Individualism in Cormac McCarthy’s The Road: the Highway to Unsustainability
VOLUME 20, 2023
The Role of Targeted Infra-popliteal Endovascular Angioplasty to Treat Diabetic Foot Ulcers Using the Angiosome Model: A Systematic Review
VOLUME 6, 2023
Sungkyunkwan University, South Korea
Abstract
Cormac McCarthy’s The Road demonstrates the centrality of individualism to the unsustainability that defines consumer culture in the Anthropocene. His representation of cannibalism not only reflects the main problems of consumer culture but also sheds light on individualism as its driving force. While the cannibalistic world of The Road presents a struggle of individuals for autonomy, the novel’s unnamed boy protagonist shows that empathy can be a viable solution for that struggle. The novel suggests that making consumer culture sustainable means recognizing the violence of individualism and the significance of empathetic consciousness simultaneously. To exit the highway that leads to unsustainability means taking the road of empathy, for only this will potentially lead to sustainability in the Anthropocene.
Lecture in accounting. University of Basrah, College of Administration and Economics, Department of Accounting.