Reflective Post: The Road

The world that the father and son are living in scares me; it makes me question whether or not society will eventually come to this. I can not imagine what it would be like walking miles and miles every day, not sure where I am going, with barely anything. As an American, it is very difficult for me to relate to having only what is in a shopping cart and a small knapsack but it makes me feel bad for them. In our society there is a big emphasis on the things you have and people are always striving to get what they don’t have, but in this world finding things like shoes, blankets, tin cans of food, and plastic tarps are matters of life and death. At school alone I have 11 pairs of shoes, at home its much, much more, so to imagine that this father and son are walking around in ripped up, destroyed, and tattered shoes while searching desperately for a new pair to keep their feet covered. I don’t think I own a tarp at all. I can not recall one being at my house at all, so I can not imagine having to rely on one to stay alive. In the book, the father realizes if they get wet from the rain, then they will freeze to death; so the tarp keeps them safe from the rain. Can you imagine a sheet of plastic being the only thing keeping you from death? I can’t. The father is so selfless when it comes to his little boy. They sit in the freezing cold, and the father holds his son’s ice cold feet against his stomach to keep the child warm. When they find the can of Coca Cola, he gives it to his son; and when they are in the woods he gives his son the last of the hot chocolate, but his son insists on sharing it with him. Clearly the son is learning the right things from his father, even if they are living in a dead and decrepit world.