Experience Makes The Man

The novel The Road by Cormac McCarthy shows a post-apocalyptic world, in which a father and a boy, with no names given by the author, try to survive. The father through most of the book has been fully responsible for the boy and has taken care of him. Whereas the boy has been presented as innocent, wondering about the world, and incapable of taking care of himself. Yet the boy, due to cannibalism in the novel, lost hope, and throwing away the flute showed his mental growth. He is no longer a little innocent child.

Cannibalism as a theme and people in the novel shaped the boy. The boy couldn’t talk to the father after the first confrontation with the cannibal due to the father killing the man, when he was threatening his son, spraying the man’s blood on the boy’s face: “Talk to me, he said, but he would not” (McCarthy 68). This represents the boy’s reaction to murder from his father but also what sometimes must be done in the post-apocalyptic world. The Son must learn to survive, but his reaction might not be good as it’s a sign of losing innocence. Later, when they came back to the body they see it has been boiled and eaten, which showed the boy what people are willing to do in this world. Not only that but we also notice similar reactions yet different later in the novel. When the family is searching the farm and goes to the barn. In the barn, they find a bunch of living, naked people in cages yelling for help, even a man who had his legs eaten off. The man almost gets caught by the owners of the farm: “He fell to the ground and pulled the boy to him. Shh, he said. Shh. Are they going to kill us? Papa?” (McCarthy 112). In this scene, the boy is terrified and threatened of being caught and killed by the cannibals. Looking for an explanation of what to do from his father and possibly risking exposing them by talking. This is also a learning moment for the boy to be quiet when at risk. It was also one of the scenes of lost hope.

The father and the son have lost hope when starving for multiple days and until found shelter, they were confident they were going to die: “I know you thought we were going to die. Yeah” (McCarthy 158). The boy loses all hope for survival and even admitting about it to his father, yet when they found shelter with ‘everything’ they also found hope. The boy learned not to give up and gain experience of survival through search. He again lost a part of his innocence, which he had at the beginning of the book. He symbolizes that literally one page later.

He is no longer a little innocent child.

The father made his son a flute, yet he throws away: ”What happened to your flute? I threw it away. You threw ut away? Yes” (McCarthy 159). This can be interpreted in many ways. A big amount of people see it as him showing responsibility and the ability to survive without his father. A flute paid an important role in the novel, due to its representation of innocence and reliance on the father but due to many ‘trials’ that have been put in front of the boy, he dispenses it.

The boy has a lot of learning moments in the novel, which at the end allow him to dispense the flute also showing a loss of innocence in the process. Cannibalism helped him understand the reasons why people behave in the world he is living. Finding shelter gave him a reason to have hope, nevertheless, the circumstances and symbolic dispense of the flute show maturity in the boy and loss of reliance on the father.