The Road pages 31-53

Parallel: In the last section that we read. The boy asked his dad if he can tell him stories sometimes. Our class then discussed what stories the dad would tell. we talked about stories that we knew from our childhood; Hanzel and Gretle, The Little Engine that Could, Peter Pan. In the middle paragraph on page 41, the dad talks about how he told his son stories "Old stories of courage and justice". 

Contrast: The first full line on page 42 I thought was a contrast because of the metaphor. "Reflecting back the sun deep in the darkness like a flash of knives in a cave". I thought that this sentence was a contrast because it starts off with what you would imagine something being bright and beautiful but ends with a darkness. I imagine a sun setting and how right before it sets completely, it is a deep orange; and I consider that beautiful to watch. With the sentence ending "like a flash of knives in a cave", I then think about death and how they claim you go towards the light when you are dying. 

Questions: 

I was wondering if we ever find out the boys age because on page 39, the son and father are in the water and the father has to carry him because he is to young to know how to swim (I am assuming). 

I was also wondering what the government/USA was like before the apocalypse. On page 43, the father and son have a conversation about state roads and how the state used to own them. They mention that there are no more states and they don't know what happened to them.