Memory

Memory is an image being used frequently throughout the book because memory is all they have. After the apocalypse, nothing is the same. As far as the son and father know, they are a couple of the few people that survived out of millions. In all memories, they are told in detail. The setting is described in such detail that you are able to picture it exactly as described. The boy, on the other hand, does not have the memories like his father. He was born into the post apocalyptic world and his only memories are ones that you would like to forget. 

The world that McCarthy has made in The Road shows no evidence of the United States ever existing. In one passage, we do get a minor detail in location, Rock City, which is in Tennessee. Other than this location, their is no description of the setting. In every descriptive setting, everything is described to be covered in ash, cold and grey. "The City was mostly burned.No sign of life. Cars in the street caked with ash, everything covered with ash and dust. Fossil tracks in the dried sludge. A corpse in the doorway dried to leather" (12). I think this passage captures the scene most vividly because they now live in a world where this is the norm. if they saw a clean house or street, they may be worried to be there because that means somebody also struggling to survive is there. 

The dad grew up in a different world than his son. When his wife took her life, he easily could have taken his own. Instead, he created his own world revolving around his son. He is showing his son how to survive and never gives up and takes their lives.

The son grew up in a world of death, his mother took her own life and wants to be with her. Though the dad is trying to create a world of survival for them, all the son can think about is death.