The Connotations Of The Dreams In The Road

Cormac McCarthy is a well-known American novelist. The Road (2006) is the tenth of his 10 novels which receives positive reviews and honors. The novel tells a journey of a father and his son in the end of the world. There is a vivid comparison between the miscreant world and the caring father and son in the novel. The writer describes the inner worlds of the protagonists by means of dream. The thesis classified the thirteen dreams of the father and the son into five kinds (enigmatic dream, prophetic vision, oracular dream, nightmare and apparitions), according to the five categories of dream by Macrobius. The thesis analyzes the connotations of the dreams in detail and demonstrates how the contradictory and hopeless inner worlds of the two protagonists are displayed in these dreams. The connotations of the dreams in the novel also arouse readers' imagination, making the readers profoundly enjoy the beauty of the novel.