Domestic spaces in unhomely places : Oikos and ethics in McCarthy’s the Road

Abstract

Spatially, Cormac McCarthy‟s The Road is starkly simple. Although the basic schema permits many variations, I would argue that there are qualitatively only three spaces in the entire novel. These are the road itself, the sea, and chanced-upon, variously manifested domestic space. These closely interdependent spaces structure the narrative and allow for the staging of an exploration of memory and childhood, as well as providing the context for a compelling but never fully articulated ethical demand to emerge. The road is a threateningly exposed and entirely desperate place that offers no refuge or sustenance. Roving gangs of half-starved cannibals travel the road, as does their food, the last remaining, pitiful detritus of humanity, aimlessly and hopelessly wandering. Chronotopically, the road exists in the pitiless zero hour of a present bereft of past and future [there is no past, 55; the hour. There is no later. This is later, 56].