The Road

When everything is destroyed and ravaged by the people still alive, everyone finds something to turn to be their beacon of hope. The man has his boy. His boy is his beacon and his hope that he stills has left in humanity. He tries his hardest to keep the boy alive and trained because he knows he wont last much longer. It is a sad way to live, but in a world where laws don't exist and supplies of any kind are rarer than diamonds, it is the best thing anyone can have. The boy carries this "fire" that the man has convinced him the good guys only carry. I think that the fire represents the hope that the man personally has left, and the boy's only shed of humanity that he still holds on to.

The boy is also very interesting. He, despite everything, still manages to find hope and a god to talk to. We don't know where the boy has formed the ideas of god because he was never brought up religious in the story, but it is interesting to note that the boy still believes in a divine being while his father does not. The boy is putting his faith in something that may not be true at all, but he is showing that he stills has faith for a better tomorrow. The father places his faith in the boy because he won't have to many more tomorrows, but the boy still has a very long life to live, even though he has lost most of his innocence.