? The father knows that if a place for the boy to grow is not found then the pilgrimage for a new creation will fail. The boy and the father continue on what would seem to be an aimless journey if not for the idea of deliverance. The man and the boy travel through a seemingly abandoned town where they are attacked. The man becomes injured and with what strength he has left he flees with the boy out of the town back to the wilderness. The darkness fully engulfs the man and the savior of this world is left to his own to “carry the fire”. As mentioned before, the boy is a savior of this world and related to a form of Jesus, and when Jesus was on earth miracles seemed to happen more often. If this boy is a savoir and like a God than he can’t just die in the nothingness. A miracle happens, however, when a man from the seemingly abandoned town followed them because of the divine presence of youth, the boy. This new man finds the boy in the darkness shortly after the father was consumed. McCarthy uses the dialogue between the boy and this new man to bring back the ideas introduced earlier in the story. “Are you carrying the fire? Am I what? Carrying the fire” (McCarthy 283). The new man ignores this at first then again the boy starts in, “So are you? What, carrying the fire? Yes. Yeah. We are” (McCarthy 283-4). McCarthy then reveals that this new man has children. The boy’s deliverance is now complete and the pilgrimage is complete.
Among the darkness and strange land, the man and the boy truly did complete a pilgrimage. McCarthy’s intent to show how a catastrophy or apocalypse can transform two very normal humans, a father and a son, into a divine presences brings about this meditation of society and pilgrimage. The man completed his mission from God to deliver the boy for the new creation. The light or “fire” of society has found a place at the end of this pilgrimage to flourish in society’s Godless world so that he may be a savior for humanity.
Works Cited
McCarthy, Cormac. The Road. New York: Vintage International, 2006.
"Saviour." Oxford English Dictionary. 1989. Oxford University Press. 10 Nov. 2007
"Pilgrimage." The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Houghton
Mifflin Company, 2004. 05 Nov. 2007.
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/pilgrimage>.
"Pilgrimage." Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1). Random House, Inc. 05 Nov. 2007.
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/pilgrimage.
BibleGateway.Com. Gen. 1:1. 10 Nov. 2007
BibleGateway.Com. Heb. 11:13. 10 Nov. 2007
BibleGateway.Com. John 12:46.
BibleGateway.Com. John 10:10.
Works Referenced
Wood, James. "Getting to the End." The New Republic (2007): 44-48. Academic Search
Premier. EBSCO. [Augustana College], [Rock Island], [IL], 15 Oct. 2007.
Egan, Jennifer. "Men At Work." Slate Magazine. 10 Oct. 2006. 15 Oct. 2007
Breslin, John B. “From These Ashes”. America 29 Jan. 2007: 27-28.
Coleman, Simon, and John Elsner. Pilgrimage. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard UP,
1995.
Morris, Colin, and Peter Roberts. Pilgrimage. United Kingdom: Cambridge UP, 2002.
