Desolate, dead, gray, and cold. The Road by Cormac McCarthy is a novel that highlights a father and his son attempting to survive in a chaotic world where morality is compromised[1]. Through their experiences, we derive a connection between Jean Piaget’s theory of moral development and how the son depicts morality. The son defines Piaget’s autonomous stage described by his conventional morality. His moral development is higher than expected for a child under the age of ten in Piaget’s theory and resultant from self, his setting and father’s influences.
Jean Piaget, a renowned child development theorist behind the moral development theory, defines how children construct a mental model of the world [2]. Piaget derived interest in the moral reasoning of children and what they think as opposed to what they do. The theory provides an understanding of the moral development of the son in the novel. Thus, McCarthy’s novel relates to Piaget’s theory, especially in explaining the source of the child’s strong moral stands and how they develop in stages while dealing with various situations in the depicted apocalyptic world [3].
Piaget suggests two key types of moral thinking. Heteronomous morality or moral realism whereby children define morality as obedience to laws and rules that cannot be changed. In this stage, they accept all rules made by a figure in authority such their parents or God. In addition, breaking these rules leads to punishment. This theory is typical for children between the age of 7-9. However, from the actions and behavior of the son in the book, it is evident that he in the autonomous stage of moral development, which is centered on personal rules
[1] Cormac McCarthy, The Road (New York: Alfred A. Knopf publishing, 2008), 27.
[2] R. A. Withers, “Piaget, Moral Development and the Curriculum.” Journal of Moral Education 11, no.3 (2006): 159-166.
[3] Thomas H. Schaub, “Secular Scripture and Cormac McCarthy’s The Road.” Renascence: Essays on Values in Literature 61, no.3(2009):153-167.