Innocence is “a child’s simplicity, their lack of knowledge, and their purity not yet spoiled by mundane affairs’” (Oxford 2015). Loss of innocence is an important stage of growing up, it is when a child realises the reality of the world they live in. They come to a new understanding and no longer care about the insignificant things in life. The boy in The Road by Cormac McCarthy goes through a loss of innocence between the pages 130-161. In these thirty pages he faces reality, considers the future, and no longer plays with toys.
“This happens, in a different way, to the boy.”
One side effect of losing innocence is becoming more realistic and realising the traps that are apparent in the world. A classic example of this is a child becoming scared to take a test. They now understand the weight of the test and the effect it could have on them. The test could end badly and the consequences could be immense. This happens, in a different way, to the boy. All of a sudden he realises what is around him and what it could cause. This is seen when the boy is afraid to open the trap door in the ground. He is traumatized from the last trap door he opened, which lead to dying people, because of this trauma he is more aware of the actions he and his father takes. They could cause them to potentially die or be in a risky situation. “He was very scared. Don’t open it, Papa, he whispered,” (McCarthy 134). The boy is obviously very nervous about the situation he and his father are in. This fear shows his new loss of innocence because of the reality he now realises.
Another effect of losing innocence is thinking about the future. When children are still little they do not understand goals and the future. They are only focused on the present, what toys they will play with next and how good their food tastes. They do not consider the future and goals they will achieve. However in this section of the book the boy gains this perspective: “What are our long term goals?” is a question that he prompts to his father (McCarthy 160). The boy is no longer just thinking about the presence but what will come next and what his life will bring. This is a sign of maturity and development in the boy.
A third development in the boy is that he does not play with toys anymore. When this father asks what happened to his flute he answers by saying “I threw it away” (McCarthy 159). The boy no longer sees the joy in playing with his flute, a toy he treasured only a few days ago. “After a while he fell back and after a while the man could hear him playing. A formless music for the age to come. Or perhaps the last music on earth called up from out of the ashes of its ruin” (McCarthy 66). The boy enjoyed his flute and it provided valuable entertainment. But in a period of only a few days he no longer had a need for it. This shows his maturity because when kids grow up they forget how to be entertained by toys. The boy has reached his stage in his loss of innocence.
In conclusion, the boy has quickly lost his innocence. He does not fear things anymore, he learns to think about the future and he is not entertained by toys. These three big steps show a huge shift in the boy’s maturity, as he is learning how to become an adult.
This is an essay that I wrote quite quickly but that I think turned out well. It is about the boy in the road loosing his innocence. I structured it through examples in the text and how they relate to my thesis. I like my structure of the essay. One thing I would change, though, is the conclusion. I would elongate it and prompt the reader with something deeper to take away.