The Cost of Growing Up

Throughout the novel The Road by Cormac McCarthy, the boy is seen as an innocent god like figure. The reader learns this because the boys father refers to him as a god like figure, multiple times the maine one being how he carries the fire but as we get towards the end of the novel we start seeing signs of the boy losing his innocence. After reading the entire book the bot is portrayed to the reader that he has lost his innocence, because he is growing older, as well as having significant pressure put on him at a young age, as well as seeing some graphic images no one should ever have to endure never mind a ten year old child.

At the beginning of the novel the boy is shown to have his innocence in multiple different ways. A couple of the little ways the boy is shown as innocent is by playing the flute. During this time in the world, playing music out loud for anyone to hear is risky. But the boy does not realize this because since he is innocent he cannot comprehend how if people in bloodcults catch him and his dad they will eat them. Not only does he have no worry in the world he is also trying to make the best out of every moment. Playing the flute is an example of this because by playing the flute, the boy get joy out of it, which the majority of people in this world get no joy out of anything, nevermind getting joy from a flute. The boy has a nightmare about a penguin is another example of the boys innocence in the novel. This is because by this time in his life he has seen people killed, dead bodies stacked up, and ran away from people trying to kill him, but instead he had a dream about a toy. Now those or near the beginning of the novel, where he still had his innocence, but as the novel goes on he loses his innocence, but keeps his god like figure.

Multiple times throughout the novel the boy is given high standards of life that he should try to live up to. Some of these standards, are almost unobtainable. The main standard the boy is told he has to live up to, and this one is the largest, and most brought up standard throughout the novel. This quote is said by the man and is  “Carry the fire”(McCarthy pg 84) At the beginning of the book the fire signifies that he is kind of like a god like figure, but as we read on it more puts pressure on the boy. Pressure of how he could save the world, or the fire which he is carrying puts a mass amount of stress on a kid, which would cause the boy to have to grow up quicker. Ultimately leading to boy to lose his innocence. As the boy gets older he not only feels the pressure that is put on him, but also realizes what is really going on around him.

Throughout his life the boy has seen people be killed, or just dead bodies. At the beginning of the novel he is innocent and does not realize what is happening, but as he gets older the boy truly realizes the danger he is living in every day. This is shown when the boy simply asks the man if “the bad guys saw it?”(McCarthy 272).This quote is important because it shows how the kid is always scared. This corresponds to also when the kid goes in the houses he is very skeptical because he is scared. It also adds on the fact the first bunker they went into they say people hiding in their scared for their lives and hungry. Then the second bunker he did not want to go into because he did not want to repeat seeing that. These are just a couple of examples of how the boy is always scared, after realizing what kind of world he truly lives in by growing up and losing his innocence. Another reason the boy is always scared is because of his father. Not that his father might kill him, but rather his father could give away their hiding position from coughing, of how is father could dies because of how sick he is. They keep walking, the man coughing blood, dying, envying the dead. They are starving, stalked by the unseen, by armed thugs who travel by truck, and in terror they see an army of “marchers” who appear on the road four abreast and epitomize what the apocalypse has wrought: “All wearing red scarves at their necks.(nytimes.com). The people who are referred to above with the scarves and the people the boy is afraid that the dad is going to attract by coughing are the bloodcults. The bloodcults are the people who kill the other people not in their cult, and eat them. This is a very gruesome thing, and is obvious why the boy is always scared, but violent examples are not the only examples of how the boy lost all his innocence.

The boy throughout the novel slowly lost hope in humanity, he never lost all of his hope in humanity, but did lose the majority of it. This is shown multiple times throughout the novel. At the beginning the boy wanted to help everyone, and wanted to be friends with everyone. As the book goes on he slowly stops wanting to help everyone, or at least voicing his opinion on it. He did this because as he got older and lost all of his innocence he realized that he can not trust anyone, even if he feels like he should help me knows it could risk his life. An example of the boy slowly losing his hope for humanity and innocence is when the man and the boy run into a man who stole their stuff and this occured. Finally he piled the man’s shoes and clothes in the road. He put a rock on top of them. We have to go, he said. We have to go(McCarthy 270).

This quote is mainly about the man, but at the time the boy said nothing, and that is important part. At the beginning of the novel he would have fought for the guy showing his innocence, but now he said nothing until after. He voiced that it was wrong but not until after. This shows that he has now figured out that what they have to do if fend for themselves not other which is the loss of innocence. He still cares about others, but now cares about himself more than others. Which is one way that the boy has lost his innocence. Watching your father die right in front of you, seeing dead people, being chased by people who want to kill you to anyone would cause them to lose their innocence, but not for the boy. For the boy there was more needed than just that for him to lose all of his innocence. The other reason besides the ones above that cause him to lose his innocence is just by growing up, and realizing what kind of world he truly lived in which is a harsh environment where it is like the hunger games everyman for themselves.