The Pulitzer Prize-winning book by Cormac McCarthy put me in a state of fear and uncertainty. As I followed the characters on their journey through a post-apocalyptic world, punctuated by lack of provision and potentially dangerous people, I sympathized with the father's fear as he tried to sustain his son's life despite the lack of any "long term goals".
On my reading, the backdrop of the ravaged world serves only to bring to narrow focus the relationship between father and son. There is danger and uncertainty but it is there to allow the protagonists to work through it. The reason for the danger and uncertainty is irrelevant. We do not know if there was war, natural disaster or aliens, but the characters are left in a diminished place and their relationship will be examined within it.
Preserving life because it is valuable, because "we carry the flame", seems to be the theme of this narrative. (I must note that a fellow reader did not agree with this assessment. A lively conversation ensued.) The father almost seems to trudge through this duty in a perfunctory fashion while his son serves as an exemplary agent in perpetuating life and grace to others. This is a curious and welcome change as the usual generational progression is from belief to assumption to rejection.
There seemed to be little redeeming quality to the narrative as their journey seemed, at times, pointless and only prolonging the inevitable but I, albeit against my fellow debator, feel the end of The Road points to the reason for traveling in the first place. Because of this I would recommend reading the narrative
As a recent father, it was easy for me to slip into the fear and uncertainty of the protagonist. It was worthwhile feeling those feelings in that dismal setting and walk through questions that only that backdrop would require. It is all the better because I can pull out of the book and be at home and happily realize I have no Road to walk down with my boy.