Religion In Cormac Mccarthy's The Road

Superior Essays
Religion in The Road In The Road, by Cormac McCarthy, one of the most recurring themes is religion. Although it is an underlying theme, it is also one of the most critical. The author tries to show that even in a post-apocalyptic world, where everybody has nothing, and things are beyond tough, religion has a way of coming back so people have hope, and somewhere to put there faith into. Cormac McCarthy uses symbolism, metaphors, and imagery to strongly encourage this theme. In the beginning of the book, the world is shown to be hellish. There is nothing but ash, and dirt, and essentially nothingness. However when the boy is introduced, he is shown to symbolize God. He is pure and innocent and filled with nothing but love and compassion. …show more content…
For example, when the man and boy meet Ely, he says, “There is no God and we are his profits” (McCarthy 170). He is comparing them to profits of God, although they are really just people trying to survive in a hellish post-apocalyptic world. His statement however is contradictory because he believes there isn't a God, yet they are his prophets who carry His word. In Ely saying there isn't a God, he is essentially proposing the atheistic religion. This shows the religious theme is not based upon one specific religion, but instead all of them. Another example of religion shown through metaphors is when they first meet Ely. He thinks the boy is an angel, because when “… I saw him I thought that I had died… You thought he was an angel?” (McCarthy 172). Metaphorically speaking, while the boy isn't really an angel, he is a symbol of hope, innocence, and purity. He is being compared to an angelic being because Ely never could have believed that there would be a child at a time like this. In saying this, it shows that through the harsh times of their journey, a symbol of hope arises, and religion finds its way back into their …show more content…
However the most important one was religion because of the extent the author went to to bring it up again and again. McCarthy used many literary devices such as, symbolism, metaphors, and imagery to establish this theme, and in that he showed through the harshest of times, religion has a way of coming back so people have a sense of hope and security. It may just me human nature to follow some religion when there is nothing

Related Documents

  • Superior Essays

    Assuming the reader has a familiarity with Christianity, the symbolism in the story creates a dynamic understanding to the text. Similarly, Herland is not a religious story but the society of women has a strong relationship with their…

    • 1329 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The Importance of Sacrifice in The Road Cormac McCarthy’s The Road portrays a post-apocalyptic world containing nothing but the distinct loss of morality and desperate attempts to survive. In this cruel world, while most become bestial and corrupt, a father and his son struggle to find ways to stay alive while simultaneously keeping hope alive and staying humane in their ways. The sacrifices made by the man strengthen his relationship with his son and help maintain the only thing they have left: their morality.…

    • 1789 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Throughout the novel, The Road by Cormac McCarthy, the geographical, cultural, and physical surroundings help shape the morality of the little boy. The Road takes place during a post-apocalyptic world, in which morals and humanity is questioned through the actions of cannibals, rapists, and murderers. The man and the boy go on a quest that carries on throughout the novel to head further down south in hopes of finding warmer weather. As Thomas C. Foster stated in How to Read Literature Like a Professor, “the real reason for a quest is always self-knowledge” (Foster 3). Every quest is composed of five basic elements; a questor, a place to go, a stated reason to go there, challenges and trials, and the real reason to go to that destination.…

    • 990 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    McCarthy focuses the story on a boy and his father who remain unnamed throughout the entirety of the book. The book follows the duo’s progress along an unnamed road throughout the country that eventually brings them to the coast. Along the way, McCarthy details their struggles over lack of food and growing hunger, various encounters with the cannibal cults, and the fight for survival against…

    • 1380 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    The way McCarthy uses symbolism gives it a more entertaining feel toward the subject. McCarthy’s narratives have the feel of something different, how they employ something like narrative while taking away narrative’s own world.” (Bourassa, 78). The difference between him and other writers is how in-depth he goes that makes the topic stand out as if it was a real-life situation/ character. “What he loved in horses was what he loved in men, the blood and the heat of the blood that ran them.”…

    • 1361 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    According to Erik Hage, the boy has many “messianic qualities,” but one of them is “his overwhelming sense of compassion for all he encounters... he is a pure boy and a blank slate. Born after the devastation, he has no sense of pop culture and structures that preceded this life” (143). Although the boy has only seen a world full of destruction, anguish, and despair, he does not know what is was like to live in a world without destruction. He does not know what it is like live in a world full of blooming flowers, animals, and rivers that flow.…

    • 1304 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Throughout pieces of literature, whether novels or short stories, imagery is an important literary device. Without the addition of imagery, readers would not be able to have emotional or sensational responses. In the interesting story of “The Road”, by Cormac McCarthy, readers encounter several situations where imagery is a prominent element which helps paint a better overall understand of the setting, plot and characters. Early on in “The Road”, readers are faced with a father and son looking to get to the coast in a post-apocalyptic United States. The two are looking to find a warm area to evade the freezing winters of the North, but must endure several weeks of hardships and horrors.…

    • 1302 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Symbolism the Different Views When reading a book the author will use symbolism, it is up to the reader to decide what the symbol may mean. Although, the readers may read the book, the reader may not catch all the symbolism that the author can be portraying. We all have different interpretations to the objects that the author has presented us with. There are different interpretations that may be looked at in a deeper perspective, but yet we may find that the others interpretation may be similar to ours just put in different words.…

    • 800 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In the novel The Road by Cormac McCarthy, the father’s optimism is retained by his son’s endurance as the boy symbolizes hope. The appalling circumstances of the world results in the characters’ pessimism where they experience feelings of doubt during their journey. However, the father’s reassurance inspires his son to sustain the voyage, accordingly motivating the man’s own persistence. As he confirms his son’s survival day after day, the man’s faith in hope is fortified, inspiring him to continue their expedition. Generally, in the novel The Road by Cormac McCarthy, the boy symbolizes hope as he is perceived as a God, and serves as a barrier between his father and death, motivating the ongoing journey.…

    • 842 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    McCarthy mentions god through the description of the boy through the father’s eyes. He does this when he says that, “He knew only that the child was his warrant. He said: If he is not the word of God God never spoke” (5). The man sees his son as the only good left in the world. This is because he is the only reason that he believes in a God.…

    • 1534 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The unknown is a terrifying thing. It cannot be heard smelt, or touched but can still manage to impact the man and the boy’s life in tremendous ways as well as the plot. The underlying symbolism also creates a intriguing plot as well and keeps the reader thinking and pushes the plot on without directly saying what it means opening a broad spectrum of possibilities of interpretations more specifically the…

    • 665 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The Road Hope Analysis

    • 995 Words
    • 4 Pages

    This is shown through McCarthy’s portrayal of the good guys and the bad guys, which are mentioned several times in the book (McCarthy 103). Even with the brutal acts the bad guys commit and the harsh conditions of the world in…

    • 995 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Religious symbols refer to any biblical reference; characters who are similar to figures in religious text. The final character, Simon, is a religious symbol. Simon exemplifies the spiritual side of man, for he is compassionate, peaceful, and in conformity with nature. On page 50, Simon is the only boy helping Ralph build the shelter, proving to be compassionate. His persona is akin to that of Jesus Christ.…

    • 266 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    The main theme of death during the man and boy’s trip along the road is presented through many instances, ones such as the thief stealing the man and boy’s cart full of food, which just about left them to die of starvation, when the man kills the bad guy as the guy tried to take the boy hostage, through the description of the eradicated landscape, and how death sways the amount of hope the man and boy have throughout their journey. It may seem as if humans would not be able to destroy their own kind, but in McCarthy’s reality within The Road, it is truly possible for this to happen. McCarthy was able to apply the theme of death throughout the The Road to make it evident of what the human race has the potentiality to…

    • 1710 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    “God, Morality, and Meaning in Cormac McCarthy's The Road” states, “…Ely has lost his faith” (Weilenberg 3). What he has seen has caused him to lose this faith, and his lost faith is expressed through…

    • 811 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays