“Then they set out along the blacktop in the gunmetal light, shuffling through the ash, each the other’s world entire.”

I taught 12th grade for a couple of years. Here is an exaggerated list of the types of students in my class during that time:

1. Hate English classes
2. Hate writing
3. Do not take AP courses.
4. In hair school, just trying to graduate.
5. Into welding, not into English courses.
6. Taking one or two dual enrollment courses, but NOT English, and just trying to graduate.
7. Do not care about getting an A, just care about passing the course.

I am exaggerating a bit of the list above, but it was mostly truth.

Student like The Road for these reasons:

•  Post-apocalyptic setting and the father-son relationship create a compelling narrative that resonates with many readers.
• The themes of love, lost, hope, and the enduring power of the human spirit in the face of hardship. 
• McCarthy’s unique but powerful way of writing. Stark imagery, poetic language, and minimalist style captivate readers. 
• Thought provoking. Students can reflect on their own values and priorities. Leads to great discussion in class.
• The father-son relationship throughout the novel is touching. This theme of parenting helps students think of their own personal connections and family dynamics.

I always taught it in the spring, and I would read most of it in class; sometimes we would listen to the audiobook, but mostly read it in class. I did not assign reading pages because most students would not have done it. My class felt like a book club, and my students liked it when I read to them. I would get teary-eyed in the last few pages and have to have someone else read it—every time. 

It is a dark novel, but not in the way one would think. It has so much hope in it, too. McCarthy said he was in El Paso with his then-four-year-old son, watching him sleep around 2:00 a.m. while looking out his hotel window. He imagined an apocalypse and fire, and could see the hills and what they might look like. He wrote down part of the story, picked it up again four years later, and dedicated the book to his son. 

It is kind of a dark novel, but not in the way one would think. It has so much hope in it, too. McCarthy said he was in the town of El Paso with his then-four-year-old son, watching him sleep around 2:00 a.m. while looking out the window of his hotel. He imagined an apocalypse and fire, and he could see the hills and what they might look like. He wrote down part of the story, picked it up again four years later, and dedicated the book to his son. 

The writing is simple and has a direct tone. Students can follow along easily. The first time I taught it, I scoured the internet for lesson plans, which were hard to find! (There are plenty now.) I finally found one besides making up some of my content.

Introduce Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs.

Introduce Maslow’s Heirarchy of Needs

For most of the story, the man and the boy suffer from basic physiological needs and safety, so there is no sense of belonging, and the man worries that the boy will not reach his full potential. They are in “fight or flight” mode. This “love story” is the main reason the man stays alive. The man would be content to die, but his son’s life supersedes his own.

World Catastrophe Scenarios

This fun activity involves trying to guess what happened to the world and how it became apocalyptic in the story. McCarthy does not give us much to go on, but fire. I had posters around the room for this activity, and put the students in groups. They would each visit the poster, read the contents, and discuss. Using textual evidence, each group would decide which disaster most pointed to the novel’s world becoming apocalyptic. 

• The Dying of Bees 
• 3-step Zombie invasion 
• Boiling Rain 
• Myth of Thunderbird and Whale 
• Methane Clathrate 
• Brimstone – Yellowstone supervolcano erupts
• Artificial Intelligence, among others.

Close Reading Passages and Symbolism

We did Close Readings of passages based on themes from the book: survival, hope, and the human spirit.

I would love to do another post about McCarthy’s use of religious symbolism. For instance, the man and the boy meet a man on the road named Ely. Ely’s name is a symbolic connection to the biblical prophets Elijah and Eli, highlighting themes of prophecy, despair, and the perceived absence of God in the post-apocalyptic world. 

We had lessons on symbols in the book: the binoculars, the shopping cart, “carrying the fire,” the flare pistol, the bunker, among others.

Cognitive Strategy Instruction (CSI)

I have always liked to use Cognitive Strategy Instruction (CSI). CSI is a teaching approach that aims to help learners develop and use effective cognitive strategies to improve learning. These strategies benefit all learners, but especially ESL learners. For this, I assigned Literature Portraits. The scenes create mental images that aid in comprehending and retaining the themes from the stories.

1. Choose a scene and conceptualize the scene as if it were a painting. Draw the scene.
2. Create a border. The border can be words or images.
3. Write down themes from the story.
4. Select a quote to go with the scene. 

The example above is when the man and the boy find a bunker full of food, blankets, all the best amenities they could wish for, but they can’t stay there forever. You can tell that the student connected with this scene.

Some Favorite Quotes

(Remember, that McCarthy has little punctuation. These are copied correctly).

“There is no God and we are his prophets.”

“He walked out in the gray light and stood and he saw for a brief moment the absolute truth of the world. The cold relentless circling of the intestate earth. Darkness implacable. The blind dogs of the sun in their running. The crushing black vacuum of the universe. And somewhere two hunted animals trembling like ground-foxes in their cover. Borrowed time and borrowed world and borrowed eyes with which to sorrow it.”

“Just remember that the things you put into your head are there forever, he said. You might want to think about that.

“You forget some things, don’t you?”
“Yes. You forget what you want to remember and you remember what you want to forget.”

“He knew only that his child was his warrant. He said: If he is not the word of God God never spoke.”

Conclusion

Teaching The Road by Cormac McCarthy allowed me to connect with my students in unexpected ways. Many who typically resisted English, especially reading a novel, found themselves drawn into the story’s powerful themes of love, hope, and survival. Our discussions and activities helped them reflect on their own lives and relationships.

*Jan. 12, 2026 Update. I have a new Part II Post on The Road.