Mccarthy’s Novel the Road Is About Man’s Inherent Altruism in a World of Selfishness

The universe in The Road is depicted as a very religious individual, this is indisputable. One could deduce from this that therefore he is selfless in defend his son and carrying on in the clock in which he finds himself. This viewpoint contrasts with the one that the homophile is narcissistic with his actions, doing everything to belong and non helping anyone he meets on his journey. All the decisions the s grey-hairediery makes throughout the novel digest be used as causas to argue some(prenominal)ly point of view, and it may be that it is a mixture of both.Maybe the hu military man race acts in a selfless way due to selfish beliefs. The full-length image of religious self-sacrifice by the man is belike what McCarthy intended, this heap be seen through his determination to preserve his sons life. An example of this is when he defends his son from the man from the truck. He risks everything by shooting the man as this leaves nonwithstanding one bullet in the cham ber of the revolver, as he intends to use it in a life threatening topographic point to kill his son, it means that he will probably die season suffering.His whole determination to stay springy could be seen as to precisely keep the boy alive, this is seen as selfless as he only wishes to help the boy survive, not himself. This altruism is directly connected to the mans solid belief in god and in what he is doing. Throughout the novel other peoples selfishness can be seen, the cannibalism and stealing juxtapose with the mans proper behaviour he tells his son that they would never eat someone and shows generosity towards the old man.Cannibalism is an indication of how people act immorally in the novel in allege to stay alive in the novel, the man refuses to do this and is therefore portrayed as having a higher piety than anyone else. On the other die one could identify the mans behaviour as purely selfish, he has a fixed idea in his head, he is protecting his son for his own given mission to be complete. The man does not wish to help anyone other than himself, he only reluctantly helps the old man when his son insists, and happily takes the clothes off a naked man later on, returning them only again as a result of his sons persistence.He acts immorally on several occasions, not offering assistance to the man who had been struck by lightning and secure the people in the basement again when he had discovered them instead of helping. It could be argued that everything an individual does is aimed at personal gain, selfishness, either physical or psychological. The man is certainly benefiting psychologically from keeping his son alive as he believes he is doing the right thing and fulfilling his purpose. Also his religious morality can be questioned, as he considers suicide even though this is not allowed according to the bible.The fact that he does not become a cannibal may be used to identify him as comfort retaining some kind of moral code, however, he does anything to keep him and the boy alive and it is not improbable that in a situation of severe famishment he would have false to cannibalism had it been an option. From all of his actions in the novel, the reviewer can justifiably come to the conclusion that the man is just as selfish as the other people trying to survive in the post-apocalyptic world.The man can certainly be described as selfless as well as selfish, he aims towards a noble goal exactly does not let anything stop him, and he identifies others lives as less important than the boys. Even though he is not described as committing highly immoral actions such as cannibalism, it cannot be ruled out that from his actions we can deduce that this is what he would have turned to had the situation permitted it.On the other hand does acting immorally orient acting selfishly, in the novel it certainly does but this may not actually be the case, it may be argued that the immoral actions by the man are done to help the b oy survive. McCarthy links selfishness to immoral actions rather strongly in the book and so due to this the man is presented to the reader as selfless, this was the intention of the writer and the reader will most probably grasp this attitude while reading the book. Upon further thought however, it may be seen that the man is simply selfish and there is nothing more to him than that.