McCarthy’s style

The final conversation between the man and boy, page 300

‘Do you remember that little boy, Papa?

Yes. I remember him.

Do you think that he’s all right that little boy?

Oh yes. I think he’s all right.

Do you think he was lost?

No. I don’t think he was lost.

I’m scared that he was lost.

I think he’s all right.

But who will find him if he’s lost? Who will find the little boy?

Goodness will find the little boy. It always has. It will again.’

During this last conversation between the man and boy the sentence structure is simple with short sentences containing monosyllabic words.  These short sentences show that the man’s life is coming to an end.   Many of the sentences are questions asked by the boy which shows he respects his father’s opinions and also, the questions are quite broad so it could foreshadow the boy questioning life when the man has died.  The amount of questions he has for such a trivial thing like another little boy that he saw once shows that he will have so many unanswered questions that he wanted to ask the man after he has died

Through the conversation the man and boy are talking about the ‘little boy’.  However, I think that while the boy is referring to the actual little boy he saw earlier in the novel, the man is talking about his son because in the last line of the conversation he speaks in the present and future tense, even though they are supposedly talking about a little boy they saw in the past.  I think that this could show that the man is talking about his son because he is saying that ‘goodness’ will find his little boy when he has died and shows how much he believes in him to find safety on his own.  I think this last line also implies that the man knows that he will die by the following morning.

There is lots of repetition in this extract.  The repetition of ‘lost’ could foreshadow the how lost the boy will be when his father dies the next morning.  When we find out that the man has died, and relate the boy to the little boy, this repetition of ‘lost’ makes us feel sympathy for the boy as we as readers fear that he will be lost and may come to harm because of this.  The repetition of ‘little boy’ emphasises that the man’s child is still just a ‘little boy’ and so when the man dies we question how the boy will cop with life both physically and mentally, as he will have lost both of his parents.

Even though this is the final conversation between the two protagonists throughout the novel, McCarthy doesn’t make it an emotional one.  There is a sense of detachment which fits in with the rest of the novel because although in the last line we get a sense of how much the father loves his son he doesn’t declare his emotions outright even though he knows he is nearing death.