Point of View

McCarthy writes The Road in the third person and mostly from the point of view of the father. However, towards the end when the father is dying, McCarthy writes passages through the boy's eyes. Once the father dies, the book's perspective switches to his son. Consequently, the point of view is unreliable and telling the majority of the story through the father's point of view makes their situation, perhaps, bleaker than it may actually be.

The boy is actually quite a positive and emotional person, but with the focus on the father, the boy comes across as overly sensitive and unhelpful to the their struggle for survival. In comparison, the father initially comes across as the strong, self-sacrificing figure, battling against the elements. When the father dies, the readers' understanding of the novel and the father's character changes. The boy, immediately meets someone else, who takes...