Post-Apocalyptic Redefinition of Homeless Spaces in Cormac McCarthy’s The Road

Abstract

Homelessness undergoes an important change in a post-apocalyptical setting: it becomes the norm, the only reality for the survivors. Through a process of defamiliarization and reinterpretation of the new reality, space goes back to its mythical sphere, where a permanent sense of anxiety and distress dominates everything. In the present paper, a new vision of homelessness in the characters and spaces portrayed in The Road is presented. Focusing on the new spatial conception will offer a fresh perspective to interpret how a father struggles in his attempts to instill in his boy a strong system of moral values while travelling through the vastness of a space without boundaries that only has one defining and common characteristic: the road.