What's Going On?

Ok, so I was in my house reading The Road by Cormac McCarthy and I honestly had a lot of questions about what was going on. What could have possibly happened to the world that might have led to the father and son having to fend for themselves in such a hostile environment? Where was the mother of the son? Why are they running away from something if everything appears to have died?

As I was reading I came to a specifically useful part that, with the help of those "how to read" tips that we learned from that guy in the video, allowed for me to answer many of the questions I had. I am talking about the conversation that the father and the mother of the son had on pages 55- 58.

I am sort of assuming most of the following information based on what I understood from the passage, I am not saying it is 100& accurate...

• Woman, Man, and Child were survivors of some cataclysmic event on Earth

"We're survivors he told her across the flame of the lamp.

Survivors? she said.

Yes.

What in God's name are you talking about? We're not survivors. We're the walking dead in a horror film" (pg 55)

• Woman suicides because loses faith in her existence (most likely shot herself with the pistol)

"We used to talk about death, she said. We don't any more. Why is that?

I don't know

It's because it's already here. There's nothing left to talk about.

I wouldn't leave you.

I don't care. It's meaningless. You can think of me as a faithless slut if you like. I've taken a new lover. He can give me what you cannot. Death is not a lover

Oh yes he is

Please don't do this

Im sorry" (pg 56-57)

• There are other survivors that would "rape, kill, then eat" the Man, Woman, and Child (maybe zombies?)

"Sooner or later they will catch us and kill us. They will rape me. They'll rape him. They are going to rape us and kill us and eat us and you won't face it..." (pg 56)

• The Child was not wanted by mother

"My heart was ripped out of me the night he was born so don't ask for sorrow now. There is none. Maybe you'll be good at this. I doubt it, but who knows" (pg 57)