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Chapter 8
Themes
and Colors
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Road to Winter, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Surviving vs. Living
Trust
Trauma, Repression, and Communication
Family
Exploitation and Abuse
Summary
Analysis
Finn rides up to the hayshed with the Wilders’s fuel and is about to set it on fire when he has another idea. Ramage will likely come to investigate the fire, so Finn sets up a wire in the road that will knock Ramage off his trailbike and ideally injure him. When the sun comes up, Finn sets the fire, and, as expected, Ramage is the first to arrive. He hits the wire Finn set and falls off his bike. Finn holds a knife to Ramage’s throat, but he can’t bear to kill him. Instead, he cuts the back of Ramage’s hand, in the same place where Rose’s hand is cut.
Finn, the protagonist, finally comes face to face with Ramage, the antagonist. Finn’s heroic qualities are on full display: he acts with courage, he is quick-thinking, and he demonstrates his moral superiority. He has the opportunity to kill Ramage, but he resists the urge. Finn intuitively grasps that killing Ramage, especially when the man is defenseless, would make him just as corrupt as the Wilders.
Active
Themes
Finn retrieves his bike and pretends to call to Rose so that Ramage will think she is with him; then he rides out of town. Once he has traveled for a while, he allows himself to stop and eat before making a steep climb up to Pinchgut Junction. After he resumes the climb, it soon becomes too steep to ride, so he abandons his bike and continues on foot. As he walks, Finn realizes he has no idea how to find Kas, but he hopes that Kas might be on the lookout for Rose somewhere along the road. Once night falls, Finn goes off the road and sleeps in some brush.
Active
Themes
