Rodrigo Sanchez AP English IV. Cormac McCarthy,  The Road

      The Father of the boy in Cormac McCarthy's story of love and survival, The Road, is an epitome of Love, Of Survival, without him there is no story to tell, just another conversation of people trying to keep body and soul together in a post apocalyptic world.
      In The Road, The Father contributes to make the story a whole as such, his death brings a point to the story. In the beginning the father shows his love and care for the boy, for example on page 5, " He knew only that the child was his warrant. He said: If he is not the word of God God never spoke. When the man says warrant, he means that His only reason for being on earth, was to be with his son, this is beautiful, he loves his son so much, even when he cannot provide like he should, or even though his wife, and mother of his son is gone, he refused to leave his son. This is an excellent example of the "love part of the story" With out the love, the Man, The father would not be there.
      On Page 77 of  The Road, the Father tells the son "My job is to take care of you. I was appointed to do that by God. I will kill anyone who touches you. Do you understand?" He shows his heavy fervor of waning to keep his son safe, of wanting to keep him alive. Throughout the entire book the father is constantly reminding his son that He wont be around forever to keep him safe, which is why the boy must learn everything he possibly can to make sure he survives in the ominous world.
       Early in the book, the boy asks his papa this question (page 11) "What would you do if i died?" "if you died i would want to die too." "so you could be with me?" "Yes, so i could be with you.". This portrays an auxiliary amount of proof of love from the father to the boy.
      The point is this, The father makes such a federal case of his love for the boy, his reason for being on earth is to keep him safe and to protect him, After all that had happened, including his mother abandoning them, people trying to kill them, and them damn near starving to death, the boy has to end up without his father, The mans death is what makes the story a whole. By letting the reader know that in after all kinds of bad can happen to you, you can still loose a lot more, and by Gods power, everyone will die, it is just a mystery as to how it will happen. Without the father and his death, it would be another predictable story of survival with a happy ending.