How does McCarty tell the story in pages 1-28?

The Road begins mildness with the man checking on the Boy whilst he sleeps. The Man reveals his bad dream of a monster he saw in a cave as the Boy wakes up. They begin to carry on their journey until they come across an old gas station in a unknown destination. They stop  to fill petrol canisters or their lamp and the Man tells the boy about a small part of his childhood as they carry on their journey from the stop at the gas station.

In the first few pages of the book McCarthy refers back to the mans dream of seeing a monster in the cave. The setting in the book is also described as 'nights beyond darkness and days each grey more than the one before,' this suggests the significance of the atmosphere the Man and Boy are living in and how this new world is full of darkness and negativity. This can also refer back to the cave where in the Man's dream when he said 'wander in a cave,' which symbolises the darkness within this world and how he is prevented from succeeding in this life with the darkness hanging over him and in this society all source of knowledge and goodness has disappeared. Further on in their journey McCarthy tells us as the reader that 'the month was October but he wasn't sure. he hadn't kept a calendar in years.' This shows the significance and sadness of this world and how all moralities from the previous world have disappeared by the loss of time extending as far as months however, this can also suggest the idea of isolation and entrapment as they are stuck and lost in time by having no recollection of what month it is which also prevents them from escaping this disastrous society and atmosphere of the new apocalyptic world.

Further on in the journey McCarthy describes the setting of The Road through the Man and Boy's eyes as they walk further down The Road. McCarthy uses repetition on the lines  'dust and ash everywhere' suggests the horrible atmosphere within the novel and that the air is suffocating all around with no hope or guidance to escape. It also highlights that McCarthy has used this particular feature to really emphasis the air and atmosphere the characters within the novel live in and it makes the reader understand the darkness within this apocalyptic atmosphere. McCarthy then uses imagery in the lines 'The city was mostly burned. No sign of life. Cars in the street caked with ash. Everything covered in dust and ash.' this suggests he has taken the boy back to a place he remembered from the past world when everything was okay however no it is filled with darkness and depression which is emphasised on the line 'no sign of life'. this also shows the reality of life in this apocalyptic world and how little hope and guidance there is living in this world of darkness, dust and ash of the former world.

McCarthy begins to describe the setting in each new place the Man and Boy discover in this lost world. McCarthy describes the trees in this new setting as 'charred and limbless' the use of this imagery referring to death and skeletal language emphasises the idea of death and how much these characters are putting themselves through just to survive- the man especially as the Boy is the only reason he has stuck through the pain event though he dreams and reminisces about death and dying. the description of the trees as 'limbless' suggest the theme of death and negativity of life however this could suggest the little energy the Man has left as his health is deteriorating and he becomes tired and lifeless. Linking to this McCarthy then describes the atmosphere and surroundings as 'cold and silence. The ashes of the late world.' This shows the significance and impact this new apocalyptic world has on the survivors and how they remember fragments of the old world which are now only seen as ash and dust. The line 'ashes of the late world' suggests the memories the man has of his previous life when the world was normal and morality was restored contrastingly this has all disappeared and he is only left with the ashy remains of his former, previous life.

To conclude in these first pages of the novel McCarthy uses imagery to emphasise how cold, dark and horrific this apocalyptic atmosphere is and what the Man and Boy have to put them through in order to survive. By McCarthy using imagery to symbolise death and darkness it suggests that the Man dreams of dying as he wishes to escape this society left from the former world however his son is the only reason he carries on. We also see from the symbolism of the cave how the society and all morality has disappeared in this world and the feeling of isolation and no escape is often represented through imagery of death, depression and darkness of silence and no life.