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Foil
Explanation and Analysis—Man vs. Son:
The two main characters in The Road make up the novel’s primary foil. As family turned traveling companions, the man and boy embody different attitudes towards survival. The novel sets up an opposition between the man’s resourcefulness and the son’s innocence in ways that sometimes lead to conflict. When they ransack an emptied house, the man lashes out at his son after refusing to help the dog and runaway boy. “Do you want to die?” he asks. “Is that what you want?”
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Pages 29-60
Explanation and Analysis—Husband vs. Wife:
The man’s relationship to his wife is a pale shadow of the father-son dynamic that dominates The Road, but it presents a character foil of its own. In its contrast of the woman’s suicide with the man’s dogged survival, this husband-wife foil explores the differences between purpose and meaninglessness. In the wake of apocalypse, the man and his wife act out different responses to despair.
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