“How Does The Never To Be Differ From What Never Was?” The Importance of Dreams and Memory in The Road

Thehaunting presence of memories and dreams from an unregenerate past society thoroughly permeate the action Cormac McCarthy’s vision post-apocalypse in The Road. Besides intention contrasting barrenness world that protagonists inhabit with livelyimagery old world, recollections invade father’s inner self provide a clash between personal collective narratives which push him to struggle for survivaland protect his son effort “carry fire” humanity. Parallelly, symbolism we encounterthroughout novel hold valuable clues can be accessed resolve ambiguous closure Inthefirst part this paper, Iwillrevisitthe field memory studies reveal importance holds as provider meaning life apocalypse. second article develops theory absolutely disregards any optimistic reading end novel, itpresents us possibility what read last pagesof bookconstitutes wish-fulfilment produced by boy’s dying dream. To investigatethis enticing was furthered Jacob M. Powning, I will assessthis hypothesis through lenses Psychoanalysis. interest psychoanalytic studies, fascination dream help develop pertinent proposition seeks ultimately enigmatic Deus Ex-Machina closes