Hopeful Hell: The Search for Hope in a Post-Apocalyptic World Essay

Death and destruction are the epitome of a doom humanity. Everything is destroyed and murders march the streets at night. Hell on earth is a gentle description. Cormac McCarthys speculation of the end of the world, however, ensures that evil is not victorious. The biblical allusions Cormac McCarthy addresses in The Road illuminate a sense of hope in a bleak, empty world.Despite a grim first impression, the repetitive imaginativeness of modify represents hope according to symbolism found in the Bible. alter becomes a natural setting, described end-to-end the whole book, with a apparently melancholy mood. McCarthy introduces modify within the first pages Everything paling away into the murk. The muted ash blowing in loose swirls over the blacktop (McCarthy 4). Normally, the connotations of ash take a shit a dark gloomy atmosphere. McCarthys intentional diction in this passage, however, occasion an opposing mood. The phrases soft ash and loose swirls create a relaxed image, allowing the ash to be interpreted in a hopeful manner. This hopefulness is enforced by the symbolism of ash in the Bible. After Adam and Eve commit the first sin, God warns them of his power, For dust you are and to dust you will supply (Genesis 319). First of all, this verse exemplifies the great power of God. He created the building complex human body out of mere dust. In relation to The Road, the ash represents the presence of a great power. This brings hope to the father and the son, knowing that the force to create something out of the ash exists.Similarly, the concept of fire found throughout the novel, although serving as a representation of destruction, sheds light on the profound theme of hope. We are led to believe, through various descriptions, that the world w... ... describes the world as a puzzle to be solved. The answer is not easily deciphered, but rather is a learning experience. Secondly, the thing which could not be put back is the customs of the old world. The images of the old world and their meanings meld away, as the world fades away itself (Schaub). These things cannot be made right over again. The meaning of the world is not gone. It just changed (Kunsa). The world is left with a hum of mystery, a place full of possibility and potential. This pull round paragraph brings hope to the future tense, and promises for a better world.Through many biblical allusions, the father and the son experience the affects of hope. Despite the destroyed world, they come in concert to survive the post apocalyptic world. The good guys bring hope for the future and for the defeat of evil. Promise and prospect will guide the new, hopeful world.