The Road Study Guide

McCarthy was born as one of six children, and he grew up in Knoxville, Tennessee, where his father worked as a lawyer. McCarthy pursued creative writing at the University of Tennessee, but he never graduated. He has been married three times, to Lee Holleman, Annie DeLisle, and Jennifer Winkley, and has two children. He moved to Santa Fe with Winkley to raise his young son John Francis. McCarthy’s first novel, The Orchard Keeper, was published in 1965. Overall he has written ten novels and is now one of the best known contemporary American writers, but McCarthy remains a reclusive figure. He was awarded the MacArthur Fellowship in 1981, the National Book Award in 1992, and the Pulitzer Prize (for The Road) in 2006. Several of his books have been made into feature films, including No Country For Old Men. McCarthy still lives and writes in Santa Fe.

The Road takes place in a hypothetical post-apocalyptic world, but the disaster leading to civilization’s collapse is never explained in the novel. Members of the environmentalist movement have claimed The Road as a valuable tool in warning about the dangers of pollution and climate change, especially the fact that without plants and animals, humans will inevitably die off too. Several churches have also embraced the Christian and religious themes in the novel.

McCarthy’s works span several genres and often cannot be categorized, but some are considered Westerns, thrillers, or science-fiction. McCarthy’s earlier, “Southern Gothic” works were influenced by William Faulkner, the author of The Sound and the Fury and As I Lay Dying. McCarthy has also been influenced by Herman Melville, the author of Moby Dick. Other post-apocalyptic literature includes Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale, Stephen King’s The Stand, and Mary Shelley’s The Last Man.