The Road Vs. The Pesthouse: Hope and Love
Attaining happiness is the ultimate goal of most individuals. In their lives, several people have happiness in the form of love and hope which they gain through the support of family members and dear ones, but they fail to acknowledge such aspects of life until they are stripped of everything and their world is completely destroyed, at which point they realize that love and hope are the only sources of happiness that we can rely on. As proven in Cormac McCarthy’s The Road, and Jim Crace’s The Pesthouse, the aspects of hope and love play key roles in the survival of the individuals during difficult circumstances. Despite the difficulty of a situation, the hope of achieving a better life, and the love shared with those around us become the main focus in life. Throughout their novels, Cormac McCarthy and Jim Crace expound the fact that when individuals are placed in desperate situations, they depend on hope and love to provide them with a purpose to continue their journey, otherwise allowing destruction to prevail.
In both The Road and The Pesthouse, the survivors remain hopeful despite the negative events that occur. The survivors act as if losing the purpose of their journey, would result in their demise. Firstly, the reliance on hope is clearly displayed in The Road, when the boy’s father remains hopeful, even after being in a life-threatening situation. After being chased out of an abandoned home by the “bad guys”, the boy becomes doubtful and asks his father,
“What would you do if I died?
If you died I would want to die too.
So you could be with me?
Yes. So I could be with you.
Okay.
Are we going to die?
No.
Promise?
Promise."(Mccarthy, 48)
Instead of telling the boy that there is a possibility of death, he remains hopeful by telling him that survival is assured. By making a promise, the father passes his hope onto his son. The promise made highlights the purpose of the man, which is to ensure that they have enough resources to survive. It is this purpose and hope of dodging death that gives them the strength to continue on their journey. If the father and son feared death and were hopeless, they would be unable to continue on their course without succumbing to destruction. Furthermore, the father displays hope even after suffering through sickness and starvation and he encourages his son to have faith. After falling sick, the boy has a bad dream which causes him to be pessimistic when his father tells him to “‘Listen to me,’ he said, ‘when your dreams are of some world that never was or some world that never will be, and you're happy again, then you'll have given up. And if you give up then you’ll have no chance of living. Do you understand? And you can't give up, I won't let you.’”(159). The explicit statement that there is no chance of life without hope, proves that hope plays a large part in the survival of the father and son. The man’s advice to his son implies that dreams display idealism and he is afraid that this might cause the boy to give up on reality. Therefore he tries to keep the boy hopeful in order to ensure his survival. Without the hope that the father maintains and provides for the son, they would lose their will to live. This is not only true in The Road, but in The Pesthouse as well. After experiencing a ruined America, and having to leave his brother behind on his journey to Europe, the character of Franklin is able to maintain hope. When resting, he “...could imagine striking out to claim a piece of long-abandoned land and making home in some old place, some territory begging to be used. Going westward, he would go free." (35). Despite the negative things that have occurred in Franklin’s life he is still able to continue his journey solely through faith which establishes his purpose, which is to go west, and imagining how much better life will be there when he arrives. In addition, the character of Margaret is forced to maintain hope when diagnosed with a sickness and placed in isolation. When Franklin finds Margaret, and she begins to cry, he tells her that she has to have “...hope of all the paradise beyond where there'd be no ague or calenture, no tick disease or cholera, no canker or malaria”(89). It is because of Franklin’s hope that he is able to find Margaret, and because of this very hope he is able to bring her on the journey to the East without fear. Hope provides him with the goal of travelling east where the conditions are better, and with this hope he is able to save the life of Margaret. In this way, the hope that the father is able to maintain in order to survive and travel to the south, relates to the hope Franklin possesses in order to survive and travel to the east, both individuals having a purpose. The son being doubtful about situations relates to Margaret being unsure of her condition and if she will survive. The father provides hope to the son just as Franklin provides hope to Margaret. Ultimately both the father and Franklin go far on their journeys. Therefore, it is the hope and purpose of the characters that keep them going on their journey despite rough obstacles they endure.
