In The Road, Cormac McCarthy presents the story of a post-apocalyptic world, where there is virtually nothing but ashes, dust and smog. Only a few were able to survive the global catastrophe that erupted several years ago: the author does not go into the details of what exactly happened. The survivors are to be tested by challenges, among which there is a constant need to find drinking water and food. While most living things disappeared from the face of the earth, the probability that the situation will change for the better tends to zero. In this surreal world, two are trying to survive, a father and his little son. Day by day, they make their way through the scorched earth, hoping to get to the ocean, where there may be a chance of salvation.
In this novel, the global situation identifies the way of life and personal experience. Despite all the difficulties and fatigue, life continues for these two wanderers, who once were lucky to stumble upon a warm shelter, where they could relax while enjoying food and water. Besides the necessity to satisfy primary needs, there is another problem of maintaining humanity to others. For example, the father has a gun, but he is not ready to take food supplies from other survivors with its help (Morgenstern, 2014). McCarthy immerses the reader in the post-apocalyptic world so skilfully that together with the characters, one experiences a whole spectre of emotions. Some scenes, such as viewing the parts of the newly born and eaten infant, cause astonishment. This can be interpreted as a symbol of degradation and abasement since the most helpless and innocent being was preyed.
The environment of the novel is the apocalypse with its hunger, cold, dirtiness and violence. It is a chronicle of the survival of the father and son in the ruins of already defunct America. It would seem that there is no sense to have such a nightmarish semi-animal existence, and the mother made her choice a long time ago, preferring to die. In turn, the father goes along the road with a wheelbarrow full of all kinds of trash for several years, leading his child virtually to nowhere (Doyle, 2012). It becomes clear that this is a matter of Hamlet’s choice: to be or not to be? A disaster happened, a comfort zone collapsed, and the novel makes it clear that is it worth it to continue to live like this, without any comfort and hope. The main issue is the question of hope for any improvement and the inability to take root, stopping at least somewhere in the near future. In such conditions, the father is in favour and not against in any circumstances. Not only the instinct for survival but also care for children and their future lead the protagonist of this novel.
Under the discussed environmental pressure, the father makes a choice for two people. He does everything for their survival, allowing the boy to be merciful, kind and sympathetic to the world and those around him, yet he cannot afford it for himself. The life of his son, who would not have lasted even five minutes in the new world with his naivety and kindness, depends on the father’s pragmatism and sometimes even cruelty (Doyle, 2012). The image of the boy may seem fantastic to some extent in the sense that he remained innocent, being born in an already dead world filled with brutality. Others preserve their lives to ensure that they would change the world for the better. The father and son complement each other as without mutual support, they would not survive. It is amasing how a young childish heart can retain a flaming glow of goodness in spite of horror and death in inhuman conditions, which symbolises eternal hope that the world will be able to be reborn better than it was.
It should be emphasised that the protagonist remains under the tense impact of the environment for the entire novel as well as his son. In the last chapters, when they approach the ocean, he threaten a thief by a gun and take his food and clothes to survive, which means that even the most humane people highly depend on circumstances. The fact that the boy did not leave his father when he was shot by another man may be characterised as the impact of the main hero on the environment. His example of courage, commitment and patience seem to serve as the qualities that need to be adopted (Rambo, 2008). Therefore, his son would continue this struggle for a better future. The final scene, when positive Americans suddenly appeared and accepted the miserable wanderers into their ranks, also supports the above assumption.
The Road ends by the Christian allusion in the form of fish mysteriously swimming in ponds. The open end means that no matter what happens, the pivotal task of a person is not to convey, but to carry a divine spark to give to the next generations, even if they have little opportunities to live (Doyle, 2015). While the man was sure that he would have to kill his son, before dying, he says that the boy should keep going since no one knows what is ahead. In other words, the long road taught the father that there can be ups and downs, but hope for the future is an integral part of any human being. Thus, the reflection on the relationships between the protagonist of the novel and the environment allows for concluding that the impact is reciprocated. They affect each other: staying strong despite the challenges, the father saves his son and grows a seed of hope in him; the difficult and brutal environment makes him stronger yet takes any hope for the future.