The man and boy are hanging onto their good nature while everything else is falling apart.

Throughout the novel evil outweighs the good in many ways. Once the pair found a safe place to hide the boy immediately asks the father “Were those the bad guys” the father immediately answers “yes” just so the boy feel reassured that they are the good guys and not bad. He consistently asks he father if they are the “good guys” and the father keeps answering “yes” but the boy is hesitant until the pair is chased by the cannibals. The boy always has this fear of being bad and that one day he will do something that he will regret. The boy is hesitant about his nature because he does not know if he is good or evil but the father presents both good and evil nature. The father and boy present good nature throughout their journey but there are a few moments when both of them have an unsettling characteristic towards each other. Good versus evil is a stretch for the man and the boy because they are living in a post-apocalyptic world. In the beginning of the novel the boy has no concept of good or evil until the chase with the cannibalistic men. “While a popular notion in today's society is that people are generally good or that everyone has some good in them, Cormac uses cannibalistic beings to remove empathy and suggest that the heat of life brings the true nature of people to the surface.” When the father feels that there is no hope for them at the end of the road the boy always reminds him that they are the good guys because he, the father, told the boy that they were good.

There can be good and evil in the world but neither can balance the other out. If there was nothing but good in the world everything would be better but if there was nothing but evil in the world, then there would be chaos. To think there is both good and evil in the world makes the world balance out. evil is developed through point of view, foreshadowing, structure, setting, and imagery. In Cormac McCarthy’s The Road, the theme of good vs. The boy is good a bad, he does get angry with his father but in the end he is the father’s moral compass to keep him on the right track.

According to Jean Paul, “The conscience of children is formed by the influences that surround them their notions of good and evil are the result of the moral atmosphere they breathe.” Throughout the novel the boy has this unsettling mindset that he is both the god and bad guy, which he can good but bad as well. When thinking about good versus evil critics ad readers have this mindset of there is one good guy and one bad guy and that there is no mediator, until you read the book The Road by Cormac McCarthy. The theme good versus evil is a well-known theme throughout many books, not just novels.

The road by mccormick