The Road vs. Room Essay Essays

The Road vs. Room Essay Essays The Road vs. Room Essay Essay The Road vs. Room Essay Essay Essay Topic: The Road The Road vs. Room Essay A person’s beliefs are very special. They are what make us unique and different from every other human being in this world. At the same time, people will share some similar beliefs while still maintaining their individuality. Jean-Jacques Rousseau, for example, believed that humans are good and are naturally empathetic towards each other. Now take Thomas Hobbes who believed that human nature is bad and that individuals desire power and glory, which results in constant war. A vast majority of people believe in one of these two viewpoints, or a mixture of both. In the book entitled Room by Emma Donoghue, a man named Old Nick traps a woman, named Ma, in a room where she gives birth to a boy named Jack. When they finally get out, the book consists of the two adjusting to normal life in which Jack’s mother teaches him that people can be trusted and for the most part are good. Jacks’ mother’s beliefs reflect the beliefs of Rousseau. Similarly, in the novel The Road by Cormac McCarthy, a man and his son, whose names are never given, travel across post-apocalyptic America where evil surrounds them at every turn and the father teaches his son that everyone, for the most part, is bad and cannot be trusted. The world that surrounds the two is of waste, savage and war and the views the father teaches his son strongly depict the thoughts and beliefs of Thomas Hobbes. While both novels consist of intensive parent and child bonds that exist under extreme circumstances, they are quite the opposite specifically in the beliefs the parental figures instil in their children. Ma teaches Jack that humans are generally to be trusted in Room, while the Man teaches the opposite to the Boy in The Road. In Room, other humans can be trusted for help because while there is some bad in all people, they are basically good, while in The Road, most other humans are viewed as bad and cannot be trusted, yet the Boy and the Man view themselves as good people.