Post-Apocalyptic Literature

The Thoughts and Actions of Survivors are what counts

Leaving the Thief to Die

'I wasn't going to kill him, he said...But we did kill him.'
This act of taking all of the Thief's belongings after he robbed them shows the decaying of moral standards and the disintegration of society, as although the Thief did steal the man and boy's things, the punishment the man dealt him far outweighs the crime. Yes, the man didn't kill him but the act of killing someone as retribution doesn't have the same standards in the world of The Road, as due to the state of the Earth dying is no longer feared or mourned, but rather seen as relief and salvation. No, the punishment the man deals out is harsher because by taking all of the thief's things he is leaving him exposed and vulnerable to the dangers of the cold, the gangs, starvation etc; he is leaving him to die a slow, painful death. However, if it wasn't for the boy, the man probably would have killed the man outright which tells us that the man's humanity is still intact (though barely) and it appears that the man didn't leave the man there with the intention that he will die, the leaving of his clothes proves that. This gives us the characterisation of the boy as more than a survivor because in this act (and throughout The Road) the boy expresses emotion freely and empathises with the people he meets, wanting to help them in any way he can; the boy is more than survivor because he is still in touch with his humanity, his emotions and compassion; leading us to believe that there is a significant difference in The Road between a survivor and a human. The boy convinces the man, by his grief for the thief that they effectively killed, to give the thief a chance to survive by leaving his clothes on the road for him to find, showing the difference between the man and the boy, between survivor and human.

Ely

'where men can't live gods fare no better.'

The thoughts of the character Ely, whom the man and the boy meet past midway in The Road, embodies the survivor and represents the overall state of the world in the novel. Ely's thoughts of the world being without God suggest a world without morals or hope; the dissolution of society and morals in the world of The Road. Ely shows this absence of morality or hope that embodies the survivors in this world.

'Borrowed time and borrowed world and borrowed eyes with which to sorrow it'

This quote expresses the mentality of the survivors in The Road and their attitude to the world that they live in and how it seems like the time and world in which they're living is not theirs anymore and won't be theirs for long; even their own eyes seem 'borrowed' as it seems like each moment they live is evanescent. In whole this quote represents how the survivors feel like they live on 'borrowed time' because they could die at any moment and that they shouldn't exist as they don't belong there anymore.

The Man Struck by Lightning 

'no. We cant help him. There's nothing to be done.'
That fact that the only thing the man and boy can do for the man is leave him to die represents that the world cannot be saved or even helped, but just left to die slowly without even comfort or mourning. This represents to hopelessness of the world and the destruction of humanity in the survivors left on the planet.