An Analysis Of Initiation Themes In The Road By Cormac McCarthy

Cormac McCarthy(1933—), a famous contemporary American novelist, is regarded as the only successor of Hemingway and William Faulkner and one of the top candidates of the Nobel Prize in Literature in recent years. A series of novels about the life of early western American border created by him has achieved widely attention of critics. The Road which was published in 2006 helped him win the 2007 Pulitzer Prize for fiction. In the novel the author presents a story after doomsday when all civilization disappears and human beings decay backwards to cannibals. The boy and his father trudge towards south for the hope of survival. The love and warmth between them weakens the desolation of the environment. In the story, they take a journey to the south for survival and under the guide of the father, the boy gradually grow up after undergoing a series of sufferings and trials. Through the depiction and contemplation on humanity, the author expresses his thought that:"there is still hope at the end of the road" and shows his concerns about current human living conditions and social issues.Growth, a necessary step in the process of psychological development, is a permanent topic for human beings. It is a process of internalization of experiences and trials. Moreover, as a key stage of the formation of psychological stability, morality and values, adolescence, it is important to put focus on the period. As a result, the topic of growth is under the spotlight of literary creation and initiation story has become an important genre of novels in western modern literature. This thesis starts an analysis of The Road by McCarthy from the perspective of American initiation story combining the prototype pattern of initiation story.The first part gives a brief introduction to current studies on McCarthy and his works at home and abroad. The second part, as the body part of this thesis, consists of three chapters. In the first chapter, the paper tries to interpret the theory of initiation story from the perspective of definition, development and features. In the second chapter, this paper carries on the analysis of the themes of initiation story in The Road. The chaotic society and deserted environment set a troublesome growth background for the boy and create a lot of pressing issues for the characters-problems from basic survival needs to the shared spiritual crisis among mankind. In face of "self-interests" and "altruism", the boy and his father are under the test of conscience and hold their doubts and contemplation about humanity. Just like that in contemporary society, with increasingly serious environmental problems and frequent wars, people start to rethink man’s relationship with nature, society and oneself. As a child who is previous under the care of his father, he gradually gets rid of the reliance on his father and finally gains his independence of continuing the journey of his own. Moreover, his maturity implies the self-redemption of all human beings in reality; the third chapter analyzes and reveals the features of initiation story in The Road in terms of its structure, content and characters. Driven by the desire of survival, the boy carries out his journey to the south with his father. However, under the constant strike of reality, disputes between the boy and his father have never been absent. Through the observation and teachings all this way, the boy gradually grows to be an independent man who is able to take on the responsibility of finding "the fire" after his father’s death. Both the positive role played by his father and the negative part played by the cannibals are the initiation guides in the process of his growth. At the end of the story, basing on his own judgment, the boy joins another trip to hope; the last part is the conclusion of the whole thesis. As an embodiment of the prophet of human beings in the book, the road for the boy to survival and redemption has a universal social significance in today’s society.