Student Question

Why are thumbs cut off in The Road?

Quick answer:

In The Road, people's thumbs are cut off as a form of punishment and to symbolize powerlessness.

Expert Answers

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People’s thumbs are cut off in The Road for punishment. When the boy and his dad come across the thief and the cart, the thief has no fingers on his right hand. Presumably, this means that the thief has no thumb on his right hand either. Describing the thief, McCarthy’s narrator writes, “He was an outcast from one of the communes and the fingers of his right hand had been cut away.” The term outcast suggests that this person had done something bad. He did something to get himself exiled. The severed fingers indicate a link between his outcast status and his lack of fingers. Before he was kicked out of the commune, it's possible that the commune took away his fingers and thumb to add additional shame.

The absence of thumbs could also function on a symbolic level. Throughout the narrative, the presence of fingers and thumbs symbolizes power. The boy watches his dad open jars and bottles with his thumbs. Thumbs also allow him to feel things and generate fire. At one point, the dad uses his thumb on a lighter. Conversely, the loss of thumbs might represent the loss of power. People without thumbs are rather helpless. While no one is in great shape in McCarthy’s apocalyptic world, those without thumbs and fingers are particularly desperate and helpless.

Once again, the severely enervated state of the thumbless manifests in the interaction between the dad and the thief. The thief tries to stick up for himself with a knife, but the dad has a gun. The dad further humiliates the thief by forcing him to take off his clothes. Of course, the lack of thumbs and fingers doesn’t completely deprive one of their humanity, which is why the boy asks his dad not to shoot the thief.

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