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| You need to go on, he said. I cant go with you. You need to keep going. You don’t know what might be down the road. We were always lucky. You’ll be lucky again. You’ll see. Just go. It’s all right. |
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| From the road, spoken by the man to the boy as he's dying in the middle of the road. It is significant inherently for one because these are the mans last words. But in a broader sense they are significant because they instruct and give the boy a reason to go on when he seems hope is gone, as well as show the man as being true to himself. The man always viewed the boy as something sacred, and by telling him to go on down the road, despite his better judgement, is true to his character. And then these beliefs are reaffirmed when the family of "good guys" appears to rescue him. |
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| You're not the one who has to worry about everything. The boy said something but he couldnt understand him. What? he said. He looked up, his wet and grimy face. Yes I am, he said. I am the one. |
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| A conversation from the road between the man and the boy, the significance of this brief conversation lies in the boys self aware reference to his sacredness (a topic touched upon indirectly throughout the text). Here his brief statement in a way makes us look differently at the relationship between the man and the boy, and who is really the leader on their journey. Though the boy is in many ways dependent on his father, the boy is the spiritual leader, and as we see throughout the text, the boy can live without the man, but not the other way around. It also reveals the great responsibility put on the boys shoulders, and the sparse syntax makes the statement far more powerful. |
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| Then he turned down the lamp until the flame puttered out and he kissed the boy and crawled into the other bunk under the clean blankets and gazed one more time at this tiny paradise trembling in the orange light from the heater and then he fell asleep. |
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| Spoken by the narrator in regards to the mans actions at night in the bunker before sleep, the significance is in the narrators depiction of the bunker. He describes it as a "paradise," although through his description of the rooms light sources, the extinguished flame and "trembling orange light," he is acknowledging that he cannot stay in this paradise because it is, in a way, a hell (it's also underground). It reminds him of the pre-apocalyptic world he's already forgetting, and the world the boy really never knew. |
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| I couldn’t trust you with it. To do something with it. I don’t want anybody talking about me. To say where I was or what I said when I was there. I mean, you could talk about me maybe. But nobody could say that it was me. I could be anybody. I think in times like these the less said the better. |
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| This is a quote spoken by Ely, the only named character in the road, to the man and the boy, after he admits that the name he's given is in fact false. His statement here is evidence of the lonliness and forced anonymity of the road. Because it is true, without his name, or even with it, chances are nobody will know who Ely is. What he says is also significant because it displays his, and to a certain extent the mans lack of trust in people in general, a trait uniquely absent in the boy, as evidenced by his offering to stop and help Ely, giving him food. This lack of trust, which is shared by the father is indicative of the notion that Ely is who the man would be if it were not for the existence of his son |
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| He held the boy’s hand and they crossed the porch. Chattel slaves had once trod those boards bearing food and drink on silver trays. They went to the window and looked in. |
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| Lines spoken by the narrator about the man and the boy, they are significant because they make note of the pre-apocolyptic world, but do so in a way that makes it seem as though it may as well have never existed. There is also a kind of implied parallel in the example about the slaves the narrator gives, implying the two situations aren't as different as you might think. |
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| I'll bet that boy is hungry. Why dont you all just come on to the truck? Get something to eat. Aint no need to be such a hard-ass. |
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| This quote, spoken by one of the truck people to the man, is an attempt to kidnap the man and the boy and eat them. The statement by the truck person is an obvious lie, one which is recognized clearly by the man, in large part because he does not trust him. But the real significance lies in how the statement makes you look at the relationship between the man and the boy. The boy depends on the man for most things, and therefore must trust him, but the man does not tell the truth all the time, and admits it. When the boy asks if his father would be honest about if they were going to die, he says he might not be. This leaves the boy as the only truly honest character in the text, which gives him unique status and meaning. |
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| I'll bet that boy is hungry. Why dont you all just come on to the truck? Get something to eat. Aint no need to be such a hard-ass. |
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| This quote, spoken by one of the truck people to the man, is an attempt to kidnap the man and the boy and eat them. The statement by the truck person is an obvious lie, one which is recognized clearly by the man, in large part because he does not trust him. But the real significance lies in how the statement makes you look at the relationship between the man and the boy. The boy depends on the man for most things, and therefore must trust him, but the man does not tell the truth all the time, and admits it. When the boy asks if his father would be honest about if they were going to die, he says he might not be. This leaves the boy as the only truly honest character in the text, which gives him unique status and meaning. |
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| He watched him stoke the flames. God’s own firedrake. The sparks rushed upward and died in the starless dark. Not all dying words are true and this blessing is no less real for being shorn of its ground. |
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| This is the narrator speaking about the boy watching the man and the fire he's made. Like in many other parts of the book, fire here is depicted as both a necessity in real life, (in this particular example, one being extinguished) and as an important metaphor for the man and the boys precarious journey down the road, which could be extinguished at any moment. |
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For the love of God, woman. What am I to tell him? I cant help you. Where are you going to go? You cant even see. I dont have to.
He stood up. I'm begging you, he said. No. I will not. I cannot. |
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| This is a conversation between the man and the woman, set in the pre-apocalyptic time. The woman is telling the man she is going to kill herself, as he is futilely attempting to get her not to, using their son as a possible reason for her not to give up. This is highly significant for a few reasons. One, it sets up the two options the man and the boy have in the post-apocalyptic world, to either keep on going, "carrying the fire," or to, as the boy sometimes requests, "go see mom." It is also one of the only looks the reader has into a non apocalyptic setting, which is very important when trying to understand the man and the boy, and the motivations for their actions. |
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| My brother at last. The reptilian calculations in those cold and shifting eyes. The grey and rotting teeth. Claggy with human flesh. Who made of the world a lie with every word. |
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| This quote, by the man in reference to one of the cannibalistic "bad guys," is significant for a few reasons. For one, the man acknowledges the distant, pre-apocalyptic connection between himself and the cannibal in front of him, which is a very rare acknowledgement indeed, considering the man almost always has to live in the now of this now dead world. Additionally, as evidenced in the last line, this cannibal man stands as a threat to the simple world the father is trying to create out of nothing for his son. The notion that the real world for them is made up mostly of people like this disgusts him, hence the graphic description of the cannibal in the middle. |
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| The description of Lucifer, by Dante and Virgil in the Inferno, is from the outset significant because it is a description of the absolute lowest point in hell. The character they are describing alone (lucifer) makes the statement significant. But apart from that, it is meaningful because of the nature of his punishment, the ultimate example of contrapasso. He is a perverse mimicry of God, forever crying and flapping his many wings, further imprisoning him in the ice that is his home for eternity. (also he's chewing on judas and brutus the whole time) |
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| Dante's reaction to seeing Lucifer |
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| Dante's reaction to lucifer is essentially being in a kind of disgusted awe at Lucifers ugliness and pitiful existence. The significance is that it's the epitome of what Dante has been doing the entire text, speaking in paradox, and here when confronted with Lucifer, he attempts to describe what he admits is indescribable. |
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| This speech, spoken by Ugolino to Dante, is ostensibly significant because it is the single longest speech of any sinner in hell. He tells of how he was betrayed by Ruggieri, who locked him and his children in a tower to starve, and then mad with hunger and grief at his children dieing, (and asking to be eaten so their father doesn't die) he does eat them. It's significant because it's clear that Ugolino is meant to receive far more pity, and in hell he is forever eating Ruggieri, but they are still both in the same hell. For Dante, this was the real image of hell. |
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| This speech by Ulysses in the Inferno is among the longest in the text. Ulysses tells of how after returning home from his famed journey, he set out again to find what was west of the mediterranean, seeking new knowledge beyond that of people. He saw a mountain, (which was purgatory) and then a storm hit and he died. The significance in all this is that it makes Dante realize some of the errors of his ways, and worries that perhaps the beauty of his prose would convince people to sin. Ulysses story is meant to be a parallel to Dante's. |
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