Growing up

In The Road, the character of the boy is initially shown as an innocent child. He doesn’t fully grasp all of what his father does, and he struggles to comprehend the reality of the post apocalyptic world. However, over the course of the novel he is shown as having great growth. The evolution of the boy’s maturity in The Road is shown through his reevaluation of his priorities, and his quicker demonstration of understanding- showing a parallel towards the hopelessness of the world’s situation as a whole.

First, the boy shows growth as many children do. He slowly begins to understand the reality of his situation. This can be seen in the transformation of his language. He slowly moves from questions for the man to answer to asking for affirmation on what he knows to be true. For example, you can see the boy move from “are they going to kill us, papa?” to “they’re going to kill us, won’t they papa?” The significance of this transformation is that it shows a certainty arising in the boy’s perception of what is happening around him. He moves from questioning the outcome of his life, to speaking it with utter certainty.

The transformation shown by the boy speaks to hopelessness in the novel as a whole. Throughout the book, the boy’s childlike perception of reality has sort of softened the brutality shown in the novel. He offers small glimpses into the good of humanity, protecting a dog from his father, and seeing a little boy in need of help in the barren wasteland of a city. However, if the boy adapts fully and becomes any further like his father, he will lose this innocence. This is a reflection of the hopelessness of humanity moving forward in The Road. If even a child cannot maintain a sense of hope or innocence, how could humanity as we know it continue to live?

The Road shows many horrifying things about post apocalyptic society. Following the man and the boy, the reader gets to see them develop under this miserable way of life. This includes watching the boy adapt to his surroundings, losing his childhood innocence and speaking to the doomed fate of humanity as a whole.