Theme Connection Map

The Road by Cormac McCarthy

This diagram shows how we decoded the theme of dreams in The Road, by Cormac McCarthy. We found quotes about dreams, whether they are references or direct quotes from dreams experienced by the characters. By looking at thematic textual evidence and finding similarities and differences between the quotes, we were able to build a mind map that shows the connections between these scenes and references, and come to our own conclusions through analysis. The black cloud-like shapes contain our quotes, which branch off from labels categorizing the dreams, or mention of them, in The Road. Closer to the center are general themes of these dreams that are easy to understand from a reader’s perspective. Using this organizational structure, we can analyze a category in relation to the theme of dreams in the text: The boy’s dreams act as foreshadowing moments that will appear in the dystopian world we see in McCarthy’s novel.

From the way we’ve organized our map, you can trace one single quote from the outside in, to see which ideas and categories it symbolizes and falls under. For example, “Rich dreams now which he was loath to wake from. Things no longer known in the world […] Memory of her crossing the lawn toward the house in the early morning with a thin rose gown that clung to her breasts”(131) is a quote that falls under the often-recurring dreams of the man’s wife, which we’ve placed under the general theme of his old life and the world before the dystopia we see in the book, all within the mention of dreams that often occurs in The Road.

This organization system has allowed us to find common themes in dreams with each character: we’ve noted that the boy’s dreams are most closely associated with complacency and helplessness, and that the man’s dreams of his wife are often colorful, which is a motif closely associated with death. When the man lectures his son on dreams, he is most often foreshadowing later events in the book, such as his own death, or giving up and surrendering to your dreams, an idea also closely linked to death. Lastly, any dreams having to do with monsters or beings of any sort explore the symbol of blindness, which has biblical connections we don’t go into here.