Cormac McCarthy’s The Road Is a Conservative Classic

This summer marks one year since Cormac McCarthy’s death. Throughout his 89 years of life, the American novelist accrued much fame and many awards for his artful writing. Titles such as No Country for Old Men, Blood Meridian, and All...

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This summer marks one year since Cormac McCarthy’s death. Throughout his 89 years of life, the American novelist accrued much fame and many awards for his artful writing. Titles such as No Country for Old Men, Blood Meridian, and All the Pretty Horses grace the bookshelves of casual readers and literary critics alike, but one stands out to conservative readers. McCarthy’s insightful novel, The Road, communicates fundamental truths that align with conservative ideals. 

Set in post-apocalyptic America, The Road tells of a father and son navigating a landscape where nature is dead and civilization has crumbled. The great violence of cannibalism and power-hungry gangs is countered by the duo’s deep love for one another. As McCarthy writes, the father and son are “each the other’s world entire” — a description of self-sacrificial devotion that stirs the reader’s heart. The conservative grain of the novel lies in its themes of objective morality, protection of human life, authentic masculinity, and respect for the wisdom of previous generations.

McCarthy infuses The Road with objective morality by distinguishing “good guys” and “bad guys” by how and when they use violence. The good guys, exemplified by the father, use violence only for necessary self-defense. The bad guys, many of whom plague McCarthy’s post-apocalyptic landscape, use violence for selfish gain and sport. All of McCarthy’s characters, even the young boy, are capable of violence, but McCarthy places moral weight upon the intent behind each act of violence. The conservative reader picks up on McCarthy’s inclusion of objective morality throughout the story. 

The violence depicted in The Road always threatens human life, revealing the underlying moral principle that life is worth protecting. The father and son come across hundreds of deaths caused by human violence, and McCarthy is staunch in labeling all murders not done in self-defense as evil. The only character to whom McCarthy grants a natural death is the father, whose priority is to protect life whenever he can. Conservatives will agree with the book’s stance that human life, even that of a newborn or elderly man, is worthy of protection. 

A third conservative theme within The Road is that of authentic masculinity. The father exemplifies how a good, masculine man acts as he protects, leads, provides for, and teaches his son out of loyal love and a desire to prepare his child to be a good and capable person. The “bad guys” in McCarthy’s book use their manpower to destroy, steal, kill, and hurt others for personal gratification. The post-apocalyptic setting of The Road highlights the need for good men and affirms a strong, healthy masculinity.

The most intricately woven conservative theme of The Road is that of valuing the goodness preserved by past generations. The reverence for previously curated goodness is most heavily symbolized by food. Survival in The Road depends on finding food in a landscape where all plants and animals have died. The preservative chemicals in a can of soda and a packet of fruit punch make the drinks last long enough to be safely consumed by the father and son. A ham that has been cured for preservation gives the duo the strength to carry on. A doomsday bunker filled with canned food saves the pair from starvation and introduces to the boy the joy of fruit preserves. Here, McCarthy creates a parallel where food sustains physiological life just as the ideas of goodness, truth, and beauty preserved by earlier generations sustain cultural and social life. Reinforcing his message, McCarthy shows the father reading books and telling stories to his son in a world devoid of all academic or creative pursuits, an image that directly indicates respect for past knowledge. Through food and stories, the father teaches his son how to find and enjoy past goodness, knowing that such things will preserve the son’s body and soul. All conservatives should recognize how deftly McCarthy enriches his readers’ lives with this worthy theme. 

The Road gained attention by earning the 2007 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, was adapted into a 2009 film starring Viggo Mortensen, and has been included in many American high school curriculums. People of all beliefs see the beauty in McCarthy’s work, but the conservative sees deeper value. McCarthy’s affirmation of morality, the value of human life, the need for good masculinity, and respect for wisdom resonates deeply with the conservative reader. We recognize that McCarthy’s literary genius places his books in the canon of great American literature, but the fundamental truths represented in The Road should place it in the hands of all conservatives.

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