Withering Road

McCarthy shows the readers how the world and life in "The Road" are slowing disappearing through the following:

The names of things slowly following those things into oblivion. Colors. The names of birds.
Things to eat. Finally the names of things one believed to be true. " (pg 88)

 The first sentence indicates how the names of certain things (and the things themselves) are being forgotten by humanity. The lack of color symbolizes how the world has fallen into a monotonous and monochrome cycle of death and depression. The names of the birds exemplify how humans are losing touch with nature and how they barely care about anything but themselves. Food is a direct example that reflects the hunger and scarceness of supplies humans are facing due to their abuse and greed. Finally he mentions the "names of things one believed to be true", showing how they have become wary individuals who are used of doubting and mistrusting people's actions and intentions.

More fragile than he would have thought. How much was gone already? The sacred idiom shorn of its referents and so of its reality. Drawing down like something trying to preserve heat.
In time to wink out forever." (pg 89)

The excerpt above is a continuation of the previous quote, which states how the man never thought forgetting those important details was possible. He ponders how much things have already dissapeared and he haven't even noticed. Afterwards, he makes reference to how language (words) make futile attempts of preserving those concepts, even though they are gone already and nobody really cares about them. Finally he predicts how everything in the world will end up vanishing if humans continue behaving the way they do.