Key Episodes

- Coming across the man who has been struck by lightning (pp. 50-53)

In this episode the man and boy come across the man in the road who has been struck by lightning and in very bad health, at the end of the section we learn that ‘He’s going to die’. The boy desperately wants to help the lightning struck man but the man (his father) is firm and tells him that ‘There’s nothing to be done for him.’ This shows how the boy is naive, innocent and kind in a world in which even his father has to be cruel to other human beings.  It shows suspicion towards other characters from an early stage in the novel and because of the suspicion and detachment we observe through the character of the man, we as readers are afraid and suspicious of every other character the man and boy encounter through the rest of the novel.  This puts us in the mind set of the characters and so makes us more understanding of the characters reactions to other people they come across.

Through this episode McCarthy empathises how desperate the man and boy are and how the once civilized world that we live in and the man used to know has changed to an environment where survival of the fittest has taken over, almost like a reverse in our evolution. The man however shows some morals through the way that when the boy asks if they can’t help the lightning struck man, he replies ‘No.  We can’t help him.’  Throughout the episode the man repeats ‘we can’t help him’ many times as if he is not only trying to convince the boy that there is nothing that can be done, but himself too.  However his need to protect himself and his son is superior to his apparent desire to help the man as he points out to the boy (and maybe himself) that they ‘have nothing to give him’ and they walk away from the lightning struck man.

This episode shows the tough and even torturous relationship between the man and the boy as the boy is so naive yet the man upsets the boy even though he is just trying to fulfil his duty as a father, even if it means being cruel to be kind sometimes.  As the boy is young, he does not perceive the world in which the novel is set as the man and the reader do.  He doesn’t see that the world is a cruel place and that he will only survive if he thinks of his own needs first.  The way the boys views the world around him puts the man in difficult positions throughout the novel as he is stuck between pleasing his son and thinking about what the consequences of doing so will be in the long run.  The boy seems unaware of his father’s dilemma which adds to their tense relationship as the boy doesn’t engage in conversation with the man after he refuses to help the lightning struck man which must make the man feel like a failure as a father.  The way in which the man and boy contrast in personality so much often leaves the reader questioning who they would be more like; would they be sympathetic and help the lightning struck man like the boy wanted to, or would they be able to move on to help themselves like the man?

Guilt is shown in this episode through the man as one day after he has left the lightning struck man he emptied out his ‘billfold’ which contained ‘Some money, credit cards.  His driver’s license.  A picture of his wife.’ These things represent both the identity of the man and the life he once had.  He then left all these things behind and walked away from them, as if he were trying to leave behind his own identity because he dislikes the man he is becoming so does not want to reminded of the man he once was, or reminded of the life he once had, as he will never get these things back, so he must let go of them and move on.  

The overall mood of this episode is a dark and sad one as the man has to detach himself from the lightning struck man and the boy to prevent himself from giving in to the boy helping the lightning struck man.  The mood is dark because the man knows he cannot do anything to help the lightning struck man without sacrificing his and his son’s safety.  Sadness is shown through the helplessness of the characters and the fact that they can’t do anything for the lightning struck man.  This sadness is also shown through the boy’s reaction to the situation and the coldness he shows towards his father.  A sombre mood is also portrayed when the man leaves his personal belongings behind, and in doing so, leaves a part of himself behind.  The fact that he has carried a picture of his wife around for so long and he finally brings himself to leave it shows how hard it has been for him to move on and this is one of the only points in the novel where we as a reader connect with one of the characters as most of us will have lost something in our lives which we will have found it hard to move on from.  Through most of the novel we are unattached to the characters and the events which are unfolding.  Even at the start of this episode we are unattached from the characters and events.  McCarthy does this intentionally as he wants us to feel like the characters are feeling to make us feel the bleakness of the world in which the novel is set and does this by making the characters emotionless most of the time and in his sentence structure, which is simple and often contains only one clause.

- Shooting the 'roadrat' (pp. 62-69)

In this episode the man and boy are awoken by the sounds of other people passing both on foot and in a truck.  The man and boy are both terrified and run and hide under a bank, but one of the people find them and approach them.  The roadrat and the man then talk before the roadrat threatens the man by putting a knife at the boy’s throat.  The man then shoots the roadrat with his pistol.  The man and boy then run away. 

This episode shows how brutal the world in which the characters live is and shows that the man is unafraid to hurt others who threaten him or his son.  At the start of the episode as soon as the man wakes up he has ‘the pistol in his hand.’ This shows that the man is untrustworthy of everybody and that violence has become the only means of protection in this world.  We later find out that the man ‘couldn’t even remember taking it from his belt which shows how he instinctively turns to the gun for safety when he fears there may be danger around.  From this episode we really see how brutal and detached the character of the man is towards other characters and how protective he is towards the boy.  When other events happen in the novel where interaction between the man and an outside character takes place we remember this event so we are prepared for the man react violently. 

We see just how detached the man is to other characters through the conversation between him and the roadrat.  This conversation is quite calm yet tension is built in this episode as the subject matter changes from one topic to the next. Through the language McCarthy uses the reader can tell the two characters feel an instant hatred towards each other, one example of this is:

‘Where did you get it?

Found it.

That’s a lie. What are you eating.

Whatever we can find.

Whatever you can find.’

The constant questioning and accusation in this extract shows how tense the episode is and the sentences consisting of one clause and monosyllabic words shows the dislike felt by both characters.  Tension is also built when the man describes how the roadrat won’t hear the gunshot if the man shoots him: ‘It will be in your brain before you can hear it’ Compared with the rest of the novel this speech is quite descriptive, showing that even if most of this world is too empty and bleak to describe, violence doesn’t change no matter where you are and can still be vivid and gory even if nothing else is.  I think this description summarises how horrible the world in which the novel is set is.  Nothing beautiful is described because there is nothing beautiful left to be described.  I think that the man describes why the roadrat won’t hear the gun in so much detail as it shocks both the roadrat and the reader and makes us question how far the man is willing to go in order to protect the boy and his own life.

The relationship between the boy and the man is shown in this episode as the man is constantly protective over his son.  The first example of this is where the man and boy are running away from the other people and the boy falls, but the man ‘pulled him up’ and told him that ‘It’s all right’ This shows encouragement and that the man is trying to stay positive for the sake of his son and is trying to protect him from the terrible reality of what might happen to them.  The second example of this is when the man tells the roadrat not to look at the boy or he will kill him.  This shows that the man is completely committed to caring for the boy and is one of the rare occasions in the novel when we can see clearly that the man loves the boy, as most of the time he tries to stay emotionally unattached to the boy.  The final and most obvious example of this in this episode is when the man shoots the roadrat almost instantly when he threatens the boy with a knife.  This immediate response of the man’s shows that it is in his instinct to stop the boy from coming to any harm.

When the man kills the roadrat the boy has ‘no expression on his face at all’ which shows that these situations in his life are not surprising or distressing anymore as they are a way of life.  I find it interesting in that the character of the boy is usually a concerned and empathetic one and he usually becomes upset when his father harms others or refuses to help them, I think therefore that the boy doesn’t feel emotion towards the roadrat because his father has drilled it into him so much that people like the roadrat are bad people.  I also think that the boy will have seen what people like the roadrat do to survive and because they cause others to suffer, the boy has no sympathy for them unlike he has for other people, for example, the man who steals their food at the shore.

I think that the pistol in this episode is a symbol for control in this new world.  I think this because even though the roadrat has a knife, the man is more powerful with his pistol as he is able to kill the roadrat before the roadrat can do any harm to the boy.  After this episode it is stated that there is ‘A single round left in the revolver.  You will not face the truth.’ This shows that now another bullet has gone from the gun, their control has lessened.  The fact that the man ‘will not face the truth’ shows that it is a negative thing to only have one bullet left because, not only has he got less control over anyone that may threaten them in the future, he also has less control over their own lives.  This is because, when there were two bullets left, if they needed to the boy and man could both end their lives, but now with only one bullet, the man would have to decide whose life to end, and what the consequences would be of the choice he makes.   

     

- Finding the cellar of naked and mutilated people (pp. 112-121)

This episode begins with the man and boy coming across a house and going in to find food.  The boy from the start of this episode feels uneasy in this house and begs the man to leave.  This foreshadows what they will find in the house later in the episode.  The man doesn’t listen to the boy and tells him that they have to find food to eat.  They come across a locked hatch and the man finds something to open it with in hope of finding food.  When he opens the hatch he and the boy go down into the cellar of the house.  However, instead of finding food, they find something truly shocking and disturbing; naked mutilated people trapped in the cellar.  The man and boy then run away and hide away from the house.  The man shows the boy how to use the pistol and how to kill himself with it.  During the night, the man wakes up to here ‘hideous shrieks coming from the house’ and he tries to cover the boy’s ears so he would not be woken up by these sounds too.  After the screaming stops he wakes the boy and tells them that they have to move. 

This episode shows what the man and boy are afraid of and what the ‘bad guys’ are doing that is so bad.  Tension is built up through this episode through the character of the boy as his repeated worries affect the reader and so make us feel anxious. 

When the man sees the people in the cellar, panic is created through repetition of the words ‘Hurry’ and ‘Run’ which through repetition make the pace faster and therefore the reader panic more as we sense this increase in pace and, coupled with the fear for the characters, this makes us panicky.  To express the seriousness of the danger that the man and boy are in McCarthy uses the lighter to show that the only important thing in this episode is staying alive.  The man had ‘dropped the lighter’ but there was ‘No time to look.’ which shows that they must run away immediately and even though the lighter would be at the man’s feet there is no time to even consider wasting a precious few seconds to regain it as this could cause the man and boy to lose their lives.   

I think this episode is a key episode because it shows what the man and boy are running away from and are so afraid of.  The seriousness of this fate is shown when the man shows his son how to use the pistol in case they get captured, showing that he would rather have his own son kill himself rather than let him live a terrible life like the people in the cellar were. I think the man and boy left the people there and didn’t attempt to help them was due to their personal situation because they can hardly look after themselves.  I think the boy did not get upset by this in the same was that he got upset about the lightning struck man because he did not get chance to because of all the panic and fear that he and the man were feeling. 

- The baby on the spit (pp. 210-215)

This episode begins with the man and boy approaching a fire as the man wants to assess the situation and see if it is safe for them to go on.  After circling the fire and waiting a while the man concludes that there is no-one around and they probably saw the man and boy approaching with a gun so they ran away; that’s why they left their food cooking.  The man and boy then approach the fire.  The boy spots the ‘charred human infant headless and gutted’ on the spit first and is distressed by this.  Then the man notices and apologises to the boy.  They left and ‘camped at a river’ even though ‘it wasn’t a safe place’ because the man ‘thought it would cheer the boy up’.  They continue on their journey down the road.

This episode shows how merciless and brutal other people are in this world and makes us realise that the man and boy really are the ‘good guys’ as they wouldn’t do something as cruel as this.  Near the end of the episode the boy asks the man where the people found the baby.  The man doesn’t answer though.  Though this we can see that the baby came from the pregnant woman that the man and boy saw with three men earlier.  This shows that some people are using women as a source as food as they can supply multiple meals, even if they have to wait nine months for it.  The fact that the boy doesn’t make this association shows his innocent and they fact that the man avoids the boy’s question shows that he is still trying to protect the boy from the cruel things in this new world, even though the boy has seen and knows many awful things already.  This shows the duty the father feels towards protecting his son and shows that even though the world around him has changed, his attitude towards his child haven’t because in a world like the one we live in a father would want to protect his child from such an obscene sight, showing that the man’s morals haven’t changed.  This contrasts greatly to the other people in this new world who would get pregnant for the purpose of making food, which shows the desperation of these people and how difficult it is to stay alive in this desolate world through the fact that people have turned to cannibalism, eating their own new born children.  

At the end of this episode a depressing mood is created because the man is trying to cheer the boy up and make him forget the awful thing he had to see but they are surrounded by awful things like a man they come across ‘in his coveralls dead for years’.  Also, everything seemingly good and joyous they do is underlined by a more solemn thought.  For example, they drink ‘the last of their good water’.  The way the water is described as ‘good’ shows that they are enjoying their drink, but at the same time, because it is the ‘last’ of it, we worry where they will get their next drink from.   

In this episode we see the relationship between the man and boy is a loving one as at the start of the episode the man allows the boy to hold his hand and when the boy sees the dead baby the first thing he does is bury his face into the man.  This shows that the boy turns to the man for comfort and support and when the man realises what the boy has seen he says ‘I’m sorry’ which shows he feels guilty and responsible for what the boy has seen.  He also whispers this apology which shows he is comforting the boy and is being affectionate towards him which shows a strong relationship between the two.  After the man and boy see the dead baby the man tries to make the boy happy by camping by a river, even though he is not comfortable with this as he feels unsafe.  He does this because he is concerned for the boy as he ‘didn’t know if he’d ever speak again’.  This willingness to take a risk for the boy’s wellbeing shows just how much the man cares for the boy.

I think this is a key episode within the novel as it shows how much peoples morals have changed now that the world is so different.  It also shows how desperate people are to survive and shows that the man and boy really are good in a world where so many other people have turned to do inhumane things in order for their survival.  I also think that McCarthy uses this episode to really show the true relationship between the man and the boy as the man is willing to go out of his way to make the boy happy and comfort him when he needs it most.  

- Getting to the shore (pp. 227 - 230)

In this episode the man and boy leave the comfort of a house that they were staying in and carry on their journey to the shore.  At first they ‘ate well’ but when ‘They’d almost nothing left’ they finally reach the shore.  The boy is disappointed however because the ocean is not blue.

I was disappointed with this episode because throughout the whole novel the man and boy aimed to reach the coast, but when they got there they were in no better position than they were compared to when they were on the road.  When they leave the house we feel as though getting to the coast is really important because they leave a comfortable environment to travel on the bleak road once again.  This makes the reader feel hope when they finally get to the shore as the man and boy are running out of supplies so when they achieve their aim and get to the shore we hope something good will happen as this has been promised all novel and the characters survival at this point isn’t looking good.  Therefore when nothing extraordinary happens when they arrive at the shore we as readers feel as though there has been an anti climax.  However, I think McCarthy did this intentionally to show that his novel represents real life situations, not a fairy tale.  We as readers feel the same as the boy at this part in the novel as the boy is disappointed that the sea is not blue as he had hoped.  Maybe the boy’s disappointment foreshadows the disappointment that the shore will be to both the characters and the reader.       

In this episode the man’s feeling of guilt and responsibility towards the boy is shown once again when he apologises for the sea not being blue.  This shows that the man feels guilty for putting false hope into the boy by telling him the ocean may be blue, which leads to more disappointment when it isn’t. 

I think the shore in the novel could represent hope because the boy and man are driven throughout the novel to carry on because of their target which was the coast up until now.   However, the way that reaching the coast is an anticlimax shows that there is little hope in this world and that hope doesn’t necessarily mean that everything will be ok.  I think this backs up the fact that McCarthy wants this novel to represent real life rather than a fairy tale. 

I think this a key episode even though it is an anti climax because the man and boy finally reach the shore, with has been their ultimate goal throughout the novel until now so getting to the shore actually makes the reader and the characters feel as though they have achieved something.

- The theft of the man and boy's belongings (pp. 270-278)

In this episode the man and boy come back to their camp on the beach after going for a walk to find that all their possessions had been stolen.  The man and boy then frantically start to follow the trail the cart left in the sand, unsure about how many people had taken their things.  When they get to the road to man is very careful to find which way the thief or thieves went, telling the boy to get all the sand off his feet and look for any signs of sand in the road.  They set off in opposite directions and do this; the boy is the one who finds the sand.  They head off in this direction and after a while come catch up to the thief.  The man orders him to stand away from the cart and then tells him to take off all his clothes and shoes.  The man and boy then walk away with their belongings and the thief’s clothes and shoes, but due o the boy being so upset the man agrees to give the thief’s clothes and shoes back.  They call out to the thief but no-one responds so the man just leaves the thief’s clothes and shoes in the middle of the road with a rock on them.  After this the man and boy make a camp and the man assures the boy that he wasn’t going to kill the thief, the boy replies: ‘But we did kill him.’

This episode shows the how important the possessions of the man and boy are for their survival due to the panic created and it also shows the desperation of people to survive due the thief trying to defend himself with a knife, even though the man had a gun.  The way the man is very careful when finding out which way the thief went shows intelligence and logic, which gives us an insight to the type of person he was in the old world.  When the boy asks the man if they will kill the thief the man replies: ‘I don’t know.’  This simple and blunt response shows that he is trying to contemplate the consequences to the action he chooses to take and how this will affect their chances of survival and the boy’s happiness as he knows that the boy would not want the man to kill the thief if he has the choice, but this may be the only option to ensure that the man and boy survive.  This response also shows that the man isn’t thinking about what he will do to the thief when he finds him because at this moment the most important thing to do is get their belongings back.  This shows how panicked the man is in this situation as usually he is the one who is thinking about the future, but at this point in the novel the future isn’t important; the only thing on the man’s mind is getting the possessions that will ensure the man and boys survival back.

When they catch up with the thief the boy begs the man not to kill him and the man orders the thief to take his clothes and shoes off.  The boy is really upset about this and when they take the thief’s things with them and the cart the boy sobs as he feels sorry for the thief.  The man however, has no remorse and his encounter with the thief is serious we as readers are never sure whether the man will kill the thief or not.  When the boy continues to be upset the man asks what the boy wants to do, to which he replies ‘Just help him Papa.  Just help him.’  This shows that, unlike the man, who has no remorse for the thief the boy has empathy and doesn’t believe in an eye for an eye.  This also shows the boy as naive because he doesn’t realise how serious this situation could have been for them if they hadn’t got their things back.

In this episode we find the man ‘coughing’ and ‘wheezing’ which shows he is in bad health and foreshadows the man’s death at the end of the novel.  The fact that neither character makes reference to this coughing except for the man saying ‘If they hear us they’ll hide’ shows that the man has accepted the fact that he is slowly dying and there is nothing he can do about it and either the boy has worked this out to and so doesn’t want to mention it to stop getting upset, or it has become normal for him to see his father like this so doesn’t notice it as out of the ordinary.   

The mood in this episode changes many times, from panic to serious, to sombre.  McCarthy creates panic at the start of this episode through the use of short simple sentences and the use of questions both in dialogue and rhetorical.  He uses list form when showing that everything has been taken by naming all their possessions that were gone instead of just saying ‘everything’.  This makes the scene more dramatic as it shows just how much has been taken and the importance of all their things.  When they meet the thief the mood changes to serious.  McCarthy does this through repetition of ‘back’ and ‘Get away from the cart’.  He also mixed short and longer sentences in this part which slows the pace down, making everything more severe and deliberate.  The episode ends in a sombre mood as the even though the man lay the thief’s clothes and shoes out in the road for him to collect, the boy is not speaking to the man which shows a strained relationship.  The last line of this episode is very sobering and chilling as the boy, in response to the man reassuring the boy that he wouldn’t kill the thief, says: ‘But we did kill him.’ This final line shows that even though the man did not directly kill the thief by shooting him, he indirectly killed him as the man and boy had food that they could have given to the thief to help him survive as the boy states earlier that the thief ‘was just hungry’.  This shows that the boy really believes that they could have helped the thief, and now feels resentful towards the man for not helping the thief like the boy had begged him to.  This shows how the man finds it extremely difficult to keep the balance between pleasing the boy and keeping him alive.

I think this is a key episode because it shows how desperate everyone is in this world and how important the possessions that the man and boy have really are to their survival.  I think it also shows how the morals of the man and boy differ.  The man is hard and cold towards anyone who threatens the survival of himself or his son, but the boy on the other hand shows empathy towards all and doesn’t like to think he has caused someone else to suffer while he is being selfish.