The Road, Reading Blog #4 - Never Say Always

So there aren't any words in The Road, so far, that I've needed to define -- but there are many words that I think should be carefully defined, both in terms of the story and outside of it.

"Always" is one of those words. It doesn't come up often, because for the characters there are so few things that they can take for granted. They are going south -- they are always going south. And they are the good guys -- they "always will be" the good guys (77). But what does that mean? Nothing in their world is always there. They are mortal, and the man frequently plans for death, so they will not always be anything. And certainly, they cannot always be "good", whatever that means (but let's set aside that definition for another time). In their world, always, for all its lasting connotations, is firmly temporary. But they use it, and the boy uses it, nevertheless. Perhaps they are simply used to saying it, accustomed to the idea of forever. But I think they know how empty this statement is. I think they know that forever is a thing of the past, but cannot bring themselves to say it out loud. Because we, as people, want the assurance that things can last, and nowhere is this more important than in a world of transience.

Still, the characters in this story are not the first to use always without meaning it. We use it all the time, whether promising eternal love, or eternal faith, or simply eternal existence. We are such liars.