The Road

We finished reading the road tonight. It ended on an image of mountain trout. Fish that had the history of the world marked on their backs, including the tiny portion that included man. The boy does not represent God, he represents hope, innocent hope. That is why the man continued, to save the boy, to save hope. Without hope for something better or something more then life is extremely difficult to live. Everyone hopes for something more, something better, something to stay the same. The woman had lost hope and she couldn't continue living.

The writing was so beautifully raw. The dialogue consisted of one or two word mutterings back and forth - lots of "okay" and "i don't know". It was conversations of two real people, the bulk of the dialogue being left in the spaces around the words, the things not said. The image of the road - always present and always leading them on. The idea that they had to keep going as long as the road kept going, as long as hope kept going.