Selena Jesse
WL2
The Road vs. The Stranger
THESISSSSS?!!
Cormac McCarthy has claimed that his novel The Road, is about the love between a
Father and his son. The foundation of their love would be their will of survival and the
continuance to have faith in a merciless world, where you live for and protect only yourself in
order to just pull through the day. A place where there is cannibalism, mistrust and
misguidance, and other immoral justices. The father, or in the book most referred to as “the
man,” presents a clear impression that his hindering faith, is more or less for the boy than
himself.
However, there are times where the boy does not need this reassurance, where it
seems it is something he was born with intuitively. Having already been born into a cruel,
unfeeling and moral-less world, dark and unsympathetic should be all the boy is familiar
with. Many times in the story the boy demonstrates the pureness of one who would have lived
a normal human life, with ethical boundaries.
Nothing besides trying to aid those in need and self-survival had ever crossed the mind
of the boy; being unable to assist those they had come across in the novel, who seemingly
needed their hands, had only caused the boy pain as he had been brought to tears several
times. For example early in the book they come across a charred, hurt man. “He was burnt
looking as the country, his clothing scorched and black…Can we help him Papa?...There’s
nothing to be done for him.” (49) In this scene the boy is in complete distress as the Father
insists they can do nothing, as in many other instances in the novel.
McCarthy seems to make his moral values, and preferences clear in The Road through
using the boy himself. Both the father and the boy discuss this “Carrying the Fire” that they
both have, as symbolism of this humanitarianism and faith as an ideal they both keep. As the
book progresses, they encounter additional troubles that flares “the fire” as almost being
portrayed as the soul of the people themselves, and of what it should be.
McCarthy has intentionally created the boy as an intelligent youth that seems to provide
the only comfort in his story, as the small light in a dark room. The boy’s decency had not been
washed away by the sinful ideals of those they had come across. When the man begins to lose
sight of what he holds, and the desolate world around him begins to blur his purpose of living, it
is the boy that always that pulls him back into line and puts him into a positive direction, acting
as his motivation. To live for one another was all that they could do.
Both the man and boy had never tried to disillusion themselves from reality, both were
very self-aware and understood what could be lurking up the road as they continued their
journey and had never hid it from themselves or to each other. *** ely
Camus’s portrayal of faith and the power of believing are conveyed rather simply and
almost mockingly as oppose to McCarthy’s novel The Road. Through the point of view of an
outsider with the disbelief of faith, Camus utilizes the protagonist, Meursault as a way to
attempt to demonstrate, and test the faults in society as well as religious faith. By applying the
characteristics of an outsider, it only further proves his isolation and how that affects him as a
person, as well as those around him.
Contradicting the boy in The Road, Meursault reveals no true empathy towards anyone,
including his dead mother. With the demeanor of a care free man, he travels aimlessly through
life devoid of ambitions of any kind, literally living the phrase, “Que sera sera” literally meaning;
what will be, will be. Meursault’s perception and understanding of the world is based on the
reason of rationality; anything non-physical was not justifiable, nor logical, and anyone who
believed different was irrational. Carrying no faith or beliefs of his own, he does not speak of
religion often on his own free will. During the times where he does, Camus provides a sardonic
tone under the surface of his words and in the reactions between him and the person in
conversation. In truth, the only times Meursault actually speaks of religion is during the
discussions between him and the Chaplain.
In a society where faith is virtually knitted into the souls of the families, Meursault’s
behavioral conduct causes concern to his community and is labeled an “outcast.” His personal
outlook on life is made obvious to begin with, but his prospective in religion is only made
completely clear when in discussion to the Chaplain during his trial. It is at this point, where the
frustrations of a disbeliever conflict with a devotee of God, growing continuously more
impatient with his bible pushing ways. But still, does not accept the Chaplain’s notions of faith.
It is only when Meursault becomes conscious that he is at the end of his life, that he
begins to rethink everything he believed; including the way his lived his entire life. “For the first
time…I opened myself to the gentle indifference of the world.” () In this quote, Meursault refers
to astrology, mentioning the signs and the stars signifying the connection he has made with the
ideas of both faith and fate. During this time, Meursault has come to peace and acceptance
with his coming death and begins to think of his mother. And for the very first time, he began to
realize she had died a happy woman. Even though Meursault was an intelligent and rational
man, he could almost be described as ignorant to the ways of life. Without any ideals, social
status, or religious preference at all, he had never taken into consideration what life and death
truly meant through eyes but his own. In fact he had never even considered death at all up until
that point.
The tactics used to approach these reoccurring ideas of faith in both novels, are visibly
different. From the start both the father and son in The Road are made to be very hopeful of
life, although as tragic as it may be, or the awful sights they may see, they attempted to not
keep a grave mentality of their existence. As oppose to Meursault’s outlook, in which is in
nature solemn. Perhaps it is because he did not live in a world where to kill was to survive,
therefore having the inability to believe in “faith” as the man and boy had. Meursault’s will and
strive to live was not as great. To decline a life opportunity such as a job promotion, that most
would be more than happy to accept further shows his disconnection with society. Although
not defending himself during his trial, would be the most prominent throughout the entire
book.
If Meursault had had this natural ability to believe, like the boy then the possibility for
the desire to advance, and achieve in life may have been more ***
Bibliography (Author's last name, first name. Book title. Additional information. City of publication:
Publishing company, publication date.)
Camus, Albert. The Stranger. New York, U.S.:
Alfred A. Knopf, Inc, 1946. (English novel)
McCarthy, Cormac. The Road. New York, U.S.: Alfred A. Knopf, Inc, 2006