1. In the beginning of the novel we see that there is a boy and a Papa. We do not know weather the boy is Papa's son or if it is his grandfather or just a nick-name. We also know that they are wondering, but we do not know the significance of what has happened in the world. On page 17 of McCarthy's "The Road" we are told that Papa is "Mostly worried about their shoes. That and food. Always food." We do not know if they are worried about shoes because they can't find any or just because theirs are being ruined. We know there is a shortage of food, but they will not go into the barn of the dead and look for food so they cannot be that desperate. That is when I realized there was a secret.
2. This secret is very much referring to the same secret that is revealed on page 52. We are told that "The clock stopped at 1:17. A long shear of light and then a series of low concussions." We presume that the Papa and the boy are wondering because of what has happened at this point in the book at 1:17. This could be a completely unrelated event or it could be the reason why the country is in chaos. We have no idea to know if these events are linked together more then just a events in the same book or if the event that happened at 1:17 is the reason for the boy and Papa to be walking.
3. Understanding weather or not that this boy is Papa's son and that Papa is the boys father is very cruicial to the book. I would help us better understand why the man is so protective of the boy. Though the boy never calls the man Papa and the Papa never calls the boy son it leaves us wondering if something is up between them being related or a father son relationship.
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I defiantly agree that the most important and most curious secret is the relationship between the men and the boy. It’s clear that they love each other because although the boy is scared at a lot of points in the book, he still allows the man to calm him down. He shows his love by trusting him and believing what the men tells him. They're in a horrible state, yet the man insists on taking care of the boy which is clearly more of a hassle. Food is scarce and he has to do double the work to survive because not only does he have to find food for himself, he has another mouth to feed. The food isn’t enough for one person but has to be split between two. He also has to travel with the boy as extra baggage in a way because sometime he can’t run fast enough or he is too tired to walk and etc.Yet he loves him enough that he sticks with him and even at some points going without food just so the boy can at least have food, for example when they had a half packet of cocoa left and he drank hot water and the boy had the cocoa. The readers can only assume that their relationship has to be farther and son or grandfather and grandson
By the end of the book it's very certain that the man is the boys father. 278. "He slept close to his father that night and held him but when he woke in the morning his father was cold and stiff."
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