Cormac McCarthy: The Road

In an interview with The Wall Street Journal Cormac McCarthy talks about goodness and his son, John. McCarthy says his son is morally a wonderful person. He also says that's just who John is as a person and that goodness isn't something you learn; it's just something you have or don't. 

Everyone is born with morals, and as we 'grow' and 'learn' these morals often fall away. It's like a ball that is constantly being thrown around and hit at and the ball gets ratted and worn, but its up to the person to keep the ball in good condition, and if they don't you won't even be able to use it any more; it'll just be a piece of crap. And some damage done to the ball can be reversed with a little cleaning but major damage can't always be fixed. So young children come automatically with these morals, these things that they know are right. And if this sense of morality is cultivated and encouraged at a young age then their morality can grow and become stronger. But if it isn't, their morals can easily fall away. And this goes on throughout a person's life, the world can chip away at their morals. But if the world can take away someone's morals, why can't it give them back? Sure, learning to be moral is harder than learning to be corrupt, but it's not impossible. So I guess I agree and disagree with McCarthy; I agree in that you're born with morals and they can be destroyed but I disagree in that I take the less cynical view (believe me, that's probably the last time you'll hear me say that) and I think you can learn morals from our world, as difficult as it may  be. Back to the ball analogy, no matter how beat up your ball of morality is, you can always get a new one.

Thanks,
Gianna.