Characters with no Names and a Story with no Chapters

Hey everyone! I hope you enjoyed my first blog post about the characters in the novel. Sorry about the redundancy of “the father” and “the son,” the characters do not have names. Speaking of the characters not having names, I wanted to share some of my thoughts regarding the reasoning behind this and explain some of the author's stylistic decisions and craft while writing The Road.

As I mentioned above, the author (Cormac McCarthy) decided not to give the characters names, nor does he really development them deeply. The reader knows about their personalities through things they say and their actions, however the reader knows very little about either of their pasts. I think the reason for McCarthy not naming his characters is because it adds to the mystical theme. Each day the father and son are uncertain of who they may see and if they will have enough food and water to survive. This builds suspense for the reader. Not giving the son and father names adds even more uncertainty. We as readers don’t even truly know who they are. I think the father begins to question at times, “who am I?” and “what am I doing?” as each day he strives to be strong and find food and shelter so him and his son can live another day. But for what? For this life where they walk on a road each day scared to death and starving? The father questions who he is and what his life has become just as the reader questions who the characters truly are.

Another interesting elements the author has implemented is the use of no chapters. The novel is just one straight through story. This is symbolic of the story because like the father and son walking continually on this same destroyed road, we are continually reading this same enticing book. There also have only been two flashback to when we learn about the mother’s leaving and a little background of their lives before they embarked on the road journey. This makes the story even more continual as there are not even breaks in time.

Since the author does not majorly develop the characters and there is no plot to the novel, he spends most of his words describing the setting around the father and son and everything they see. “And on the far shore a creature that raised it's dripping mouth from the rimstone pool and stared into the light with eyes dead white and sightless as the eggs of spiders. It swung its head low over the water as if to take the scent of what it could not see. Crouching there pale and naked and translucent, its alabaster bones cast up in shadow on the rocks behind it. Its bowels, its beating heart. The brain that pulsed in a dull glass bell. It swung its head from side to side and then gave out a low moan and turned and lurched away and loped soundlessly into the dark.” (Page 3-4) This is an example of the depth of description the author goes into. It truly captivates you as a reader, feeling like you are walking on the road with them.

I also really like that the novel is told in third person. However, I think it would be really interesting if the story was told from the perspective of the son. The son is not optimistic and definitely has a lot more feelings and emotions that he doesn't express. Every time the father wants to explore a house for food the son says “no papa, please don’t, I have a bad feeling.” He even said this the time the father found tons of food, clothes, and a shelter in a basement. I would like to know why the son is so reluctant for his father to look for food beyond the reason of he is just scared. Plus it would be cool to be inside the thoughts of a young boy, to see what he wonders about as they walk long distances in silence.