has shot at them with a bow and an arrow. He wipes his wound with water and tries to stop the bleeding.
He swabbed the wound with disinfectant and opened a plastic envelope with his teeth and took out a small hooked suture needle and a coil of silk thread and sat
holding the silk to the light while he threaded it through the needle’s eye. He took a clamp from the kit and caught the needle in the jaws ad locked them and set about
suturing the wound. He worked quickly and he took no great pain about it. ….
He ran the knot down the thread and pulled it taut and cut off the silk with the scissors from the kit… 285.
Based on speech and mannerism, the father is obviously brave. He is willing to take a risk to get what he wants. Besides, he is not afraid of getting hurt that is proved by taking
an extreme action in stopping his bleeding from his leg.
B. The Cause of the Struggles of the Father
As it is told, the novel describes the struggles of a hardworking, responsible, and affectionate father that attempts to provide a better life for his son. In his struggles, the
father as the main character in The Road strives to survive in a broken world. He ransacks many broken and abandoned places to find useful stuff such as food, clothes and tools. He
takes care of and protects his son as the best he can. At night, he always sleeps late and often jerks upright of his sleep realizing that he has to keep watching around if the
cannibals come. He always tries to keep his son warm and comforts him in his embrace. In short, the father sacrifices all his life only for his son’s life.
However, in his struggles, the father has underlying motivation that stimulates his actions. In other words, these refer to the cause of reason that underlies his struggles.
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Actually, his motivation is that he loves his son so much. According to Maslow as quoted by Pettijohn 216, the belongingness and love needs become one of the five-basic needs
that should be satisfied in order to avoid psychological problem. In The Road the father’s love to his son serves a great impulse to survive. The boy is the reason and purpose of him
to keep living in the inconceivable world. He does not feel alone because he has his son that accompanies him. He realizes that the boy is all that stood between him and death as
what his wife says about it. The one thing I can tell you is that you wont survive for your self. I know because I
would never have come this far. A person who had no one would be well advised to cobble together some passable ghost. Breathe it into being and coax it along with
words of love. Offer it each phantom crumb and shield it from harm with your body 59.
Further, related to what Beck 24 states that motivation broadly concerns the contemporary determinants of choice direction, persistence, and vigor of goal-directed
behavior, the father in The Road finds his choice direction to stay alive and conducts his struggles from what he feels about his son that is love. Later, his motivation leads him to
the persistence of his struggles means that his motivation becomes stronger each day and it has rooted in him so that he does not easily give up when there are many obstacles blocked
his ways. In the other words, he has to fulfill his esteem needs about his feeling whether it is really true and strong so that he becomes confident in conducting his struggles.
According to Maslow as quoted by Pettijohn 216 the motives of esteem needs includes a high evaluation of oneself, self-respect, achievement, and recognition by others. At this
point, the father must dig how much love he feels and then proves it by playing his roles as a good father.
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As a single parent, he knows it is hard to balance the situation or to play his role both as a father and mother for his son. As said by Fromm 36 that paternal and maternal
love plays a crucial role and should be practiced in balance because it affects a child’s psychological development. There is a conversation in the novel that shows a symptom the
child feels frustrated because he feels very tired of taking the journey and misses his mother so much.
I wish I was with my mom. He didn’t answer. He sat beside the small figure wrapped in the quilts and blankets.
After a while he said. You mean you wish that you were dead. Yes.
You musnt say that. But I do.
Dont say it. It’s a bad thing to say. But I cant help it.
I know. But you have to 56-57. In this case, the father tries hard to make his child think realistically. He knows and
understands that his son misses his mother but the reality reveals that she is dead and there is nothing they can do to make her alive.
Besides, in showing his love to his son, the father creates openness in his relationship with his son. According to Noller and Fitzpatrick 17, openness is an effective
way to make children comfortable and feel the presence of the parents. The child in The Road can share his feeling about everything with his father to make him comfortable and
relief, for example when he has a bad dream and forgets to lock the tape of the burner. I had a bad dream.
Should I tell you what it was?
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If you want to. I had this penguin that you wound up… it was really scary.
Okay. It was a lot scarier in the dream.
I know. Dreams can be really scary. Why did I have that scary dream?
I don’t know. But it’s okay now. I’m going to put some wood on the fire. You go to sleep 37.
At this point, the father also applies the aspects of love proposed by Fromm 36 that consist of knowing, understanding, and respecting. He knows and understands that the boy
needs someone who can comfort him. He also respects his son that he has tried to take his responsibility even though he fails it.
In showing his love and care, the father always gives support, attention, encouragement, and help to his son. He tries to be patient in guiding his child to learn. The
ways he shows his care above are suitable with Noller and Patrick’s theory 201 in dealing with keeping good relationship with children that supporting messages can sustain the
created intimacy between parents and children. He returned and swam out to the falls and let the water beat upon him. The boy is
standing to the pool to his waist, holding his shoulders and hopping up and down. The man went back and got him. He held him and floated him about, the boy
gasping and chopping at the water. You’re doing good, the man said. You’re doing good 39.
Playing his role as a good father, the man begins to find his confidence. Through what he says in the novel, we can know that his self-confidence appears.
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He dried him with the blanket, kneeling there in the glow of the light with the shadow of the bridge’s understructure broken across the palisade of treetrunks
beyond the creek. This is my child, he said. I wash a dead man’s brains out of his hair. That is my job. Then he wrapped him in the blanket and carried him to the fire
77. Further, his love to his son becomes stronger and his thought that the child is the
biggest gift from God comes up, “If he is not the word of God God never spoke.” 3. He realizes that he has a big duty to keep him secure. Therefore, he tells his son that he will
protect him and never leave him alone. You wanted to know what the bad guys looked like. Now you know. It may happen
again. My job is to take care of you. I was appointed to do that by God. I will kill anyone who touches you. Do you understand?
Yes 80. He feels that his life has a meaning. On the other hand, his son will recognize that his
father loves him so much and will do everything to protect him. Moreover,
still related to explore the motivation of the struggles of the father in
The Road, Beck 24 says that motivation should tend to goal-directed behavior. In this case, the father as the main character in the novel uses his strong motivation to conduct his
struggles in accordance with his capacity to gain his goal. Based on his huge love for his son, the father has worked hard and when he dies he does not regret because he has chosen
the right choice for him. It also means that he has fulfilled his self-actualization needs that are the last needs in Maslow’s hierarchy of needs.
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C. The Struggles of the Father
