The Road by Cormac McCarthy

Summary

A father and his little son, walk across burning America, slowly toward seashore. None there, nothing move in the dead landscape. There are only flying dust and gray sky. Sun is shinning no more, and the weather is cold, more than everyone in earth have imagined. Trees have no leaves, animal is all dead. Rain and snow is falling every day. The Man and his Boy have nothing, besides a gun with two bullets, for defending themselves from evils in street, who sometimes able to kill and eat them, clothes wore in their body, a cart of used foods, and one another.

Heartbreaking, haunting, and emotionally shattering. I never regret my decision to read this book. A drama, which is full of love and humanity. Actually, I've just watched The Book of Eli, an epic movie which shares us a post-apocalyptic tale after great war happened. And, when I read synopsis of The Road, I thought it might be another apocalyptic story, and because Eli is good, maybe this one would be great too. So, I was interested to bought and the read it.

The book tells two unnamed human, they are called The Man and The Boy. Setting is in U.S, which has destroyed by unexplained cataclysm. Civilization and almost all life in Earth has lost, there are only falling ash, and the weather is extremely cold. The Man brings her son to the south, with hope of finding warmth and more "good men". What makes me so emotionally involved is father-son relationship. They only have each other, and with many cannibalism around them, they repeatedly assure one another that they are good people.

Some interesting things told here. Example, when The Man find a can of Coca Cola. He gives it to his son, who never able to taste it before. It's bubbling, he comments. Touched! It's very easy to get any soda drinks that we want now. And, sometimes we forget to thank of it.

Lack of food become main problem for them. You'll read how hard they search every abandoned house to find leftovers, and it's really hard to find clean water! Clean water, which is simply used by us every day. And, sometimes, in some houses, they find scary stock room, where the cannibals save "their meat". Freaky.

Many things make me think. A lot. Something made this happen. I don't know what. Maybe human's greedy. Or, their careless act to environment? In this modern life, people sometimes think only about themselves. We're selfish. We can't love our earth. We sometimes love to be grateful. We are greedy, and always wanting more. There's nothing bad to have a better life, but we must not forget to keep our environment good. We live with other people, we live with Earth. If we can make peaceful life with them, well, maybe someday what happen in this book, will happen to all of us. And I believe, it is happening now in some countries in this world.


People who declare war, should read this book. People who sill hurt the Earth, should read this book. Recommend this book to all your friend, as many as you can!! :)


PS. You don't like reading a book? Oh, okay, I'll recommend the movie. It's pretty good, with Viggo Mortensen there. Remember Aragorn? Go get the movie too! ;)