The Woman in 'The Road'

The woman is much less significant and hardly regarded as the man's 'wife'. She is also rarely seen as mother and more commonly referred to as simply 'the woman'. She seems more of an insignificant and unworthy character in the novel, which could reflect the man's bitterness towards her and his anger that she deserted them when they needed each other the most. The boy is extremely lucky to have the boy, as the woman wanted to kill him too and take him away from the misery of the destroyed world; although this could be dramatic irony as the boy ends up surviving the road and meeting the 'good guys'. The woman's actions meant only taking her own life and consequently meant that the boy went onto survive.
The boy says 'Papa' 135 times throughout the novel whereas the word 'mother' is only said twice, this suggest a more loving feeling the boy feels towards his father and the fact he seems to want to forget his mother. The father has more significance to the boy as he's been constantly there looking out for him.


Page 17 - the woman sees to be loving and caring. She's holding the man's hand and she seems happy because she is described as 'leaning forward listening to the music' in the theatre.
'she held his hand in her lap and he could feel the tops of her stockings through the thin stuff of her summer dress.'


Page 54 - suddenly the woman seems to have become reserved and purposely distancing herself from the man. She seems physically uneasy as she is holding onto the door frame. This suggests the physical and mental support the woman needed from the man when the destruction first began, it seems like the man doesn't offer that support, therefore triggering her downfall.
'she was standing in the doorway in her nightwear, clutching the jamb, cradling her belly in one hand.'


Page 56 - Whilst coughing up blood, the man says the woman's name suggesting his bitterness towards her. The man sees her as the catalyst of the bad things that have happened to the man and boy, they were a family but the woman betrayed them and left them when they needed each other most. there is a time when the boys says he wishes he could be with his mother, which the man thinks he means dead. The man does not want the boy thinking about death and feeling that being dead is better than being alive. The man knows that the boy is weak and that he may well be better off being dead, but he wants him to at least try and survive and not adopt ideas from his selfish mother.
'He coughed until he could taste the blood and said her name aloud'


Page 57 - The woman is now very melancholic and depressed. She is trying to manipulate the man, trying to tell him that death would be better for all of them. This shows she is a strong willed character but contrastingly is also a weak character because she leaves the world that she can't face by killing herself, but the man and boy stay alive and courageously face the world. She is always thinking negatively that 'sooner or later they will die', where as the man is trying to think positively and tries his best to persuade her to not abandon them. But the man still loves and appreciates the woman and doesn't want the boy to be left without a motherless. Here the woman also seems slightly deluded as the man tells her 'death is not a lover' and she responds with 'yes it is', the distorted world seems to have messed with the woman's head, showing she is weak and impaired.


Page 60 - When the woman has killed herself, it is almost as though her death was predictable for both the man and the boy. She is portrayed as self-centred and irresponsible as she did not care to think about the devastation it would cause for her husband and son. This suggests as to why the man feels so bitter towards her death and her - 'she was gone and the coldness of it was her final gift'. Although there seems to be some bitterness from the man towards the woman when she is giving birth as it is described that 'her cried meant nothing to him' and he takes on the responsibility of the boy straight away as he 'cut the cord with kitchen shears and wrapped his son in a towel'.

How Does Cormac McCarthy Tell The Story In Pages 1-28 Of The Road?

Cormac McCarthy's The Road begins in media res with the man waking up from a horrifying dream and checking to make sure his son, the boy, is okay. The man lets the boy sleep and when he awakes they continue their journey along the road. They travel for a while before coming to a gas station and making sure their gas canisters are full enough. During a moment of reflection, and seemingly a moment of realisation, the man briefly remembers his childhood on his uncle's farm. The boy is very weak and the man is ill, but they continue along the road with intentions of finding somewhere safe. The man sometimes has vivid memories of his wife, although they may not be completely realistic and slightly fantasised, suggesting his mentally is deteriorating. After the finding a deserted city full of 'mummied dead' they find a house in which they reside for a few days.

In the setting of the novel a reoccurring theme seems to be memories and the idea that the man is reflecting on his past at times along the road which are most dull and depressing. His first 'reflection' is of his uncle's old farm, when the man was a child. He seems to remember his childhood vividly, going into depth on the uplifting memories he still dearly beholds, 'this was the perfect day of his childhood'. His memories seem to always be bought about by a trigger or something particularly bad which makes him try and think positively, ultimately leading him to think of memories from the distant past. For example before he flashes back to his memory of his childhood himself and the boy had just come across a burnt out city full of corpses, ash and dust. The man's second memory/flashback is of his wife as a 'bride'. He memorises her in all her beauty reciting her 'dress of gauze' and 'her hair carried up in combs of ivory, combs of shell'. In the silence of the night while the boy is sleeping this memory comes upon the man, after which McCarthy says that the man 'mistrusted all of that'. In a daze due to hunger and illness the man over accentuates his memories and even begins to doubt them himself.

 Furthermore, another key theme seems to be the sense of decay, both physically and mentally for the man, the boy and the world they now find themselves in. At the very opening of the book McCarthy describes the long days like 'the onset of some cold glaucoma dimming away the world'. This description is significant and is a theme continued throughout the whole novel. The use of the word 'glaucoma' suggests that the man and boy are slowly losing 'sight' of everything in the world, inferring that they have no way out and are trapped within the slowly dying world. However, it could also infer that the world itself is slowly losing meaning and vision as everything on Earth is slowly dying; people, trees, animals etc. With use of the word 'dimming' in the same sentence, McCarthy manages to suggest that the glaucoma disease is affecting the man and boy spiritually, not only dimming their 'metaphorical vision' but also dimming their hope and morale. Moreover, uses of words and phrases such as a 'barren' landscape, 'dead trees' and the 'stale smell' of gas reinforces the idea that Earth is slowly decaying, eventually leaving nothing left to help the man and boy to survive. Therefore the characters seemed trapped within the dying world as they have got no control over the decaying atmosphere.

 Death is a theme which continues the novel and follows through most aspects of the man and boy's journey. In the opening pages of the novel, before any real connection is made properly with the characters the boy is questioning his father on death, 'what would you do it I died?' 'If you died I would want to die too' 'So you could be with me?' The young boy has known of death and destruction to his and his father's life, as his mother cannot face the world anymore and kills herself, although at this point in the novel that is not made clear. There is constant mention of the 'pistol' which the man carries on him or insight of him at all times. This is a sense of security for the man, to ensure that himself and the boy are always safe. The two bullets left in the pistol are for suicide, but possibly for any 'bad guys' they come upon, although the man would prefer not to do this.

 Finally, the colour imagery used in the opening of the novel manages to set a dark picture of the Earth and road the man and boy are travelling along. For instance, the days are constantly described as 'dark' and 'grey', setting a consistent theme throughout the whole novel. In these first few pages the colour imagery is used to give the reader an insight into the devastation of the world, with constant reference to the colour 'grey'. However, during the man's flashback to his childhood, spent on his uncle's farm, the colour imagery is very contrasting to that of the current setting of the road. For example, the leaves are described as 'yellow' which symbolises happiness of the memory for the man. As well as suggesting that his childhood memory was from the 'autumn' season with the inference 'blowsy plumage in the still autumn air.' This is a contrast to the dark and dull, wintery setting that the man and boy find themselves presently in on the road.