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Alex Constas

Professor Evans

English 101

23 May 2018

Creating Your Own Fate for a Meaningful Life: A Conversation Between McCarthy’s The Road

and Kaufman’s Synecdoche, New York

There is a great debate on whether fate is a real thing in the life of mankind. Does man

build his own destiny? Or, is he fated to some prechosen outcome? Man will never know the

answer to this question, but he is destined to ponder it and struggle with it for the rest of time.

Nevertheless, two things that greatly control the pathway of our lives are fear and love. To act

out of fear is to do something that you don’t want to do or to remain idle in fear of the future and

any consequences. The energy of fear is to hide, hoard, and harm. To act out of love is to spread

the wealth of joy and happiness into others around you and to do things for your best interest as

well as do things for the greater good. The energy of love is to accept, hold, and heal. Cormac

McCarthy’s novel, The Road, shines light on characters who both act out of love and fear.

However, put into conversation with Charlie Kaufman’s Synecdoche, New York, the reader

understands first hand a valuable lesson. In order to have a rich, meaningful, and fulfilling life,

man must root his action in love and stray away from fear and inaction.

In his novel, The Road, Cormack McCarthy introduces several characters who are

struggling with their life and personal happiness. The mother in this novel struggles so deeply

that she attempts to kill herself and her son:

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Such as what? I should have done it a long time ago. When there were three bullets in the
gun instead of two. I was stupid. We’ve been over all of this. I didn’t bring myself to this.
I was brought. And now I’m done. I thought about not even telling you. That would
probably have been best. You have two bullets and then what? You can’t protect us. You
say you would die for us but what good is that? I’d take him with me if it weren’t for you.
You know I would. It’s the right thing to do. (McCarthy 57)

Here, the mother is nearing her last lines as McCarthy builds up to the moment she kills herself.

The mother’s tone and diction towards her husband is cold and hostile as she makes a plea for

killing herself and her son. This section is contained within a conversation between the mother

and father where the mother continues to insist on killing herself as her husband attempts to

change her mind. The mother can be identified as belonging to the cold and reserved side of the

characters the reader has come across throughout the novel, she doubts her husband’s capabilities

of keeping her family alive and states to his face that “You can’t protect us.”. The mother is more

involved with her self-interest than the survival of her family, prompting her greedy and most

ominous act.

The mother’s actions and dialogue are rooted in fear. She wishes to end her life and

suffering, further stating that she is willing to also murder her son as “It’s the right thing to do.”

(57). Certainly, the mother has every right to seek her own happiness and to end suffering in her

life. However, she is acting through the energy of greediness, harmfulness, and destruction. Her

son has the right to live, as do all human beings, yet for the mother to claim authority over her

son’s life, that is evil. Though, as unfortunate and disturbing as it is, if the mother believes she

will find bliss and happiness through suicide, she has every right to do so.

The mother was incorrect when she stated that “I didn’t bring myself to this. I was

brought.” (57). The apocalyptic nature of the world she currently resides in, was infact out of her

control. However, her current wellbeing and state of mind was brought upon her by herself. The
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father and son are far from happy but find meaning and a richness in their journey of survival.

The father and son have a certain attitude and drive that is the opposite of the mother’s negativity

and unwillingness to go on. Though they are not living in the best of conditions, the father and

son are much happier and content than the mother is simply due to their refusal of inaction and

their optimistic outlook for their long-term goals of survival. In order to have a meaningful life,

no matter what situation one might be in, follow ideologies of the father and son rather than the

mother, seek love.

Charlie Kaufman is an American producer, screenwriter and director. In 2008 he released

his existentialist film Synecdoche, New York, a blunt and truthful film about identity,

individuality, and existence. In his film, Kaufman presents several motifs involving death,

happiness, loneliness, and the awareness of infinite possibilities pertaining to one’s life.

In one of the later scenes, a pastor is providing a monologue within one of the massive

sets made to replicate the life outside of the stage. This monologue comes during a scene where

the protagonist of the film, Caden Cotard, assembles a group of actors to stage his massive play

in his gargantuan warehouse made to look like the outside streets of New York where it was

built. With his play he is trying to capture real life, making his play as realistic as possible. The

pastor goes on to say:

Everything is more complicated than you think. You only see a tenth of what is true.
There are a million little strings attached to every choice you make. You can destroy your
life every time you choose. But maybe you won’t know for twenty years! And you may
never ever trace it to its source. And you only get one chance to play it out. Just try and
figure out your own divorce… And they say there’s no fate, but there is, it’s what you
create. And even though the world goes on for eons and eons, you are only here for a
fraction of a fraction of a second. Most of your time is spent being dead, or not yet born.
But while alive, you wait in vain wasting years for a phone call or a letter or a look from
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someone or something to make it all right, but it never comes. Or it seems to, but it
doesn’t really. So, you spend your time in vague regret or vaguer hope that something
good will come along, something to make you feel connected, something to make you
feel cherished, something to make you feel loved. (Kaufman)

One of the many things this passage highlights, is the interconnectedness of our choices and

actions. “You can destroy your life any time you choose. But maybe you won’t know for twenty

years! … Just try and figure out your own divorce.”. Every choice we make directly leads to

another choice or consequence. Here, the pastor is opening the viewers eyes to the endless

possibilities of the world. However, most importantly, he warns us to do what we want to do and

have our actions be rooted in love so that we do not “spend [our] time in vague regret or vaguer

hope that something good will come along”.

Earlier in the monologue, the pastor tackles the debate of fate within the human

experience; “And they say there’s no fate, but there is, it’s what you create.”. The pastor’s words

do not accept or deny fate, rather he redefines it as “it’s what you create.”. There are countless

people in this world who live their lives believing that they we just dealt a series of misfortunes

and that everything is out of their control. The pastor’s words advise those who are troubled to

act quickly and create the life they are meaning to live, “And even though the world goes on for

eons and eons, you are only here for a fraction of a fraction of a second.”. Having distilled a

mortality salience into the viewer, the pastors speech is a warning to do what you love and to

love what you do because someday, you will die.

The pastors monologue depicts the very image of the father and son within The Road.

They are infact survivors and are living their life to the fullest even as they struggle to find

necessities such as shelter and food. They own the choices they make as they create a survivable
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reality out of the chaotic world they live in. Examining further into the novel, the mother is a

prime example of someone who struggles with this concept. The mother’s conversation with the

father highlights her negativity and lack of trust in life:

We’re survivors he told her across the flame of the lamp.

Survivors? She said.
Yes.
What in God’s name are you talking about? We’re not survivors. We’re the walking dead
in a horror film. (57)

The mother is too quick to disapprove of the father’s efforts that allow his family to survive. The

mother completely throws away her maternal instincts and nature as she does not provide

anything for the family or attempt to care and show love. The mother is trapped in the mindset

that the pastor warned against, she spends her time in vague regret and vaguer hope waiting for

something good to come along, instead of creating good in the example of the father and son.

The monologue from Kaufman’s film, Synecdoche, New York, seems to agree with the

lessons the reader has learned with McCarthy’s The Road. Man has always been able to create

his own destiny, and always will be. The prime example from the novel is the strength and will

of the father and son who, with effort, make it to their destination and survive. The mother did

not have the will to go on. Which is not necessarily a sign of weakness or cruelness, the mother

was simply unhappy with life. In the case of the mother, the pastor would say to her, don’t wait.

If you seek happiness through the path of self-destruction, then for the sake of your experience,

act. Of course, this is hypothetical as the reader considers what the world of The Road is like. In

real life, suicide is never a plausible choice.

Mankind has the unique and rare gift of consciousness, with which we can make our lives

to be happy and full of meaning. The pastor from Kaufman’s Synecdoche, New York provides the
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audience with a new lens to view life with. Create your life or your inaction will cause you to

suffer. McCarthy’s The Road presents readers with the perfect examples of characters who both

accept and reject this advice. If one ever finds themselves trapped in the post apocalyptic

nightmare of The Road, and happiness is attainable only through suicide, do it. However, for a

rich life full of love and meaning, push through the hard times and remember that you can

control your fate through love and a general trust in life.

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Works Cited

McCarthy, Cormac. The Road. Picador. 2006.

Kaufman, Charlie. Synecdoche, New York. 2008. Sony Pictures Classics.