1. An example to show that The Road is set during a nuclear war or disaster is shown when McCarthy states that ‘the clocks stopped at 1:17.’ This shows the exact time of impact which changed the USA and possibly the world forever. Another factor which contributes to the setting and lacking scenery is when the father ‘stood there thinking about cows and he realized they were extinct’, this leads to the conclusion that a nuclear disaster caused the extinction of a wide spread animal. Another possible theory is that there was a nuclear war that caused barren land leading to the air in the surrounding areas to not being clean, which would cause the father to see a vast change in the ‘open country to the east’ where ‘the air was different’, suggesting the air nearer the coast was cleaner.
2. If The Road is based on a nuclear disaster then the only remaining resource on Earth is humans who need the biosphere to survive; without a substantial food flow human social groupings would break down causing civilisation to come to a halt. During The Road no one comes to rescue the father and boy; they are simply left to fend for themselves. I think a simplistic overview of McCarthy’s message from the book is that when in a time of isolation, love and care can triumph the gruel reality. This idea is shown by the instinctive choices the father decides to make so that his son can have food and simply be a child again and go swimming. The trust between the pair played a key part in their survival!
3. The father states that ‘on this road there are no godspoken men, they are gone and I am left and they have taken with them the world.’ This quote refers to the people that are left who are strictly in survival mode, and ignore morality. The father implies that he is not a godspoken man and is willing to do whatever it takes to keep him and his son alive, even if that means shooting a man who possibly did not have any intentions of hurting the boy. The many descriptions of a scorched landscape covered in ash paint a very bleak and lifeless existence that perhaps will never recover from the disaster. The ash seems to linger everywhere as if it’s a constant reminder of the devastating situation that the father and son currently face and will continue to battle for the near future.
React!