Light at the end of The Road.

So basically, this is a story about survival. The characters are travelling through the road because the world has been destroyed. When reading stories liked this, I see two possibilities either the author gives us some kind of clue that the characters will survive or he gives clues that they are going to die. With The Road I haven’t been able to make up my mind. The clues of death stand out more in the novel but then again “the boy stood wrapped in the blanket looking down at the road” (69). This may be the only sign of hope that they have although we can’t be sure if they will be saved when they reach south.

Still the boy asks “are we going to die” (10) permanently through the novel. The father tries to deny the possibility to the boy but still he knows that they have scarce food, bad weather, and the thought that his mother shot herself recurring through his mind. The chances of hope and survival seem dull up to this point. They are surrounded by deadly things, “coming back he found the bones and the skin piled together….A pool of guts” (69). Everything that happens to them brings them one step closer to death, they are faced with dangerous things, but still as they face this things they walk south through the road. And we are left with the doubt of what will happen to them because as they walk down the road they are faced with death. So there is always the possibility that they will survive.