Getting to the shore (pp.227-230)

There is a great build up to reaching the shore as the man has placed all of the boy’s hopes in getting to the beach as he promises something that cannot be offered on the road. This is the promise of something new, unique and most importantly something ‘blue’, to separate it from the current world. McCarthy has made it so all of their supplies run out on approach to the shore ‘they’d almost nothing left’, encouraging the reader to hope for this something, to believe that the coast will offer them some sort of life line.  

The final approach to the coast is of great disappointment felt by the reader and characters, ‘vast and cold’ is the description given to the ocean,  which is the general view point on the entire world as it offers nothing new. This diminishes the tension at the very prospect of a new life for the man and boy. As everything will remain the same; much like the constant scenery of the world around them.  It stands out in the novel as it the moment their entire journey has aspired to, there is no purpose after the coast, it was their only aim as it offered false hope; encouraged by the man.

This shows the maturity of the boy as even though he was lead to believe that the sea was in fact blue, and there would be something there, he quickly releases his father from his guilt as he finally understands that there is nothing else that the earth can offer. The man realises at this point that there is no use in feeding him information of the lost world as it is one he will never be given the chance to experience. This makes the man more of a risk taker as there is nothing to fight for anymore, as they sit ‘with their heels dug in the sand’ out in the open for anyone to see, this shows their lack of will to stay alive for much longer as they both know their deaths are inevitable.

The sea was supposed to be a symbol of life as it was remembered as an abundant life giving source, it stood out from the rest of the world as it was vast but beautiful and blue. When the reach the shore they find a slow ‘gray’ body of water coated in a sheen of ash much like everywhere else. There is also a trail animal bones suggesting that it has no more to give, this for the man really symbolises the end as all life comes from the sea. ‘Cold. Desolate. Birdless.’ Is what is used as a summary of the scene. It referrers to the beginning of the novel ‘barren, silent, godless’ the description of the shore is more final and lets the reader realise that the entire planet is the same.