Humanity vs. Survival

When both, the father and son, enter to what used to be his house, Mccarthy rapidly responds with letting us know that the father had a childhood in this house, and the memories flying through the fathers mind. His childhood wasnt exactly the colorful and happy that we see in movies or in other books, it was the cause of the present, of the future that he is going through with his son. He starts wondering what is his real destiny or goal in life. And does he really have one? "He thought that in the history of the world it might even be that there was more punishment than crime but he took small comfort from it." (33)

When they leave the waterfall, they find this trailer in which seems to be abandoned. The father and son decide to sleep there for the night. Lucky, in having a place to sleep, the father decides to light a fire, when suddenly they realize that they are surrounded with dead bodies,"Human bodies. Sprawled in every attitude. Dried and shrunken in their rotted clothes. The small wad of burning paper drew down to a wisp of flame and then died out leaving a faint pattern for just a moment in the incandescence like the shape of a flower, a molten rose. Then all was dark again.My attention immediatley turns to the son, and I start to realize that this kid has gone through so much, that who knows what he thinks about humanity, or what he goes through when he sees a dead body. His sense and perspective about human life must be all over the place without knowing what to feel or say when he is confronted with a dead body.