Literary Analysis: Apple in The Road

The apple has many symbolic meanings; one of the biggest is that of temptation and original sin. In the Garden of Eden, Eve was tempted by the serpent and ate the fruit (which over time has been deemed to be an apple). In the Road, the father finds an apple in an old orchard and immediately eats it. He does this without bringing it to his son, and the act could be considered selfish. Only after he eats it does he find more apples which he brings to the child. So, he shows his humanity by being selfish and sinning with an apple. In baroque art, there are paintings of skeletons with apples; which means that the temptation will lead to death.
This brings me to my next point. The father ends up dying, and he was also the first to eat an apple. Is that a coincidence? He has been coughing up blood throughout the book and blood is red; an apple is traditionally thought of as red (although there are green and yellow).
The apple has American meanings to it as well, such as “The Big Apple”, apple pie, and Johnny Appleseed. By the father finding an apple, it’s almost as if the author is trying to say that they are in America. It could, however, be the author showing what America has become. The father describes the apple as dry and tasteless. The apple is barely even an apple at this point, so what could that be saying about America? America is nothing like what it was, but it is still around, just in a very poor state.
An apple can be a symbol of luxury. Apple/Macintosh is a computer and software company that is very successful, so an apple can be and is representative of that.
Apples are also a symbol of a woman’s breasts. This is because in the Middle Ages, a woman wanted to have breasts like apples. It was what was considered beautiful at that time. Even Sigmund Freud viewed apples (and other fruits) as a symbol of woman’s breasts. In the Road, the father keeps thinking back to his wife and missing her, could the dried up apple be a symbol of her dried up body? The reader knows she is dead so she is no longer like she once was, and neither is the apple, but it is an apple nonetheless.
The apple is also a symbol of fertility since it has seeds inside of it which can spring forth new life under the right conditions. This symbol mainly comes from the Greek myth where Gaea, goddess of the earth, gives Hera an apple as a symbol of fertility when she becomes engaged to Zeus. Also in Greek mythology, Eris threw a golden apple to earth telling Paris to give it to the most beautiful. He ended up giving it to Aphrodite, the goddess of love, and she gave him Helen of Troy, which in turn, started the Trojan War.
An apple tends to give the situation an appearance of hope, which is a false hope, and then the entire situation comes crumbling down later on. This is seen in the Garden of Eden, the Trojan War story, and the Road. For a moment, the son and the father have food and nourishment to keep them going, but the father will never finish the journey.


Source: http://www.scootermydaisyheads.com/fine_art/symbol_dictionary/apple.html