The Road is a post-apocalyptic novel with allusions to end-of-the-world scenarios envisioned by Biblical prophets, Revelation, and science fiction.
The burned-out landscapes more or less mirror the world's fate as predicted in Revelations when the seven bowls are poured on Earth, particularly the Fourth Bowl in which "the Sun scorches the Earth with intense heat and even burns some people with fire."
The seemingly endless road to the sea reflects the father's hope for a better world, as promised in Revelations.
Certainly the father's death—and he did not die until he was assured that his son would be in a position to get help—reflects Jesus dying after he did all he could for his "children." Notably, neither wanted to die—both were deeply saddened but accepted death as inevitable. The father did all he could to ensure his son's safety while Jesus set the ultimate example for his "children" by...
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asking God to forgive his murderers—teaching until the literal end.
An intertext refers to any way a current text is influenced by a prior text
or texts.
As for The Road, many have noted the Biblical references in this
novel. First, the barren, post-apocalyptic landscape, covered in ashes, alludes
to the biblical book of Revelation. Second, readers have pointed to following
quote as referring to James 1:17:
The clocks stopped at 1:17. A long shear of light and then a series of low concussions
James 1:17 reads:
Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.
This could be an ironic take on the biblical book James, for what good can come about from the "shear of light" of a probable nuclear war that stops the clocks? However, some have also interpreted this as a note of hope that even in this catastrophe God is in control.
The Boy appears to have spiritual characteristics of a biblical savior in his loving and giving spirit. The father says of his son:
If he is not the word of God God never spoke.
The boy is also often associated with images of fire or light, which are symbols of the Holy Spirit. He seems to offer a prayer of thanks over the food they find in the bunker, and he extends compassion to the old man who may or may not be named Ely. The Boy associates himself with a mission of salvation in the following exchange. When the father says: "You're not the one who has to worry about everything," the Boy says, "Yes I am . . . I am the one."
Whether the innocent Boy will fulfill a messianic function is left ambiguous, but the intertexts that McCarthy supplies leave the reader with a note of hope.
Let us begin by considering what an intertext is. Intertexts can be defined as refering to the presence of texts within a text. It is relevant to our discussion that myth is often a common example of intertext in various stories, as is shown by the way that mythic archetypes can be identified in many other texts.
Clearly, with this text, there appear to be two main intertexts related to mythic archetypes. The first is that of the journey. The father and his son in this text, like so many other characters, embark on a form of an odyssey, in this case trying to reach a place of greater safety where they can maximise their chances of survival. However, linked in with this is the second intertext, which focuses on the relationship between the father and the son and the dynamics between them. This is much deeper than it might appear to be on the surface, as although the father is ostensibly the protector and guide of his son, there are many ways in which the son is shown to also guide his father, as is indicated by the dream that the father has in the very opening section of the novel:
In the dream from which he'd wakened he had wandered in a cave where the child led him by the hand.
As we read the novel we can see the truth in this dream, as the child metaphorically "guides" the father just as much as the father guides and looks after his son, though the child seems to focus more on maintaining his father's sense of moral goodness.