The Road by Cormac McCarthy is a post-apocalyptic novel

depicting the journey of a man and his young son travelling in

search for safety. Born only after the apocalypse, the son has not
experienced the real world before, and thus depends entirely on
his father who does all he can to protect his child. In this novel we
see the intimate relationship between father and son, as they travel
along in desperate conditions in hopes for survival. McCarthy
presents the journey of father and son alongside detailed
annotations of the desolate environment around them, further
emphasizing on the struggle they face with everyday survival. With
a constant description of the state of the surrounding, the
interaction between father and son becomes heightened as they
depend on each other for mutual support in this seemingly obsolete
world.
The portrayal of the derelict surrounding in the novel is constantly
brought up as McCarthy describes the journey between father and
son. However, the constant description of the dull, gray world
conveys an idea that perhaps the father and son are attempting to
escape from the ruins in a futile attempt, as the world is seemingly
almost at its end. As the novel details the travel and progress that
father and son makes, they are mostly alone with the occasional
encounter with other strangers who struggle to survive. McCarthy
applies personification repeatedly in detailing the remains of the
world, using words such as charred and limbless to describe the
trunks of trees that hover over the humans on every side of the
road, and sagging hands of blind wire that are strung from
blackened lightpoles that are whining in the wind. The corpse-like
detailing of the surrounding heightens the futility of the father and
sons attempt to escape to a better place, as there is little hope
presented in the environment from around them, and the world is
almost at its end.
The state of surrounding is further described to consist of long,
empty stretches of land with nothing but waste. In addition to the
lifeless surrounding as written by McCarthy, both father and son
pass by billboards that had once been advertising motels. These
remnants of a once commercialized city are described to be faded
and weathered. This indicates the amount of time that had passed
since the apocalypse, minimizing any possibility that the world could
ever return to normal again. Furthermore, the shape of the city was
also mentioned to be standing in the grayness like a charcoal
drawing sketched across the waste, with No smoke. This is
interesting as the city is presented in the image of being gray and
dull like a charcoal drawing, yet McCarthy also says that there is
nothing to see with No smoke. The absolution in the statement of
No smoke. reaffirms a clear image that there is nothing at all, a
clear indication that the struggle is real.

The constant description of the surrounding as presented in the

novel heightens the image of father and son having to survive on
their own in this vast piece of empty land. While depending heavily
and entirely on one other, the protagonist (father) attempts to bring
his son to a place of safety where there are sufficient resources.
However, we gradually find that there is no sense of progressive
direction even as the two characters continue to trudge ahead. This
can be observed through the lack of punctuation in the conversation
between father and son. As McCarthy narrates the sons request to
look through the binoculars, the lack of punctuation or quotation in
their speech reflects the hopelessness of their current situation,
even though readers are able to sense the fathers affection through
his accommodative responses to his son. This brings forth a bigger
idea that perhaps the protagonist had believed that they would
survive through simple willpower and effort, when in actual fact
chances of survival are low in this obsolete world.
As both characters are placed in a corpse-like world with little
indication of useful resources, the novel presents little hope for
survival to the remaining humans in the world. However, as
McCarthy details the small yet meaningful interaction between
father and son as they travel through the vast empty land, he
reinforces the power and strength of familial relationships that fuels
the characters willpower to survive