By Marissa Huggins, V Form

Female Value: Dead in the Ashes of McCarthy’s The Road

In a post-apocalyptic world, the way of survival is quite literally “every man for himself.” The few humans that survive the apocalypse are forced back to their primitive states of being and live in constant fear of death. Some survivors, known as “the bad guys,” change their perception of human life and become morally limitless with their methods of survival. The “bad guys” either kill or capture people, depending on the perceived threat or benefit. Thus, the post-apocalyptic world’s culture is one where everyone’s purpose is to sustain his or her own life. Unlike most of the survivors in McCarthy’s The Road, the father and son have a co-dependent relationship that often promotes their survival. While the father may have been upset that his wife killed herself, his wife was wise to end her life and escape her life of imprisonment. (more…)