Thomas Schaub "Secular Scripture and Cormac McCarthy's The Road"

Today in class most of us realized that this essay mainly focused on the idea of religion in The Road. I think that Schaub's essay best described the idea of religion in this particular novel, because it is not a normal type of religion. He clearly distinguished between what we believe and what the father and the son believe. In this post-apocalyptic world where everything is literally burning to ash, some might think that there would be no spirituality or morales, but yet there are "the good guys" like the father and the son who "carry the fire" and the bad guys, who have lost most humanistic qualities of life. The father and the son do not pray every night to a God, they simply just keep going and to do that they must have faith in something; in a new world or maybe in each other. So although this is not a type of religion we are most commonly associated with, this is the type that is present in the novel. As Schaub said, "the father's repeated assertion - that they are carrying the fire - is a strategy rather than a belief, a recourse to religious language and forms in the absence of any foundation for them in the world" (Schaub 161). They are living in a world of literally no foundation, it is completely falling apart, so because of this they become spiritual for many things, including each other. The relationship between the father and the son is a very dependent one. They both need each other; they were "each the other's world entire" (McCarthy 55). This may be a total stretch and Schaub does not come out and say it in his essay, but i see the boy as a symbol for Jesus. The christian belief is that Jesus will come at the end of the world to judge the living and bring those who deserve it into the Kingdom of Heaven. At this point in the story, the boy is living in a world that is almost over. It is almost dead. The father could symbolize God because "The God of the American Religion is an experiential God, so radically within our own being as to become a virtual identity" (161). This is very interesting because the father is a man that is very relatable to us. "If he were God he would have made the world just so and no different" (McCarthy 89). He has survivor instincts for himself and his son, and he stays the good guy. He has the will to keep moving on. In a world like the one they are in, that signifies a very strong man, like God is represented as; a strong man. The son is one of compassion, who helps almost every person he finds. There is a bible story about a beggar that Jesus healed. The son does this when he comes across a beggar on the road. Jesus is known for his compassion, while God is sometimes known for his wrath. The father must kill, or harm sometimes in order to keep them alive. Further into this idea, towards the end of the novel we start to see the boy become frustrated with his father. He always wants to help and sometimes they cannot. "You're not the one who has to worry about everything. 
The boy said something but he couldn't understand him. What? He said. 
He looked up, his wet and grimy face. Yes I am, he said. I am the one" (McCarthy 191). The boy has kept the responsibility of being in charge and he feels burdened. In the bible we never get the sense that Jesus felt burdened or obligated to do what he did, but he died for people that may not have deserved his life. He suffered many horrible things in order to save millions of people. Maybe this is McCarthy's view of some religions, Jesus was a normal "son." He had a family and a life, but he was something special just like the son in the novel, but that does not necessarily mean he accepted who he was at all times. These are just some of the ideas that the essay by Schaub made me think of. I have a lot more, but my blog would be way too long and very confusing with many different ideas!