Narrative Closure and Genre Expectations in Cormac McCarthy's The Road

Abstract

This paper reconsiders the problematic ending of Cormac McCarthy's 2006 novel The Road. The novel has two endings. The second ending is a short paragraph which is antithetical in tone and perspective to the first ending of the novel. Although much critical debate and speculation ensued over this aspect of The Road, no conclusive or satisfactory interpretations were advanced up to now. The current study starts with the violation of the generic conventions this second conclusion brings to argue that this ending provides a new sense of closure to the subversive narrative McCarthy constructed in this novel. This generic rift is read as a result of reversal of the postapocalyptic classic ending with a new beginning. The second conclusion reverse ne beginnings with archival ending in the sense that Jacque Derrida formulated in his latest work Archive Fever.