Child or Adult?

The son tells the dad that he is the one who has to worry about everything - and we know that he doesn't mean the physical parts of life, like finding food, making shelters. The son is referring to their humanity, their consciences, their moral decisions. The son is the one who wants to always give food, clothing and shelter to everyone they meet who isn't a "bad guy." He displays his unspoken faith in God and a desire to fulfill his small mission on this earth. He also carries a heavy burden of the hope. Even when is father is tired and fearful, his son is hopeful that they will find other good people and there is goodness in the earth still.

I also feel that the son knows that at some point in time the father will leave him and he will be alone to carry on. He does worry about everything because he tries to make their life whole, not just survival.

It's the end of the world as we know it

What that made me think of was that religious prophets have a propensity to preach in the end of the world. Whether it comes through visions, dreams, or whatever form that the revelation comes through most prophets foretell the end of the world. Truly this is how the man must have felt. The world as he knew it ended, there was nothing left. He looked at his son and he saw a future that he had no part of. This was the end of his everything.
Prophets also tell of what comes after the end of the world, they tell of a rebirth. A time where things become better than they were before the end. The man may have had trouble believing that life could continue but he believed in his son. He hoped that his son would have a new beginning even if he did not truly believe. The end of the story when he is found by the good people I see as a fulfilling of prophecy in a way. Armageddon came, the earth was completely destroyed and there was nothing left. From the ashes however came hope which I believe is personified in the boy.

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.”

There is a God, and the man is his prophet.

In this book I feel there is a constant turning of the tide. One moment the man is in danger of death, but then suddenly the boy is sick . They are starving,yet they find food. The man calls on God then the next moment he curses him. There is a push and pull, a love and hate, a calmness in the calamity. The man worships the boy, and sees him as evidence of truth and light. I felt it was only fitting that in the end the boy would revere the father in the same light. When the book says, " He tried to talk to God but the best thing was to talk to his father and he did talk to him and he didn't forget." I feel this was because the man was his best example of a faith driven individual. The man never gave up, he kept on with the struggles at hand, and then when death was overtaking him, and he could no longer care for the boy he had faith that, " Goodness will find the little boy. It always has. It will again." The boy was a witness that his father's faith, produced a miracle. He was found by other good people.

The Beginning in the End

I really enjoyed the final pages of The Road, especially the last paragraph. It truly speaks of hope, of continuity and of the beginning that can come only when the end has passed. There is so much wisdom in the realization that nothing will ever be 'put back' to the way it was, it can only move forward. I relate this to hope because that is what the boy represents to me. Earlier in the book there is a comment about the the earth continuing on even after all of the people are dead. Though it is a valid point, the earth will 'heal' itself after all of the people are gone, it will do that even if people continue to live. The conclusion of the book represents the alternative to death, which is to keep the 'fire' alive, to keep hope alive.
I feel like this paragraph is the little boy speaking. There are references made to maps and it seems that would be a natural relation he makes to his father and to the journey that they made together. It is a map and yet a maze because the future is probably uncertain and unknown. To think of the boy in the future being able to have this perspective on life is what keeps the 'fire' going for me because it means that hope never died.

Goodness will find us or The Spark Of Humanity

I found the conversation on the pg 281 one of the most moving in the entire novel. It kind of reinforced an idea that has been growing in my mind since the beginning of the book and though I am sure it is obvious to everyone, I wanted to light on it a little. I think part of the fire the man and the boy are carrying is the Spark of Humanity left inside them that the whole world seems to have lost. It's an interesting idea that when stripped to its bare essentials, mankind chooses to devour itself both literally and figuratively. People lose their sense of morality and compassion for the raw means of survival. And they do survive as in living and breathing, but a much deeper and important part of them dies and it will never be brought back. I think that's the real tragedy. Dying would be favorable to reaching a point past caring and compassion. The man and the boy have shown that the only reason to for living is our love for one another. I also like the idea that no matter how dark the world gets there will always be those who carry the fire, the Spark of Humanity. There will always be goodness in the world that nothing that destroy. A fire that nothing can smother.

Prepared for the inevitable

When the boy says, "I am the one" I believe the author wants us to read in between the lines. This conversation between the boy and the man happens about 30 pages before the end of the book. In the beginning, indirect talk about wanting to die, or feeling like he couldn't do it anymore was common from the boy. This is exactly opposite from the man who became more and more discouraged as time went by. As the book goes on the boy grows through experience and through the many little lessons from the man. He grows in understanding of the true nature of his situation even though he doesn't understand the past. This moment in which he tells the man, "I am the one" is evidence of his growth and preparedness for the future. I think he understood that in the end, despite what his father would tell him, he would inevitably end up alone. In the end, he would have to fend for himself. This is why he was the one that had to worry about everything. Everything that was happening at that time would affect his eventual future alone. I am confident that the boy in the beginning of the book would not have been able to do that. But by the end, it was evident in the dialogue between the boy and the man that he was getting ready.