Location-Behaviour Nexus in McCarthy's The Road

Abstract

This researchanalyzesthe contributing factor for the identity of a father and a son inThe Roadby Cormac McCarthy. McCarthy presents two unnamed central characters in the post- apocalyptic world. The problem lies in the mystery of presenting these unknown characters in such a world. The intriguing aspect of this post-apocalyptic world is theremnantsof a city. In such a setting, the two characters have been presented in different ways. These two characters have dissimilar attitudes to whomever they encounter on the way. The father seems inhumane, selfish, rationale, indifferent, reserve and materialist. The boy seems humane, helpful, emotional, careful and openhearted. Thesebehavioursand attitudes are symptomatic to what Raymond Williams and Georg Simmel point out regarding the people of a country and a city.For Raymond Williams city is the palaceof ambition, money, artificiality and material. This all aspects of the city make people reserve, materialistic and inhumane thereby people forget feeling towards human and humanity. However, a country is a place of the natural world and has a natural wayof life, working economy, innocence. In the same way, George Simmel argues because of a money economy in the metropolitan city people are so much busy that they do not have any time to think of other thereby they become indifferent to the human feeling and emotion. However, in a town or a country, most of the people are known to each other and have a positive feeling and warm relations. In the text, the man is from the city and does have overall experiences of the same place, whereas the boy is the beginner of the country life and he has not been affected by any old experience, celebrates humanity.McCarthy suggests the global community that excessive practice of city culture leadsa humancivilization to thecrisisand the road to urbanization has become a threat to the entire civilization. Key Words Blasé attitude, city, country, identity, indifference, location, money, working economy