Salvelinus Fontinalis

“Once there were brook trout in the streams in the mountains. You could see them standing in the amber current where the white edges of their fins wimpled softly in the flow “ (McCarthy 286). Multiple times in the novel, the man sees brook trout as a part of his memory of the old world. After his death in the end scene, these trout are mentioned again. There is almost no life possible in the post-apocalyptic world, making the brook trout a symbol of the past, a part of the man’s memory. The scenes in which the man sees brook trout in his memories of the past and in his dreams foreshadow the end of McCarthy’s novel, the fathers immutable death. In The Road as well as in The Things they Carried by Tim O’Brien and in Beloved by Toni Morrison, dreams and memories of the past seem to have taken on an own life outside of their “owner”, and while they can be used as an escape of reality and a reason to keep moving forward, it is important to leave some of them behind. 

The man in The Road experiences positive moments connected to his dreams, but he also seems to know that they are a distraction from his willingness to survive with his son in the post-apocalyptic world. His complex relationship with his dreams gets clear when his memory of his wife, who shot herself to escape to death, appears. “He mistrusted all of that. He said the right dreams for a man in peril were dreams of peril and all else was the call of languor and of death” (McCarthy 18). While his dreams give him some relief he also considers them as giving up and as devoting himself to death. “When your dreams are of some world that never was or of some world that never will be and you are happy again then you will have given up (McCarthy 189). He describes his dreams as “so rich in color”, but he knows that they are a “call of death” (McCarthy 21). Therefore, it seems like he tries to fight against his dreams and memories by rejecting them. After he has given up and accepted his death, he does not reject his dreams and good memories anymore, allowing him to dream of “softly colored worlds of human love, the song of birds, the sun” (McCarthy 272). However, he also understands the importance of having some kind of memory of the old world. “Make a list. Recite a litany. Remember” (McCarthy 31). His memories of the past give him a reason to keep on surviving. His son has never seen colors or birds before because he was born after the apocalypse, so he wants him to experience the old world. The man also illustrates how powerful a dream can be, taking on its own life.

In The Road it seems like the man tends to reject his dreams and memories because they are not a part of him anymore, they became their own entity outside of himself. He thinks about how the act of remembering changes the memory somehow, so he must be careful with the precious past. “He thought each memory recalled must do some violence to its origins. What you alter in the remembering has yet a reality, known or not” (McCarthy 131). The man recognizes that the present is the only changeable time, but it can be changed by the act of remembering the past – an insight that foreshadows the novel’s end, where memory seems to become its own entity outside of the person doing the remembering. The novel ends with a description of the brook trout that once lived in the mountain streams. They were beautiful and delicate, and of a mysterious place “older than man” (McCarthy 287). This achingly beautiful scene closes the book on a more hopeful note, but it also raises a question – the man, the only one capable of remembering such trout, is dead, so it is unknown who is remembering these trout. It may be the narrator taking a more forward role, implying that life will always find a way despite humanity’s interference, or possibly a comment on how the man’s memory of beauty and nature (one aspect of “the fire”) has taken on a life of its own and perhaps been passed along to the son. Remembering the past has become a part of the present. His dreams and past memories appear to be his opponent, and his son seems to fight against that opponent as well. 

The boy in The Road has never lived in a better situation than on the road with his dad, so he rather focuses on reality than telling lies. He doesn’t like telling stories of dreams as he considers them as an escape from reality. When his dad asks him to tell a story, which is his way to remember the past and continue to “carry the fire”, he expresses his opinion on dreams that romanticize their situation: “Those stories are not true” (McCarthy 268). He does not want the help from a story, he rather sticks to the cruel reality. His father’s optimism seems to bother him. The boy sees the power of a dream, story or memory, independent from its “owner”. Therefore, he mostly does not talk about his dreams after having a bad one, even though his father asks him to. One night he dreams about his father’s death, but he would not tell his dad about it because he does not want to destroy his dad’s optimism. In this situation, the boy controversially escapes the harsh reality of his father’s death by trying to ignore the dream, at least externally. The boy seems to have a clear opinion on memories and dreams. As he has never experienced the good old world, he has no chance to dream about good things like his father; consequently, he cannot escape by finding peace in them. He also has no good stories to tell, he can only tell lies. In other literary pieces, some characters need their dreams and stories in order to survive.

In  The Things they Carried, Tim O’Brien’s dreams are a way of coping with his past, and his stories, which have taken on their own life, help him to survive. To be able to deal with his life during the war and after is storytelling, which is kind of a dream. He reveals a truth to his readers: “Stories can save us” (O’Brien 213). He tells stories and has dreams of Linda, the girl he loves. As Linda doesn’t love him back, his dreams are not real, but this escape from reality helps him to cope with his life. In addition, he brings people that had died back to life in his stories and dreams to deal with his guilt. The man he killed appears multiple times in O’Brien’s stories, and he tells stories of him being alive. Thus, the narrator gives him some kind of life back. Coping with his trauma and guilt by dreaming and storytelling is what he considers “Self-hypnosis. Partly willpower, partly faith. My dreams had become a secret meeting place” (O’Brien 231). This also shows the independence of his own dreams and stories from him. The novel focuses on the difference between the “story-truth” and “happening-truth”, explaining that “story-truth” is the emotional core of a story. Therefore, the stories seem to have their own life outside of what happens in them. They have taken on their own life, they can be considered as an independent individual.

In Toni Morrison’s Beloved, Sethe, the main character’s memories are embodied in her daughter Beloved and create a haunting within her mind. Multiple times throughout Beloved, Sethe’s mind recalls moments from her past. There are certain things that are always in her memory: her wedding, meeting the white girl who helps save her and Denver, the pink flecks in the headstone for her lost daughter. But Sethe’s “rememory” is something that catches her off guard. “Sethe gathered hair from the comb and leaning back tossed it into the fire. It exploded into stars and the smell infuriated them. ‘Oh, my Jesus,’ she said and stood up so suddenly the comb she had parked in Denver’s hair fell to the floor. . .She had to do something with her hands because she was remembering something she had forgotten she knew” (Morrison 73). In that moment Sethe’s memories seem to haunt her. They have taken on their own lives outside of her. This is also represented in the character of Beloved who embodies Sethe’s past and thus needs to leave behind to be able to move on. Past memories became their own entity, their own character that lives outside of Sethe. “Some things go on. Pass on. Some things just stay. I used to think it was just my rememory. You know. Some things you forget. Other things you never do” (Morrison 43). Sethe is conscious about the power of her memories over herself, but she also feels an excessive love for Beloved, making it hard for her to move on. Finally, to leave her past behind and stop the haunt within her mind, she kills Beloved in the end of the novel. 

“There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you”.

Maya Angelou

Dreams, stories, and memories are complex themes in many literary works; however, they clearly take on their own lives, and they have a lot of control over individuals. While the man and his son in The Road seem to struggle with their relationship with good dreams and stories as a reminder and reason to keep on fighting, Tim O’Brien finds his own peace and pleasure in them to cope with his trauma. Beloved is the human embodiment of her mother’s past haunting her. In all of these cases, memories, stories, and dreams take on an own life, they live independently and can almost be considered an actual character. Supported by the end scene in The Road in which the man’s beautiful memories of brook trout appear after his death, past stories do not die with their “owner”.  In general, dreams and memories are always more than only in people’s minds, and while some might profit emotionally from them, others seem to be overwhelmed and empowered by their dreams and memories.