The Road Rat

• Why does McCarthy describe the Road Rat in such detail? (p.65)

The Road Rat is described in such detail to reflect the horror of the character and the rest of the novel. The description of him is gratuitous and adds to the sense that his personality is excessively horrible. He's described as "lean, wiry, rachitic" and with eyes "like an animal", which gives the impression that the Road Rat isn't human, he's a creature. The humanity he may have once possessed has been replaced by a feral instinct. It can be argued that the reason the Road Rat is described in a detailed way is that he represent the brutality of the novel as a whole. The excessive description of him relates to the sheer horror of what happens in the novel.

• Why is the Road Rats character so explicit whilst the man is so implicit?

The Road Rat is explicit whilst the man is implicit to reflect the differences between the two. They are the two sides of humanity that have emerged in the post-apocalyptic world. The Road Rat epitomises the "bad guys" as he acts immorally and with no care for anyone else, which is shown when he tries to kill the boy. His explicit intentions convey the brutality of the horror within the novel. The man is implicit as he counters the Road Rat's behaviour with some form of moral code. He acts to save the boy, suggesting that he is one of the "good guys". He is understood from a moral perspective as although he shoots the Road Rat, he did it to save someone else.

• "A single round left in the revolver. You will not face the truth. You will not" Who is the man echoing here? How do you believe these words are uttered?

The man's thoughts echo the words of the woman, his wife. She said these things just before she killed herself. She believed he was selfish for wasting a bullet, and now he's shot the Road Rat, it could be seen that he's being even more selfish. The fact that there is only one bullet left means that he has to shoot the boy if the circumstances go beyond any hope, but the man still can't bring himself to do that. He's conflicted over his emotions and the right thing to do. The poignancy of what his wife said haunts him, to an extent, as he doesn't feel strong enough to kill his own son and save him from suffering.