“You can stay here with your papa and die or you can go with me”: The Ethical Imperative of The Road

Abstract

Abstract Critics remain divided over the moral of The Road. Is McCarthy's post- apocalyptic novel a Christian allegory, a critique of capitalism, or a meditation on the indifference of the universe? While all these accounts have their merits, this article argues that an investigation of the historical and cultural setting of The Road and a detailed reading of the novel's conclusion demonstrate that The Road is a didactic novel, laying out direct ethical imperatives. Through an analysis of the dream of the cave with which the novel begins and ends, we show that there never was any possibility of returning to the world or worldview of the novel's father, a worldview defined by an ethos of individual survival over communal sharing. Hence, in the figure of the son, McCarthy develops an ethos toward community and the alleviation of suffering, one that the novel suggests might be the only hope for humans at the end of the world.