To begin simply, the book was alright at first...just alright. I knew the book, this Pulitzer Prize winning book, was about a father and son journeying through an America seen through ash colored lenses. I then learned that it's cold in this new world because the sun is never out, and rain and snow dominate the weather patterns.
Sentences were not complete. Lots of fragments. Drove. Me. Insane. However, I suppose McCarthy can do that all he wants because, hey, he does have a bit of recognition about his name. Even Oprah likes him! And after getting through the book a bit more, it becomes apparent that McCarthy is evolving from the writing style of a child to the writing style of a well-learned man, much like the two characters in the novel.
The story seemed to grow old quite fast in the first section of the book. It was cold. They were walking. They found some food. They slept by fire. They kept walking. After several days of this routine, I was really anticipating something exciting. In my taste, it took a bit too long to happen. I guess I'm one of those movie-goers we talk about that needs a thematic sequence every 10 minutes or so.
Once the story got rolling, the characters became a bit more exciting. The father keeps asking himself if "when the time comes, will you be able to do it?" I believe I was having a slow day when I read this book because it took me forever to figure out what "it" truly was. "It" is not shooting his son to live. That is what the "bad guys" would resort to. "It" meant suicide. Although, would the "good guys" resort to that either?
The "good guys" were symbolized by the young boy. He aimed to help all that he could, assuming they were "good guys" as well. He wanted to keep the dog. He wanted to share their food with the small boy he claimed to have seen. He wanted to help the old man, Ely. Good guys did not eat people, did not steal from the living, and did not put good people in harm's way. But the boy was the good guy. He was even called God in the book. He carried the fire.
The fire, the only color that appears in the book, could symbolize light, hope, good, morals, sanity. It could also symbolize the old ways. No matter what obstacle the father and son came upon, they continued to carry the fire and have some humanity. They would keep the old way of life with them, with morals held at a high priority. They kept their sanity eating foods like mushrooms, not eating people like the others, "bad guys," had resorted to. Part of trucking on in the fashions of the older life that was no more was difficult for the young boy to understand. He was born into the world of ash and gray, where a coca-cola can was unknown to him.
Not knowing that there was a better life before him was probably best for the boy. His mother committed suicide shortly after the disaster. It may have been to escape a life of chains and forced breeding for the source of food. And it may have been that living a life that horrid while still remembering a good time was not conducive to moving forward with her life.
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