The type of novel that The Road may be...

The Road is an American classic, this is evident through vocabulary features littered throughout. McCarthy refers to tarmac as ‘blacktop’ , viewed as ‘glasses’ and uses the American spelling of words such as ‘colour’ and ‘grey’. Moreover The Road is essentially about a journey from North to South with the belief that life will improve once the south is reached. The echoes the American idea that journeying from Eastern America to the West will increase the opportunities one has of improving their life. The Road is written in a post-modern style featuring a myriad of genres.

The story...

The Road begins with the man being revealed to be wearing 'robes'. The reader can infer from this that he is the King of a dead world as robes are most often associated with royalty. The man then dreams of  and hopes for death. He reveals that the boy is his only hope of taking him there as in his dream he "led him by the hand". In this dream the man also describes  "Tolling in the silence the minutes of the earth", this tolling is a reference to the chiming of bells upon a death. From the first sentence a key theme of death is described, it reveals to the reader that a main focus of the novel will be the road to death. The reader is able to guess that at some point the man will die, thus fulfilling his dream.

Themes...

Throughout The Road food is constantly mentioned, "Tomatoes,peaches,beans,apricots. Canned hams. Corned beef" This focus upon food takes something that much of modern society has disregarded and takes for granted and brings it and the struggle fro it to the center of his novel. Another theme within the novel is the theme of death. The man is shown to be completely desensitized to the idea and questions indirectly his ability to kill the boy if needs be. He refers to washing a "dead mans brain out of his [sons] hair" as simply his "job". This aspect goes some way to dehumanise the man which results in the reader being more able to empathise with the boy.

Characters and Relationships...

A small proportion of The Road is dialogue. This dialogue is extremely simple and often consists of monosyllabic responses,"Okay? Okay.". This highlights how ultimately the man must not be engaged with his son in order for his son to have the best chance at survival in this post-apocalyptic world. The boy asks the man if he had any friends and the man replies simply with "yes I did", this illustrates that the man is unable to have the relationship he wishes to have with his son as prior to the apocalypse the man had a lover and many friends yet he has to be cold towards his son to increase their chances of survival.Furthermore the anonymity of the characters shows that in a world that is purely about survival, names and identities are irrelevant, this separates the reader from the characters, especially the '"bad guys" and enables the vile actions such as rape and cannibalism to somehow be permitted without question.  The man and the boy are revealed to be the 'good guys' as they make light and fire, this symbolism is common thread within literature and most religions.

The way the story might be told....

The story is mainly told through long descriptive prose with intermittent analepsis and dialogue. This makes the reader feel as if somehow they too are embarking upon the long journey south on 'the road'. The long descriptive passages enable the reader to visualise and truly understand the way that the world has become and how it is 'every man for himself'.