Hope is both a savior and guide for its host. Two authors give their opinion about the relationship between humanity and hope. Emily Dickinson the poet of “XXXII” demonstrates a fantasy relationship between humanity and hope. Contrastingly, Cormac McCarthy, author of the novel The Road , illustrates that humans would be lost without hope. Although both McCarthy and Dickinson both view hope as a comfort for humanity, McCarthy has a more realistic view of hope and doesn’t romanticize how fragile hope can be.
McCarthy’s position on the relationship between hope and humanity is that hope must be nourished in order to be kept alive. “Winter was already upon them. He turned and looked at the boy. Standing with his suitcase like an orphan waiting …show more content…
McCarthy believes the contrary, that hope needs to be nourished or else it’ll leave. Dickinson and McCarthy agree on how hope helps humanity throughout their novels. Hope guides people to relief. Dickinson said, “That kept so many warm” (Dickinson line 8). Characters in The Road were helped and comforted by hope. Hope is always there for its host, no matter the situation they are in. As heartwarming as it sounds, it is also similar to a fairy tale in that Dickinson says hope is alive and if that’s true, then every human will always make the right decisions, which is not the case. “He looked like something out of a death camp, starved, exhausted, sick with fear.”(McCarthy 117) McCarthy illustrates in his novel that hope is run-down from all it’s host has been through, and how everyday it is harder to stay motivated to keep living. The boy is “starved” and “exhausted” which implies that death is near; that hope is dying. The boy is “sick of fear” from all he has observed of what the world and humanity have become. The words he uses demonstrate how fragile hope can be. This is similar in a few aspects to the way that Dickinson describes hope but different in that hope is described as a vulnerable thing that needs to be taken care of because it very