The Road to Despair : Hope and hopelessness in the post-apocalyptic setting

Sammanfattning: This essay deals with the attitude relating to the portrayal of hopelessness in The Road, by Cormac McCarthy (2006), and to the post-apocalyptic setting in general. Considering how the seemingly meaningless events portrayed in The Road can be related to the traditional Christian apocalypse, and whether it upholds or discards the values found therein is examined in the essay. Furthermore, after a lengthy analysis of how hope may not be so absent as one might believe at first glance when introduced to such a grim setting, the specificity of the place of The Road and its setting in the post-apocalyptic genre becomes the final part of the essay.