Cormac McCarthy's solemn novel, "The Road" is a story about a nameless man and son struggling to survive in a world defaced by an overwhelming catastrophe. McCarthy uses symbols to feature many examples of symbolism in order to enhance the reader’s understanding of the grim reality within the novel. The nameless man and son travel together with, "Nights dark beyond darkness and the days more gray each one than what had gone before." (3) McCarthy captures a dark mood; utilizing darkness as a symbol of the desolation and ruin that the world has experienced.Throughout the novel, nature's imagery in one passage emphasizes the inevitability of death in the universal sweep. "Perhaps in the world's destruction it would be possible at last to see how it was made. Oceans, mountains. The ponderous counterspectacle of things ceasing to be. The sweeping waste, hydroptic and coldly secular. The silence" (231). Nature, "coldly secular," again indifferently proceeds without concern for man and his problems. Since the world's "destruction" correlates with "how it was made," we see an infinite expanse of indifference in the universe's existence. Death is present at both the inception and conclusion of the universe; it is strange that life somehow exists in the middle.By the end, the man's health is very poor as he is dying. He calls for his son to continue the journey without him as he should carry the "fire." but the son doesn't know how to. The man reminds his son that "It's inside you. It was always there." (234) Fire symbolically represents the power of resilience in survival and the inherent risk of continued existence. Through the character of the boy in particular, McCarthy demonstrates the power of human resilience in the face of the universe's seeming indifference. Despite the human capacity for violence, the boy survives as one of the "good guys" and manages to carry the fire. This fire refers to the human capacities for hope and love. Symbolism can be used and developed by anyone, anywhere, at any time.
