A Breath of Hope

   The beginning of the passage starts with a breath of hope in a hopeless world. The Man and the Boy discover a left over bunker, the bunker is full of rations and supplies. They spend days simply lazing around and eating. For once the two characters seem at peace and somewhat enjoy themselves. The boy is actually confused as to what is happening, he is not used to being able to sleep in, play checkers, or eat three meals a day. The Man simply enjoys watching the boy at peace, he bathes him, cuts his hair, and cooks for him. However, the Man knows they have to move on, the bunker is to dangerous, to good to keep. He knows at any time they could be discovered and killed and therefore his happiness is brief and brings sadness with it, a hurtful reminder of how good life was and could have been.
   They eventually leave the bunker clean and well fed and immediately the road begins to wear them down. The author again utilizes his ability to create a random and constant flow of events with immaculate description. The two stumble on an old man that feels more like a hallucination than anything. He is described as a pile of rags, filthy, and tiny. He is small and his dialogue is short any riddle like, answering many questions from the Man with questions of his own. He is a wanderer and is neither good nor bad, and therefore doesn't affect the Man and Boy greatly. However, it is an interesting as well as unlike the duo has experienced before. The wandering old man could serve as an image for the old world, still there but ruined and dying. Like the old world the old man is still trying to hold on, but has no real substance in the new and desolate world.
  As the rest of the passage continues the small breath of hope in the beginning of the reading begins to escape. The Man and Boy cross paths with a number of groups, all desperate, filthy, and trying to survive. The packs appearances create many short and stressful situations forcing the Man and Boy to stash their rations, and spend sleepless nights. In addition to them being on the run often the man is hit with a fever. Waves of diarrhea, cold sweats, coughs, and exhaustion crash on the man, making his already strenuous journey that much more difficult. The fever risks taking him away from his son and abandoning him in a unforgiving world. While the man overcomes the fever, the passage ends with a true sense of depravity and hopelessness.
   The Man and Boy notice a small group following and hide, waiting for them to pass he witnesses the groups members. Three gaunt men and a very pregnant woman. They wait and the group wanders down the road out of sight. The duo presses on and they notice a fire in the distance, they decide to investigate, and again there is a small amount of hope ingrained in their curiosity. What if the group is decent, holding onto the old ways, the "good guys"? The two stumble upon an abandoned fire and discover the charred and headless corpse of a newborn infant. While the author may be trying to create a ghastly and evil passage to make the reader rear back, I think he is showing how bad things are. Not that people are evil now, but the level they have stooped to in order to survive. It is a truly sad and heartbreaking passage in the book and makes what was a bittersweet beginning into a sad and deprived ending.