Father and Son

The man cares for his son’s life more than his own, and the only reason he still doesn't commit suicide is that he wants to create a life for his son. Even the mother knew that the "boy was all that stood between him and death"(29). He doesn’t want his son to suffer dying, and that’s the reason he leaves the pistol with him. Rather a bullet to the head than the fact that he might get eaten alive by the cannibals. If they lasted any longer without food he would have let his son commit suicide. Many people are scared of dying but the son has no fear because the man is trying to make him as joyful for as long as he can without worrying about death. The treats that he gives his son like the Coca-Cola and letting him go into the water near the waterfall. He allows the boy to have toys allowing him to be distracted from reality. He doesn’t want to talk about the things that there were before the disaster because he only wants to mention the things that the boy will experience; he doesn’t want to raise his hopes of seeing them and then topple them over.

The man is acting just like any man acts in modern day, except there is no suicide if necessary going on. Fathers today would act the same if that disaster happened to them; their child would come first and they would do anything to protect them.