The Conclusion

In the final chapters of The Road by Cormack McCarthy, the father and son arrive at their destination;the ocean.  After arriving at the ocean the father succumbs to his progressing disease and passes away. The son makes attempts to help his father, but the father refuses to eat or drink any of his rations, knowing already that he is beyond help. The father's devotion to his son is present all the way up to his own death. After the father passes away, the boy is struck with grief, and an unsure feeling about the future. Luckily for the boy, another human stumbles upon their camp, a man only differentiated from others by the shotgun he carries. The boy is extremely wary of this man at first, but is eventually convinced that the man with the shotgun is a good guy also, and agrees to join the man with the shotgun and his family in their own quest of survival. the boy meets the mans family, including his wife and children. The ending of the story is significant, for it shows the father's efforts and sacrifices to provide a better life for his son are not futile, and that he succeeded in his "divine" purpose.