Father

The story begins with a man waking up in the dark; the first thing he does is to touch the kid besides him who is his son. He is checking if everything is alright with his son. During the journey that they take, the father always puts the safety of his son as top priority. Also, he listens to his son and tries to satisfy him with what he wants. This reminded me of the movie The Pursuit of Happiness which is also about a father and a son who go through tough situations.

The father in The Road always tries to be a good dad for his son. He thinks it’s his job to keep his son safe. He tries to entertain his child by swimming with him in a valley and reading him books when they don’t really have the time for them. What is interesting between the father and the son is their conversation. During their journey, they don’t have much conversation and when they do they are very short. Considering how much they talk, it may seem like they don’t have a good relation. However, whenever they do talk one can easily notice how careful the father is treating the son. When they meet the old guy whose face was burnt on the road, the father is determined about the fact that they can not help the guy but he tries to explain it nicely to the kid so that he may accept it. Also, he is very honest with his son and he makes sure that the son doesn’t think of something wrong happening to them. He constantly tells him that “we (they)’re not going to die” (p. 100)

The father has a similar attitude towards his son with the father from The Pursuit of Happiness. Chris Gardner is a struggling salesman who lives with his son. Even though they are homeless Chris never gives up on living with his son when it’s not really clear if he could take good care of him. He tries hard to maintain the family because “I(he) made up my(his) mind that when I(he) had children, my(his) children were going to know who their father was.” He wants to teach his son well so that he could have a better life.

Both the fathers try their best to take care of their son because they are the only ones who can do that for their sons. They don’t really express how much they love and care about their son but it is shown in their behavior. I suppose that is the way a father loves his son.