The theft of the man and boy's belongings (pp. 270-278)

When the man finds the boot prints in the sand he turns to god ‘oh Christ’ despite the world being described as ‘godless’, when they return to find everything gone within such a short amount of time it could reflect on the length of time taken for the world to turn.  The man says ‘they took everything’ which is not true because he still has the boy, so it implies that the thief took their life line, the only thing separating them from death.  The man is unsympathetic towards the boys distress ‘stop crying’ shows how little he has in the way of paternal instinct, as it has been replaced with basic instinct.

There is confusion for the first time on whether they would kill a man because they are supposed to be the ‘good guys’ and killing for gain is surely the trait of ‘bad guys’. When they catch up with the thief he shows how little there is in the world as there is no way for him to win his life but he refuses to back down ‘but he didn’t drop the knife’. There is also the first mentioning of communities ‘an outcast from one of the communes’ and his punishment indicates he was a thief within this community.

The fathers threat ‘I’m going to blow your brains out’ can be taken seriously be the reader as he killed the man who tried to kill the boy. It is only the boys good will that saves the stranger ‘papa please’ the father however abuses his power over the man and forces him to strip this act means certain death for the thief as he has no food and no way of keeping warm. This makes the reader question the father’s intentions and whether or not he is becoming a product of his environment.

The boy shows his innocence as the act he just witnessed became too much for him and he just sits in the road ‘sobbing’.  And he pleas to his father to ‘help him’ despite the fact that this man left them for dead, this causes the man to give in to the boy and he finally realises how much the boy influences and protects them ‘I am the one’. The boy is very insightful and truthful this could be to build a contrast against the world they live in as he fully understands the consequences of their actions ‘but we did kill him’.  This saddens the feel of the episode as it shows just how fast the boy has had to grow up mentally to cope with the horrors surrounding them.

The fire they light is small and damp, this could a reflection on their efforts to ‘carry the fire’ as they have lost their reasons for travelling down the road and they have lost themselves to it.