Important Quotes from Pages 1-28

"Nights dark beyond darkness and the days more gray each one than what had gone before. Like the onset of some cold glaucoma dimming away the world."

This first description we are introduced to the dark, ashen wasteland of a world devastated by what we learn later as a nuclear apocalypse. The earth is described to be in a never ending darkness, the days no lighter than the night. This is where we first get the image of a sun hidden behind layers of toxic smog and the impression that the world has been abandoned by God or that there is no God left. The inclusion of the noun 'glaucoma' not only intensifies the image of a diseased earth that is gradually fading away to ash and succumbing the darkness, but sets the writing style of McCarthy in The Road. Throughout the text he generally uses simplistic lexis to reflect the decaying of society and humanity but the inclusion of the jargon polysyllable 'glaucoma' he creates an antithesis of this by this high order noun still present in the decaying world. This is used also by McCarthy to give us the first insight into the man himself. His use of this noun tells us that prior to the apocalypse he was employed in no ordinary job because he knows this lexis that only one in a specific profession would come across, as it is not a word used or known by your average person. 

"Like pilgrims in a fable swallowed up and lost among the inward parts of some granitic beast"

This quote relates the father and son's journey to a pilgrimage and brings in theme of Spirituality. This could be seen as somewhat ironic however due to their world repeatedly being alluded to and sometimes described as being devoid of a God ( 'There is no God' pg. 181) meaning that there would be no real objective in endeavoring on a pilgrimage. This extract also describes the boy taking the man on this religious journey, leading him to death. This tells us that the man cannot take the boy to death, cannot bring himself to end their dangerous and seemingly purposeless wandering despite the fact that he feels it what he should do, he and the boy are subjected their endless wandering. Therefore in this quote we are told that their death never ends as they are forced to live with death as a constant companion but can never be blessed with the peace of it themselves, this is -we can assume- why the woman refers to them 'the walking dead'.

"I'm right here.
  I know."

This first section of dialogue in The Road sets up the conversation style for the rest of the novel whilst also establishing the detached and strange relationship between the boy and his father. His reply 'I know.' expresses how the father lingers as a constant presence in the boys life, always there but never close. This represents how the father is keeping himself at a distance from the boy in order to disconnect himself from his humanity. The boy, in contrast symbolises everything that is humanity, constantly searching and asking for the comfort that he wants from his father and seeing goodness in the people he meets, he wants to help the man struck by lightning,the little boy, the old man and persuades his father to hang on to that last shred of humanity each time it is tested. But the man still remains in this disconnected state because he feels that's the only way to survive ('If only my heart were stone') and the boy is left with only the knowledge that his father is 'right here' and that's all the security he gets.

"Nothing to see. No smoke. Can I see? the boy said."

The boy still hopes for the redemption of the world, which is shown in page 7 'Can I see?'  despite the man proclaiming that there's 'Nothing to see.' the boy still wishes to see through the binoculars, hoping for a change. This representation is developed throughout the novel and explains what 'carrying the fire' is by contrasting the behaviour of the man and the other with the boy. It is the quality in him but isn't in them that sets the boys apart from the others and 'the fire' could actually be a representation of the humanity that the earth has lost. 


"Later he woke in the dark and he thought that he'd heard bulldrums beating somewhere in the low dark hills"

This quote links the novel to a theme of religion. The Christian religion bases upon the death and resurrection of Jesus and consistently refers to blood in it's writings which connects 

"And the dreams so rich in color. How else would death call you?"

This quote reflects the way that the man feels death calling him in his nightmares/dreams. The fact that he uses the noun 'dreams' instead of 'nightmares' -which is undeniably what they are- gives us an insight into his perception on the nature of these dreams. The term 'dream' connotes something we wish for or aspire to gain, which tells us that by calling them 'dreams' the man is demonstrating that death is what he wants, what he dreams of aspiring to as it's the only relief in the devastated world of The Road. This idea is supported by the description 'rich in color' which suggests that these dreams look enticing, luxurious and entirely tempting, calling him to death. This also tells us that death is the thing the man wants most of all in this world. In the resolution of the book, when death finally catches up with the man, his last dreams are described to reflect the first dream he had in The Road. However the tone of this description is peaceful, easy and restful unlike that of the first description which evokes fear; this speaks volumes about the man's entrance to death as it reflects his willingness to die, to move on and leave the world. The only thing that was holding him back is the boy. Here, we know that his death is definite because whilst in the first dream 'the child lead him by the hand' but he would not acquiesce into death, not seeing peace at the end of the tunnel but 'a creature that raised its dripping mouth (...) with eyes dead white and sightless as the edges of spiders', in the last dream he only sees the 'tracks of unknown creatures' and he finally passes 'the point of no return' which is described with 'the light they carried with them'. This significant difference speaks volumes about the man's relationship with death in The Road, it being a constant companion that he longs for in the beginning but keeps at a distance the same way he holds the boy at a distance. Both begging for him comfort and devotion, the boy and death both being the things that keep him in his disconnected state, wanting both, both being as tempting to him as he feels each can provide him the relief and rest he needs. The change in this relationship at the conclusion of the novel shows him slowing creeping closer to death with the boy hanging on but -ultimately- having no choice but to let his father go.

"They were discalced to a man like pligrims of some common order for all their shoes were long since stolen."

In this quote that stolen shoes represent the last thing that stands between these people and death being taken away. In The Road the scenery is described as 'ashen' and dead which can then lead us the believe that having shoes on separates survivors from the death below them. Therefore these people having these shoes taken from them creates a representation of the finality of death; deaths finally takes full ownership of them when the one thing still separating them is stolen from them, thus making them his, a part of him and just another body on the road.

"At eight the primrose closes."

The significance of this quote lies in the use of 'the primrose'. The primrose is a flower, colourful and showy, which opens during the day (like most plants). However, one variety of the primrose -the evening primrose- opens at night. This is significant in that it can be said to symbolise day and night becoming confused in The Road; the time of day isn't specified in the quote, it can be either eight in the morning or in the evening, this coupled with the fact that the primrose could either open at day or night means that the world in The Road has no real day and no real night. Each is seemingly the same as the other; the darkness of the night wanes into the day and the emptiness of day fades into the night. It represents a dark, dying world abandoned of all hope.