Disciples

The Road Critical Essay

Whether one holds religious beliefs or not, religion itself surrounds every aspect of everyday life. It could be Islam, Christianity, Judaism,  but regardless of what religion, there are multiple instances of religion seeping into entertainment, art, and culture. Commonly, authors tend to incorporate religious allegory into their work. In the novel The Road by Cormac McCarthy, there are many examples of religious allegory referring to Christianity used throughout the text. The clearest example of religious allegory is the boy serving as a Christ-like vessel throughout the novel because of his hope and kindness towards humanity, and the way he is described by the father throughout the novel.

The boy is seen as a Christ-like figure in the way that he still has a kindness and hope towards humanity in a post apocalyptic world. During the man and the boy’s travels, they ran into a man that had been struck by lightning, and the boy and the man argued “‘What is wrong with the man?’ ‘He’s been struck by lightning.’ ‘Cant we help him? Papa?’ ‘No.’ ‘We cant help him.’ The boy kept pulling at his coat. ‘Papa?’ he said. ‘Stop it.’ ‘Cant we help him Papa?’” (McCarthy 50). Even though the boy had never talked to this man, and the man was a complete stranger, the boy still wanted to help, alike to how in the Bible, Christ heals and helps those around him, whether they are strangers or not. The boy also repeatedly was ‘carrying the fire’, but the word ‘the’ means that this is not a literal fire, and represents something bigger than the boy as a whole, a sense of humanity and light in times of darkness. The fire was mentioned in Secular Scripture and Cormac McCarthy’s The Road, “in the context of the still burning holocaust of the world [the fire] represents at least the sacred fire of human spirit, in opposition to the demonic fires of apocalypse” (Shaub 161). This fire that the boy is carrying represents a sense of good and hope to build the world again, and establish something similar to the world before the apocalypse. Also this fire is opposing the ‘demonic fires’ of the apocalypse, in a holy sense like how Christ would oppose demonic entities and events, and helping others in times of need and trouble. The boy does not only appear this way to the reader, but also to the father, who was the boy’s only consistent companion throughout the novel.

The father sees the boy as a sacred vessel, and heavily alludes at the boy being a Christ-like figure throughout the novel. At the very beginning of the novel, when the reader is first learning the story of the man and the boy, the man says “‘If he is not the word of God God never spoke’” (McCarthy 5). This line spoken by the man is almost directly implying that the boy is Christ or very much alike to Christ. Christ carried out God’s word, and the man is saying that the boy is doing the same work and acts similarly to Christ. The man also “sat beside him and stroked his pale and tangled hair. Golden chalice, good to house a god” (75). The father consistently throughout the novel implies that the boy is ‘godly’ or serving as a vessel in which God speaks through. These implications, like the one written above, help the reader understand that the boy is much more than a human being, and represents the good that is left in the world, and a new hope, akin to what Christ represented. Also, the father says “There was light all about [the boy]” and that “when [the boy] moved the light moved with him” (McCarthy 277). This light symbolizes a holy presence of the boy, and it follows him with his movement, symbolizing a goodness and light that follows the boy, that he will carry on with him even after the father has died. This light is similar to the holy light that surrounds Christ in many of the stories written in the Bible, and pictures/interpretations of Christ. In Secular Scripture and Cormac McCarthy’s The Road, it is also pointed out that “The father never tells the boy he carries the ‘light’ or that there is light all around him” (Shaub 163). The father knows that the boy carries a new hope for humanity, much like Christ did, and it is noticed very early on, up until the end of the man’s life.

The boy serves as a vessel in which the reader can see similarities to Christ throughout the novel through his kindness and humanity, and the way his father describes him as a good and almost holy figure. Through helping others, and wanting to help others, and creating a new hope for the world towards the end of the novel, and his father describing the light and hope that surrounds the boy, it creates a Christ-like disciple represented throughout the novel. The boy serves as a moral compass, and creates a hopeful feeling for the future of himself. It could be argued though that the boy is glorified by his father, out of the father’s pure love for the boy. Regardless though, the boy serves as a beacon of hope, and continues to spread kindness, even in times of darkness. Though this figure of the boy, being Christ-like and holy, brings forth the question: Who would be our beacon of hope in times of apocalypse and chaos? Who would be the one to help humanity?

 Works Cited

McCarthy, Cormac. The Road. Vintage International, 2006.

Shaub, Thomas H. “Secular Scripture and Cormac McCarthy’s The Road.” Thomas H. Shaub.