Although there are no direct references to religion in
this devastating novel which paints such a bleak picture of our future, there are plenty
of references to belief and faith, and images with religious overtones are used. Perhaps
one of the most notable comes at the end of the novel, when the father, who is clearly
dying, leaves his son with a powerful legacy. Note the somewhat bizarre absence of
apostrophes to indicate contraction in some words:
I want to be with
you.
You
cant.
Please.
You cant. You
have to carry the fire.
I dont know how
to.
Yes you do.
Is it real?
The fire?
Yes it is.
Where is
it? I dont know where it is.
Yes you do. It's inside you.
It was always there. I can see
it.
References to the "fire"
that is "inside" of us surely can be seen as a thinly-veiled allusion to faith in some
sort of hopeful future in an otherwise terrifying world which gives such little
assurance of any kind of future whatsoever. The ending indicates the strength of such
beliefs, as the boy finds a family to take him in and look after him, and to give him
the future that his father sacrificed everything for his son could
have.
Other references to spirituality and faith concern
the boy's belief in the goodness of people and the way that he acts as a moral check on
his father, preventing him from forgetting his humanity, such as with the thief who
steals from them whilst they are on the beach and the old man they encounter. Throughout
the novel, faith acts as an inspiring antidote to the otherwise grim and faithless
scenario we are presented with.
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