Yes I am, he said. I am the one

On the journey with the boy and his father, you see how they draw upon each other. The man keeps on surviving for his son and the son needs his father to survive. The father plays a lead role in keeping them moving; His plan to get to the coast is mapped out. He is constantly looking for new places to find food. Although the boy is scared, the man drags him on towards survival. But then the thief takes what the man has used to survive “the cart”. I think reality hits him in a hard way at this point in the book. Just like the part where the man tries teaching the boy to use the gun, the man is not ready to die; his journey must still go on. He feels violated that someone tried to change their path. The passage in the book where the boy tells his father that yes he is “the one who has to worry about everything” is a transitional moment for the father and son. The father is going to die and the son knows so. This is a moment where the son is trying to tell his father that he will have to go on without him eventually. And now is the time for him to help with the worrying. He needs to know how to use the gun, hunt for food, keep warm…The boy knows that he will have to take over the duties that his father has done for him in order to survive after his father leaves him. It’s like the boy is telling the father, “Now is the time to teach me all you know. I will be the one who has to worry about everything.”