Below are a list of my thoughts concerning the book. They are not set in stone by any means. I'm simply trying to process what I read and bounce around ideas so some of them are redundant/similar. If anyone has anything to contribute, please add a comment.
1. The family at the end is a representation of what the father and son could have been? Father says they're the good guys and they help, but he only helps others because of the son (how Christ redeems us in the face of the anger of the OT God/Father?). As the kid says, "we talk a lot about helping and being the good guys but we never are." We never help. Man struck by lightning (ancient sign of God's displeasure). The people in the basement. The thief (Father' instinct is to punish/consign to death. The Son persuades forgiveness). The old man with no name.
However, the family not only lets him come with them, they tracked him, sought him out. Family is if they (Father and Son) chose goodness. Thus, the other boy is his age, the woman exists because she didn't kill herself, the man is strong because he's not dying on the inside (coughing). They also have a little girl. The other little boy is the same age, so he was conceived prior to the disaster. If the little girl is younger, than that means they conceived her after the catastrophe and she is therefore a very physical manifestation of hope.
2. The fire is the pneuma, the breath, the holy ghost. The living do carry it inside, particularly in a world that gets colder and colder. The boy's breathing though it got shallow didn't fail. The man's breath was failing him the entire time. His fire was not pure. That's why he recognized the goodness/godness of the boy. The woman at the end confirms, "the breath of God was his breath yet though it pass from man to man through all of time." (Last spoken line of novel)
3. The 2nd man made discussion about even helping the boy with his family. So though he helped, he was reluctant, just like the father, though, like the father, he could be persuaded. It took the woman for that though (because with no mother, the father could not be persuaded to help the other little boy though the son begged for it). For life to sustain, men's hardness must be softened by women's compassion? "They say women dream of danger to those in their care and men of danger to themselves." The 2nd man had no clue what the boy was talking about "the fire" but the woman knew.
4. Hallucinating. Boy, I love me some hallucinating. The dying father basically says, "Imagine me and I'll be there". If the boy can imagine the father, then too can he imagine the family as they're his desires? The kid's the only one who sees the other little boy earlier and the dog that he also sees may not be there (is a decoy to draw people in). Before suicide, mother says "A person who had no one would be well advised to cobble together some passable ghost."
5. Groups of four tend to be very dangerous. The four walking ahead of the army. The four (including a pregnant woman) following who eat the baby. The four men they come across he must threaten with the pistol to get past. The family at the end though.
6. Hope is not the point. Love/Togetherness is the point. The beauty of the bond. The present. The moment.
7. Was mother wrong (suicide)? Was father wrong (survive)?
8. The road is a symbolic path forward. Like time. No going back. Progress because there is no other option. It is only after they leave the ocean, head back inland that the father dies. Regression is fatal. They must go to water. Water usually represents life, but it is devoid of life (ocean), all that really matters is the fire, the breath. Rain and snow are deadly. Significance of the fire/flare. See God. Fire brought much death though. Water used to bring life, then fire brought death, but water no longer brings life, while fire represents life now. Purity of water important? Water unspoiled, rain, the cistern found, the water from jugs in the bunker, all are healthy. Bad water (affected by man) brings sickness. In the unspoilt water lived the trout in all their mystery.
9. Adam/Eve. Fruit is important. Mentions eating fruit first beyond any other items routinely. Makes mention when they're out of fruit. Apples.
10. The Father. The Son. The fire (holy spirit) within. The Son (NT) wants to save. The father (OT) simply can't allow it. The father dies and the son remains. The father is replaced by a more nurturing, compassionate father figure. Repeatedly talks about God being dead or there being no God but the boy. First spoken line of the novel: "If he is not the word of God, God never spoke." "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." There is no speech without breath/fire to fuel it.
11. Three days with the dead father's body before the road forward again. Three days of Christ's descent to hell? Or that after three days the redemption, the proof of the sacrifice is shown? Hallelujah! Christ is risen! Family finds him.
12. Last thing the father says before he dies, "Goodness will find the little boy. It always has. It will again."
