“You have two bullets and then what?”: Fallible Paternity in Cormac McCarthy’s The Road

Abstract

This article seeks to critically examine the representation of the father-child bond in Cormac McCarthy’s The Road (2006) in order to elucidate the complex portrayal of fatherhood conjured in the text. In particular, I am interested in analyzing the evolution of the ethical stance taken by the father, as opposed to that of his son and his late wife. By commenting on character building, but also formal and stylistic choices such focalization, I aim to assess the potential of the text to narrate the collapse of the dominant fiction. I contend that The Road includes elements that can be read as challenging towards the father-patriarchy conflation, especially the fallible, embodied father. Still, despite its individualization of the paternal function, The Road fails to articulate a solid alternative to traditional fatherhood as it concludes with the re-creation of the Symbolic father.