Theme in "The Road"

   A theme in “The Road,” is the father and son relationship, even though they never say “I love you” it’s a strong bond the father tries to have with his son so when he dies his son can walk on with the torch, by which he means “the fire.” The torch is really just trying to keep society alive and not be like his mother who gave into her fear and walked outside to get killed by cannibals.

Cormac McCarthy: But a lot of the lines that are in there are verbatim conversations my son John and I had. I mean just that when I say that he's the co-author of the book. A lot of the things that the kid [in the book] says are things that John said. John said, "Papa, what would you do if I died?" I said, "I'd want to die, too," and he said, "So you could be with me?" I said, "Yes, so I could be with you." Just a conversation that two guys would have.

In the book “The Road” the father obsessively protects his son and prepares him to carry on alone. (Example) While lying on the beach in the sand the father told his son to hold the gun while he swam to a ship to search for things, the son falls asleep with the gun and someone robs them. When the father gets back he’s pissed, he searches for the thief and eventually find him, gets his things and also makes the thief takes off his clothes. He shows his son not to have any sympathy for the “bad guys” in the world they’re in. “He knew only that the child was his warrant. If he is not the word of God, God never spoke.”