The Theme of Good and Evil in Cormac McCarthys the Road as It Compares to That of David Moodys Hater - Essay Example

Client’s The Theme of Good and Evil in Cormac McCarthy’s The Road as it Contrasts and Compares to that of DavidMoody’s Hater The theme of good and evil is a very old theme that can be seen in works of literature that date back to the first writings of human kind. The duality of what is good within human beings as it is contrasted by what is evil, as well as what is perceived as good and evil has been manifested and personified in literary works in order to better understand the external and the internal worlds. The novel Hater by David Moody takes the human tendencies towards violence and expands them into a world gone mad, allowing for the exploration of the darkest actions in contrast to intent and pointlessness. Sharing the same theme of the post-apocalyptic world, The Road by Cormac McCarthy looks at occurrences that happen on a journey across a torn world. This journey allows the reader to experience the good and the evil which has erupted in the aftermath of an unknown cataclysm that has destroyed the known culture, replacing it with chaos and despair. In examining the world post the existence of the known culture, both Hater and The Road examine the experience of evil and good as it manifests externally where survival becomes a more desperate motivation. Hater, written by David Moody, takes place in a world where people are suddenly expressing themselves in acts of violence that are seemingly unprovoked, yet influenced externally. The acts of violence allow the reader to both be engaged by the excitement and adrenaline rush that comes from experiencing fictionalized violence, but also by the exploration of human violence as an expression that most people hold in check. By exploring released violence that has no filter through which to be held back, the nature of human ‘evil’ is revealed in actions that seem random and meaningless for the aggression that results in pain and loss. The Road is a story of relationships as much as it is a story of good and evil. Written by Cormac McCarthy, it travels with a boy and his father as they journey through a world that has been destroyed, leaving behind beings that reflect what used to be the human existence. One of the strange and beautiful concepts of the movie is that of ‘the gift’ that the boy’s mother gave to them by committing suicide. The burden of her existence would not have benefitted them, it seems, and so she relieved them of her burden on their journey. The world has succumbed to a loss of vegetation and animals, thus food is scarce. Cannibalism is the way that many groups of people have chosen to survive, thus a gun with one bullet is in the possession of the man and boy and the father has told his son to use it if he is about to be captured. In both stories, the reactions to the new world order is how good and evil are determined. The people who give into the worst of what is left in the world are considered evil while those who maintain higher and more evolved morality are considered good. The idea that survival is the most important element to life defines those who are evil, while those who believe that the good is defined by sacrifice in the face of immoral behavior are the ones who are given the identity of ‘goodness’. As an example, the father and his boy are considered good because they have not fallen into cannibalism. Suicide is preferable to cannibalism or to being eaten by a cannibal. In Hater, the people are attacking, the reasons without reason and the effect having the appearance of madness. In a way, this might be seen as the first stage of the apocalypse, where the father and son are in the last days of human survival. The world still exists in a semblance of contemporary form, where in The Road, the world has deteriorated into complete decay. Good and evil are still blurred a bit in Hater, where in The Road, there seem to be clear definitions of what is good and what is evil. The common element that exists between good and evil is that of survival, but where evil believes that survival at all costs is the nature of life, good layers a higher purpose on survival and suggests that survival must be accomplished through a higher meaning or it is not worth having. Survival is considered on different levels of importance, for good not near reaching the level of importance that would allow for a compromise on moralistic choices. Those who choose survival at all costs are deemed evil, while those who consider it as the best case scenario when faced with choice are considered good. This can be seen through the examples of the types of people that are met along the journeys of each of the novels. The common element that defines good and evil, also unites the different sides as they struggle to create definitions for their behaviors as they strive towards existence. Roles and identity are the central methods of how good and evil are created within the stories. Hater is a term that is used to describe those who have fallen into violence against others. A social role has been created in which the actors within are stereotyped and formed into a social group so that they can be identified. Their aggressions are the framework within which they are identified. In The Road, social groups are specifically identified, even to the point where the father and son are identified as ‘the good guys’, where those who are involved in behaviors that are solely for survival and would be considered horrors in the contemporary world are considered evil. It is hard to argue as one of the scenes portrays an infant as it is roasted for the cannibals to eat. It is difficult to justify that kind of survival in terms of contemporary belief systems. However, this world has changed dramatically and the roles that groups have adapted are often outside of contemporary moral standards. Hater creates a moral dilemma as the reader begins to develop an understanding of the events as they relate to classic zombie type engagements between people. Those ‘infected’ by the hate that drives them to act are seen as out of control and no longer truly human. When one becomes a ‘hater’ one steps out of modern society and into a world that is mad and far more visceral. The world is defined by raw and uncontrolled emotion, something that some would consider evil. It is not survival alone that drives the ‘haters’ but it is raw and uncontrolled emotions. The division between haters and non-haters is defined by a genetic anomaly that has emerged, creating human beings that are both enhanced and more violent without a filter for their actions. In a twist that allows both types of human beings to be explored, the protagonist of the story becomes a hater as well as recognizing that one of his daughters has also been born with this gene. Unlike zombies, ‘haters’ are thoughtful about what they do, creating their chaos with purpose and meaning that does not appear until the protagonist begins to reveal how the haters feel superior. The world will change and only one formulation of human is destined to survive. In this world where morality has been stripped from humans and divisions between genetic ‘types’ has created oppositional dynamics between the two forms of humans, it is clear that only one will survive. This is less clear in The Road where the cannibals are seen as inferior and they appear to be the ones who will lose the world through the immoral behaviors that will plague their existence. The end promotes a sense of triumph as the boy finds ‘good guys’ who can help him to survive, bringing a sense of hope as the other children and himself are in the hands of someone who will take care of them. The shift towards a future through the transition away from his father who dies and towards new people that symbolize hope, this book suggests that the future will belong to the moral. This is not the case in Hater where the immoral appear to have the upper hand through intelligence and superior strength. McCarthy explores what it is to be the monster, how the human can shift into the mindset that allows them to commit horrors without remorse. Where in The Road the cannibals are removed and dehumanized so that their justification for why they behave in such a manner is not clearly given a voice. The need for survival is clearly not enough to justify the horrors of their actions, but the reasoning that they use to allow their moral filter to be turned off in this regard is never explored through a firsthand account. They are consistently viewed from an emotional and moralistic distance, thus providing a context in which to consider them ‘monster’ or no longer human. While the ‘haters’ are seen from the human perspective, it is interesting to see them from the perspective of a first person account of their behaviors and reasons. The humanity within them emerges, even as it becomes shrouded by less than human actions. One of the core devices that is used in both novels is that of a tension that is held tight so that the reader has the experience of feeling the fear that fills the protagonists. In the beginning of Hater when the protagonist is experiencing the events as a human, he becomes paranoid and lives in fear of leaving his home, holding his children in what he could only hope was safety within their home. The Road is similar as the book states “This was not a safe place. They could be seen from the road now it was day” (McCarthy 5). This tension that no place was safe was thick throughout the book, allowing the reader to feel the presence of evil that pulsed around the characters as they tried move through it. This sets the tone early in the book. Hater also sets a tone early in the book by describing a scene of madness. However, it is quickly contrasted by the description of the mundane existence of the protagonist. Moody writes “Sometimes having such a dull and monotonous job is an advantage. This stuff is way beneath me and I don’t really have to think about what I am doing” (Moody 4). While the tone is tense from the beginning in The Road, the tension builds in Hater, leaving the reader caught between the mundane and the horror as it rocks back and forth, edging closer to the madness that is consuming the world in the novel. The explorations that are taken by both writers are through the creation of dehumanized monsters that reveal the worst of human existence in contrast to that which represents the best in human existence. The father and son in The Road are consistent, creating a barometer against which the actions of all the other people and groups they run into on their journey are measured. The Road is a tale of moralism, the different contrasts within the story being held as a way to show what is and is not acceptable even when the world has been destroyed. Survival is held at different levels of experience, where some are held by standards while others are held by survival as the only and highest achievement that matters. The constant in Hater is not constant, the experience of the protagonist running the gamut from fear and isolation in an attempt to avoid what is feared, until he is freed and a part of the group that is deemed monster. With this shift the full experience of all involved in this apocalypse can be shared with the reader. The novels Hater and The Road are explorations of the idea of good and evil. Both writers use an apocalyptic backdrop in order to explore the nature of being human so that the meaning of survival can be measured for its association to good and evil. Roles emerge in which these explorations can take place so that who is evil and who is good is defined. The novels diverge at the idea of how a ‘monster’ is built, the novel Hater giving context to the meaning of the new morality that the protagonist embraces. As the moral dilemmas are examined it becomes revealed that the place that the concept of survival holds in the order of priority of actions is a part of how moral actions are judged. In the post-apocalyptic settings of these novels, the ideas of good and evil are explored through the actions of both the human and monster representations. Works Cited McCarthy, Cormac. The Road. New York: Vintage Books, 2006. Print. Moody, David. Hater: [a Novel]. New York: Thomas Dunne Books, 2010. Print. Read More