Cormac McCarthy, author of the prophetic fictional novel, “The Road”, uses an obscure, but at the same time optimistic tone throughout the literary piece, as he illustrates how a man’s gradual demise demonstrates that hope is a powerful force that enriches one’s life even in times of desolation and devastation. The protagonist, whose name was never revealed, made sure, at all moments, that his son was exposed the least possible to his disastrous surrounding. “All the trees in the world are going to fall…But not on us” (McCarthy, 35.) For a little kid, it was obviously difficult to accept the reality in which he was living; however, his father never lied. The boy was aware of the dangerous and cannibal world where he was living, but the man always emphasized that regardless of what he saw, he should never doubt they will always be all right; he should never stop believing. He represented a light of hope in the kid’s life, which kept his kindness and determination to help others, alive. Moments of despair led his father to give him directions on how to act in case of getting captured: “…put it in your mouth and point it up” (McCarthy, 113). At his short age, the kid had to learn values such as bravery and determination that not even adults possess in the majority of the cases. Hope, however, was the only force that stopped him from pulling the trigger; faith in the fact that the “bad guys” would leave and never find them was the weapon that kept the son alive in the middle of the devastated world (McCarthy, 137). Before dying, the father taught the boy everything he needed to know  in order to survive by himself in a completely new world. “…The good guys keep trying… they don’t give up” (McCarthy, 137) The father inculcates in the boy the most important and powerful values in the life of an individual. While other humans in the novel opted for cannibalism and other detrimental practices, the man still cultivated the precious values of the previous world. The power of hope in unfortunate circumstances certainly leads human beings to forget about their existing tragedy and transform the hardships they are facing into opportunities to learn and grow as individuals.