In Cormac McCarthy’s “The Road”, during the first encounter with humans other than the man and the boy, there was an immediate sense of danger during this encounter. When the man and the boy first saw the truck, they ditched their cart and hid in the forest behind some trees. This shows that it was a big enough threat to leave all of their belongings behind aside from their back packs. These “truck people” could also be interpreted as the monster in the beginning of the book during his dream. They posed a threat to the boy and he didn’t run away from it. He faced it in a smart way and the bandit with the red scarf didn’t cooperate so and posed an immediate threat to the boy for putting a knife to his neck got shot in the head by the man. The man was willing to kill to protect his son. That is human nature to defend yourself or the ones that you love and that gives the man and the boy more of a human aspect rather than monster. Representing good and the bandits representing evil or being monsters. The dad has human traits because he genuinely cares for the child and was willing to kill for him. He said “This is my child, he said. I wash a dead man’s brains out of his hair. That is my job.” Because the son is naive he doesn’t understand that the father had to do that to protect him and starts to question whether or not the dad is a “good guy.” The boy asked the father “Are we still the good guys?” which shows that he needs reassurance because after killing somebody he isn’t really sure. Later on their walk, they heard a dog and the first thing the boy said was “We’re not going to kill it, are we Papa?” suggesting that the boy thinks that the father has some monster in him.