he Road, written by Cormac McCarthy, was inspired by a trip he took with his young son to El Paso, Texas. He was imagining what the city would be like 100 years in the future and thought about the “fires on the hill” and then thought about the safety of his son. McCarthy admitted to having had conversations with his brother about different apocalypse scenarios. For example, cannibalism, “when it's all over, the only thing left to eat is each other.” He took some notes on this vision, but didn't act on it until a few years later, in 2006, while he was in Ireland. He began and finished the novel and dedicated it to his son, John Francis McCarthy. In addition to this story behind the novel, The Road has received numerous reviews and accolades since its debut. In a New York Book Review article, one author, Michael Chabon, discussed the novel's relationship to well-known genres. Chabon insists that The Road is not science fiction, he says, "ultimately it is as a lyrical horror epic that The Road is best understood." Another honor The Road received was being part of Oprah Winfrey's Book Club. During his interview he announced that his son, John Francis, was co-author of the novel. Additionally, he revealed during the interview that some of the conversations he and his son shared in the novel were real conversations they had shared in real life. In 2006, McCarthy received the Jame Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction and was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award for fiction. Later in 2007, The Road received the Pulitzer Prize for fiction, and soon after the novel was adapted into a film. In turn, The Road generates many themes throughout the book, but the most important is the unbreakable bond between a father and... ..... middle of paper ...... the glimpse of happiness in the book is beautiful because McCarthy wants to show that brief moment of love between father and son. They then head further south through a coastal town, when bad luck strikes them. Someone shoots an arrow through a window and hits the Man in the leg. This causes the Man to become seriously ill, forcing him to camp in the woods for a couple of nights. As they prepare for bed, the boy asks his father what color the sea is, the man responds by saying, "it used to be blue." The boy then slips into a deep sleep dreaming of the ocean. The ocean in this scenario is a symbol of the humanity that still shows in the boy. It gives hope that in times like this someone can still think of happy things. Works Cited http://www.cliffsnotes.com/literature/r/the-road/book-summary http://www.cliffsnotes.com/literature/ r/the-road/book-summary