Importance of Narrative Style

The first thing I noticed as I started reading The Road is the lack of punctuation and the chapter structure I would normally expect in a novel. I think that this is not only one way that McCarthy teaches you to read the novel, but it also represents what he wants you to feel from the novel.

The Papa is very aware that the world as he knew it is no more, that his known reality has morphed into a sort of dream reality and that nothing is ever going to be the same again. That is very much the feeling that was conveyed to me by the format of the text as I read The Road. Not to stray too far off course, but it is important to note that language, whether verbal or written, is a direct reflection of desire and learned ideologies. The sort of absent-presence that is conveyed via the third person writing format speaks to me of the deterioration of language that I would expect to occur in a post apocalyptic setting, such as that shown in The Road. The Papa speaks of things that give him hope, such as seeing his wife again or the peace that might come with death. Yet I get the sense that these are an empty sort of hope because, though he is desirous for his life to end and to see his wife again, it would mean leaving the boy alone which presents no hope for him at all. The text without punctuation and format is, in a sense, reflective of that empty hope that is evident to me in the character of the Papa and that emptiness is what stood out to me as a reader.

Yet something keeps me turning pages. Perhaps it is the fact that McCarthy gives you just enough information to understand the surface of what is transpiring but there is enough left unsaid that leaves room for a variety of possibilities.