If feminism is about civil rights, human rights, children's rights and the search for peace, then it is clear that a substantial amount of the descriptive narrative in the Road is clearly anti-feminine. This has nothing to do with gender rights, and everything to do with the rights of all humans to live in dignity and be allowed "...life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness." The nights, McCarthy writes on page 129, were "...blinding cold and casket black and the long reach of the morning had a terrible silence to it. Like a dawn before battle." The feminist world is not a cold world at all and children are sheltered from suffering; death is not supposed to come to young and middle aged people and mornings are not silent. Mornings are supposed to be filled with the joyful sound of songbirds and the happy shrieks of children, and there is not battle brewing in a feminist or mother's world. The only battle should be the mom trying to get the son to clean up his plate and pick up his toys before going outside to play.

When finally dad and son arrive at the coast, which their whole long dangerous journey was pointed to - father told his son many times things would be better when they get to the ocean - things were not any better there. "They trekked along the crescent sweep of beach" and witnessed "...the bones of seabirds. At the tide line a woven mat of weeds and the ribs of fishes in their...

222). And in the end, on page 278, the tables turn as father is about to die and the son is less than truthful. "You're going to be okay, Papa. You have to." "No I'm not," said the father. Then the son says, "You said you wouldn't ever leave me." "I know. I'm sorry," Dad answers. Still, he promises that the boy can still talk to him after he (the father) is gone. "You can talk to me and I'll talk to you. You'll see." "Will I hear you?" The boy asks. "Yes. Yes you will," the father replies. And like a mother's sweet reassurance and honesty to her little boy, the father wisely adds. "You have to make it like talk that you imagine. And you'll hear me. You have to practice. Just don't give up. Okay?" "Okay," the boy answers.
Works Cited

Flack, Jessica. "Conflict and Creativity." Santa Fe Institute. Retrieved June 7, 2007, from Oprah's Book Club, http://www.oprah.com/obc_classic/featbook/road/future/road_future_main.jhtml.

McCarthy, Cormac. The Road. New York: Vintage International, 2006.

Richards, Amy. "What is Feminism?" The University of Oklahoma. Retrieved June 7, 2007, at http://www.ou.edu/womensoc/feminismwomanism.htm.

Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. "Topics in Feminism." Retrieved June 6, 2007, at http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/feminism-topics/.