Symbolism in Literature Using Stars

Symbolism in the Road There is a story for everyman in The Road, which is doubtless a primary reason that the book captured a Pulitzer Prize for Cormac McCarthy in 2007. The story is particularly poignant for readers who are parents as it manifests many of the latent fears parents have regarding their capacity to protect their children in a world that can seem hostile at every turn.

The book can be read from a literal point-of-view as a post-apocalyptic story and, indeed, it is that in its classic telling of a journey that takes two protagonists directly through the inescapable threats and horrors. But McCarthy's poetic language will also be familiar to the reader of William Faulkner, Jack London, or T.S. Eliot, who understands that desolation can stem from the wrestling of the soul as much as the overt battles with the environment or the nihilistic events.

For readers with a religious bent, the acute tensions generated by the juxtaposition of existentialism and spiritualism should provide considerable interest. Many reviewers consider The Road McCarthy's best work as it departs from the western settings and themes, yet conveys an enduring faith in the capacity of humanity to overcome incredible odds.

Despite the moribund subject of global catastrophe, the overall tone of the story is not overwhelmingly discouraging -- it does not drag the reader down into the depths in the way of Dante, even though the story causes the reader to traverse landscapes they would voluntarily avoid. The main theme of the Road is one of perseverance over devastating circumstances beyond anything previously experienced. A through sub-theme of the tale is conflict between altruism and destructive selfishness.

The protagonist symbolizes altruism through his desire to help others because it is the right thing to do. Indeed, the protagonist voices his point-of-view, "But in the stories we're always helping people and we don't help people" (p. 280). The stakes of the overarching conflict are increased by the bands of marauding men who roam the ashen landscape, and by the cannibals, who are symbolic of the end of civilization.

The conflict between those who are absolutely selfish, willing to do anything to survive, and the father and son is less symbolic than the embodiment of the overarching conflict between the moral dictates of the way things should be -- the rightness -- and the degradation of those societal mores.

The reader is likely to suspect that this family unit is the remnant of all that was good before the catastrophe -- as evidenced by this simple statement: "If you break little promises, you'll break big ones." Using the STAR framework to unpack elements of the story, the following emerges: S -- The characters in the story represent a full spectrum of people and types according.