How we cite our quotes: Citations follow this format: (Section.Paragraph)
Quote #1
In those first years the roads were peopled with refugees shrouded up in their clothing. Wearing masks and goggles, sitting in their rags by the side of the road like ruined aviators. Their barrows heaped with shoddy. Towing wagons or carts. Their eyes bright in their skulls. Creedless shells of men tottering down the causeways like migrants in a feverland. The frailty of everything revealed at last. Old and troubling issues resolved into nothingness and night. The last instance of a thing takes the class with it. Turns out the light and is gone. Look around you. Ever is a long time. But the boy knew what he knew. That ever is no time at all. (42.1)
As far as isolation goes, McCarthy takes the idea to its bitter conclusion. In fact, he doesn't just talk about isolation, he talks about possible obliteration. A few scattered apples versus none left in the entire world. What happens to the idea of apples at that point? This is what he means (we think) by the phrase "the last instance of a thing takes the class with it." As people dwindle and become isolated, there's the risk that no one will be left at all. Then, even the idea of humans will have disappeared.
Quote #2
On this road there are no godspoke men. They are gone and I am left and they have taken with them the world. (51.1)
We're not exactly sure what "godspoke" means – McCarthy made up this word. But, with the context of the sentence in mind, we think it might mean something like "godly." In any event, The Man feels that the loss of other good and pious men equals the loss of the world. He might be right. That said, as one critic suggests, isn't he forgetting about The Boy?
Quote #3
[The Man:] Will you tell him [The Boy] goodbye?
[The Woman:] No. I will not.
[The Man:] Just wait till morning. Please.
[The Woman:] I have to go.
She had already stood up.
[The Man:] For the love of God, woman. What am I to tell him?
[The Woman:] I cant help you.
[The Man:] Where are you going to go? You cant even see.
[The Woman:] I dont have to.
He stood up. I'm begging you, he said.
[The Woman:] No. I will not. I cannot. (93.25-93.35)
Ouch. The Boy's mother leaves without so much as a good-bye. We think this passage functions as a barometer of how bad things get in The Road. It's not that The Boy's mother is really cruel (OK, maybe she's a little cruel) but that the world now strikes her as incredibly hopeless. She chooses not to fight against that hopelessness. Of course, The Boy still has his father's love, but you can imagine the absence The Boy must feel because his mother leaves so suddenly.
Quote #4
[The Boy:] Do you think somebody is coming?
[The Man:] Yes. Sometime.
[The Boy:] You said nobody was coming.
[The Man:] I didnt mean ever.
[The Boy:] I wish we could live here.
[The Man:] I know.
[The Boy:] We could be on the lookout.
[The Man:] We are on the lookout.
[The Boy:] What if some good guys came?
[The Man:] Well, I dont think we're likely to meet any good guys on the road.
[The Boy:] We're on the road.
[The Man:] I know. (224.8-224.19)
The Boy makes a very good point here. Supposedly there aren't any good guys on the road – but aren't they on the road? This could mean a couple things. One, it could mean The Man and The Boy aren't actually "good guys" since no "good guys" travel the road. We're inclined to disagree with that statement. (Disclosure: We do have a soft spot for these characters, but that's only because they try really hard to be good people.) Or, it could mean these The Man and The Boy are completely alone – the only "good guys" left on the road.
Quote #5
[Ely:] When we're all gone at last then there'll be nobody here but death and his days will be numbered too. He'll be out in the road there with nothing to do and nobody to do it to. He'll say: Where did everybody go? And that's how it will be. What's wrong with that? (237.84)
Sheesh, what a depressing image. Death (scythe, cloak, etc.) wandering the road, looking for people to kill when he's already killed everyone. It's probably worth taking a look at 237.23-30, since The Man and Ely talk there about how the last person on earth probably wouldn't know he was the last person (see "Themes: Spirituality"). We don't have much else to say here other than this passage is pretty bleak. Even Death gets the blues in this novel!
Quote #6
The land was gullied and eroded and barren. The bones of dead creatures sprawled in the washes. Middens of anonymous trash. Farmhouses in the fields scoured of their paint and the clapboards spooned and sprung from the wallstuds. All of it shadowless and without feature. The road descended through a jungle of dead kudzu. A marsh where the dead reeds lay over the water. Beyond the edge of the fields the sullen haze hung over earth and sky alike. By late afternoon it had begun to snow and they went on with the tarp over them and the wet snow hissing on the plastic. (244.1)
We included this passage because it seems typical of the landscape in The Road. Let us count the ways. First, the land's eroded. Second, we don't have any animals but we do have the bones of animals. Third, we also see some skeletal farmhouses. And fourth, the kudzu is dead (we thought that wasn't possible!). Ravaged, bleak, and lonely. So it's not altogether fair to say the land is "without feature" – it seems ghastly to us, which in itself is a feature.
Quote #7
[The Boy:] There are other guys. You said so.
[The Man:] Yes.
[The Boy:] So where are they?
[The Man:] They're hiding.
[The Boy:] Who are they hiding from?
[The Man:] From each other.
[The Boy:] Are there lots of them?
[The Man:] We dont know.
[The Boy:] But some.
[The Man:] Some. Yes.
[The Boy:] Is that true?
[The Man:] Yes. That's true.
[The Boy:] But it might not be true.
[The Man:] I think it's true.
[The Boy:] Okay.
[The Man:] You dont believe me.
[The Boy:] I believe you.
[The Man:] Okay.
[The Boy:] I always believe you.
[The Man:] I dont think so.
[The Boy:] Yes I do. I have to. (254.1-254.21)
Let's get this straight, Mr. McCarthy. So there might be other "good guys" out there in the world, but The Man isn't sure. And if there are other "good guys" out there, they're hiding from each other and therefore unlikely to ever meet. Which means The Man and The Boy are unlikely to meet any other good souls on the road?
Quote #8
Do you think your fathers are watching? That they weigh you in their ledgerbook? Against what? There is no book and your fathers are dead in the ground. (272.1)
Ooh, this passage gives us the chills. The Man takes himself to task for believing in the hopeful falsehood that there are people (ancestors or forbearers or what have you) watching over him and holding him accountable for his actions. The apocalyptic catastrophe wiped out everything, including human history and morality.
Quote #9
Out there was the gray beach with the slow combers rolling dull and leaden and the distant sound of it. Like the desolation of some alien sea breaking on the shores of a world unheard of. Out on the tidal flats lay a tanker half careened. Beyond that the ocean vast and cold and shifting heavily like a slowly heaving vat of slag and then the gray squall line of ash. He looked at the boy. He could see the disappointment in his face. I'm sorry it's not blue, he said. That's okay, said the boy. (297.1)
OK, this is really sad. The Man and The Boy have been traveling for some time in the hope that things might be better on the coast. They finally get there in the last third of the novel. Are things any better? Is there some hope left in this terrible world? Hardly. Just listen to this sentence: "Like the desolation of some alien sea breaking on the shores of a world unheard of." Plus, the ocean isn't even blue. You had to expect this kind of thing, though. McCarthy isn't going to give us a fun beach scene – he's going to give us an existential sea, with some more ash just for good measure.
Quote #10
The boy lifted the [flare]gun from the case and held it. Can you shoot somebody with it? he said.
[The Man:] You could.
[The Boy:] Would it kill them?
[The Man:] No. But it might set them on fire.
[The Boy:] Is that why you got it?
[The Man:] Yes.
[The Boy:] Because there's nobody to signal to. Is there?
[The Man:] No. (333.14-333.21)
McCarthy gives us a good dose of irony here. (Take it, reader! It's good for you!) Instead of using the flare gun to signal other people, The Man figures he'll use it to set them on fire. As if the only form of communication left on the planet is violence. So a tool typically used to signal distress becomes a grisly weapon.