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While McCarthy’s earlier novels deal explicitly with violence, murder, torture, rape, and incest, The Road surpasses them in its almost absolute atmosphere of meaningless and menace. In this novel, the world seems to be dead in terms of nature and morality; a world where cannibalism is a constant threat and civilization is beyond saving. However, it also depicts the hope and redemptive love that can come from the bond between father and son relationship, intense, devoted, self-sacrificing. They are referred as the good guys who will not succumb to immortality on their journey south, whatever happens. After the father’s death, the boy who always holds a metaphoric fire is to found by a family of four, the new “good guys,” and with them he can continue to carry the fire. The woman at the end of the book is positioned as a good mother. When she meets the boy, she provides immediate maternal care through enfolding him in her arms. She also talks to him about God. In the end, his spirit will rise above the devastation, representing the promise of resurrection in the aftermath of death’s finality.