The novel is constantly expressing how selfish human beings are. The death of the boy’s mother is a pure act of altruism. She was not thinking of those she was leaving behind and the damage that her death would cause. McCarthy uses the strangers in the novel to represent the evil behind the human race. It is what makes humans the most dangerous species. People have such a large survival instinct that they will do anything to perpetuate their lives. The father and son are constantly mentioning, “This is what the good guys do. They keep trying. They don’t give up.” (McCarthy, 1690) which shows the reader what he believes to be the heroes behind the story.
The truth is that everyone is his or her own good guy. All the survivors are trying to stay alive and will resort to different methods in order to succeed. There is no right or wrong way of surviving and the people who live on decide what is moral or immoral. Darwin mentions this with the “survival of the fittest” theory. Unfortunately that theory means that being nice will not count. All that matters is staying alive. What the child and the man are doing is staying alive while maintaining what little humanity they have within them.
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