Eric Hallstrom
Ms. Larkins
Pre-AP English 10
9/25/12

The Road Essay

McCarthy’s masterpiece The Road has won over many fans for its deep themes and wonderful storytelling. Mankind’s evil nature comes up many times in his novel. The Road portrays a man and his young boy traveling south through a post-apocalyptic world. On the way, they meet several people, some show truly good natures, and some who are entirely evil. One of the themes McCarthy puts forth is that people, when facing a catastrophe, will resort to their evil nature, unless their main goal is to protect someone other than themselves. Those who only care for themselves in The Road always resort to their inner evil nature. When Papa and the boy see the men in the truck, they immediately know that they are enemies. And when they return for their cart to find that the men have consumed their companion, their suspicions are confirmed. “Coming back, he found the bones and the skin piled together with rocks over them. A pool of guts.”(71) The men, only alive because of their selfish desire, reveal the evil in man’s character. They are willing to do anything to protect themselves. Another character that shows this evil nature is the thief. “He was an outcast from one of the communes and the fingers of his right hand had been cut away… He’d taken everything.”(255) The thief, when he took everything from Papa and the boy, proved a blatant disregard for their lives, and the desire to satisfy only his. Most of those that the man and the boy meet reveal their selfish nature, proving they are evil. McCarthy also shows that those who act selflessly and compassionately never resort to their evil nature. One example of this is when the Boy meets Ely. “The boy gestured at him with the tin. He looked like someone trying to feed a vulture broken in the road. It’s okay, he