Key Episode 5- Getting to the shore

Key Episode 5- Getting to the shore

McCarthy captures the moment of devastation and disappointment for both the characters and the readers. They have just reached their final destination from their journey, which they have spent most of the novel trying to get to and when they arrive it is barren.  The idea of the coast being a way forward for them to survive could purely be seen as the man’s fantasy which he shared with the boy from his previous memories.  Instead of somewhere new and full of life, he presents his son with what has already been around him for his whole life.  However, their companionship is defined in this episode as the boy accepts the atmosphere around him. Although there is a “disappointment in his face” which echoes that this was his only hope, he covers up this disappointment and simply answers “its okay”. The word “okay” is used constantly throughout the novel in moments where they both need each other’s reassurance and the fact the boy uses it here could link to the idea that he is trying to help his father be relieved of the guilt he feels.   The father is portrayed as feeling guilty towards his son, “I’m sorry it’s not blue”; everything they have been working for and living for could have been in their reach finally but...in reality it doesn’t exist.  I think that there is an underlying element of the father worrying; he thought there would be more resources here than there is and this episode also links to lingering presence of death.  McCarthy may have chose to have the father’s death shortly after this scene as the shore is supposed to represent the end to the journey and the fathers journey was a pilgrimage to death which the boy had to take him on, hence why upon reaching the destination of the shore, he reaches his spiritual destination which is his relief of life. McCarthy throughout the novel provokes the reader into having the same mindset as the characters so upon reaching the shore, we have a slight expectation that something may naturally go wrong. 

The description of their journey as they are travelling towards the coast implies the idea of something hanging over them as it is getting “darker daily” and the “long days” impact the way they think as their actions are described as lists (they purely act to survive).   McCarthy explores different genres within different paragraphs, when he is describing the dead coming to life and how they “stained and rotted coffin floors” we see his interests to horror and gore. However within his next paragraph he methodically describes their mundane actions, “They stood in a grocery store...They’d tied a small length pipe to the can to sink it and they crouched over the tank like apes”.  The reference of “ape” could link to the idea of evolution and how humanity has continued to evolve into monsters therefore leading to their own destruction.  Time passes within a page as shown within the two sentences “they ate well” and “they ate sparingly” which displays their life is repetitive and is conveyed as monotonous. Although, overall , the shore  may be seen as a place of nature, protecting them from the evil and inhumanity (this is questioned within the thief episode)  the sinister tone McCarthy uses, leaves us wondering whether, as there is no life, even at the beach, “Cold. Desolate. Birdless” there is any beauty left in the world. Is the reference to the shore a symbol of their past life being washed away now they have reached here or a symbol to their last shreds of hope being taken away? The description as they approach the shore with the air changing and a feeling of “salt wind” creates an element of freedom within their grasp which contrasts to the reality of the “gray beach” and the “smog across the horizon”.  The similes used, “like the desolation of some alien sea” implies that the dullness of the sea is foreign to him from the image of the sea that he held in his mind as beautiful and blue.

I found the anti-climax of this scene surprising as although the whole novel is centered on this episode, it is very unsatisfactory. We, as readers, find that there is truly no escape from this world unless through death.  However, there still hangs an element of confusion as we are still left hoping something further would happen. We cling onto the last shred of hope like the characters do and through this simplistic and lighter chapter, we are allowed to reflect on their journey.  Just before this, McCarthy’s sentence of, “He knew that he was placing hopes where he’d no reason to” impacts the reader as they begin to feel sympathy towards the father. He is relying on one place to make his son safe that may not even exist. The idea of the boy holding “pieces of map” portrays that their journey is never certain and is fragmented, reflecting on their hope of finding somewhere safe compared to the reality around them. I liked the reference to “driftwood” as I think is symbolises something lost, like them.