The Beginning of The End

 
The book ends in a peculiar way since its last paragraph seems to be somehow different and disconnected from the story. On one hand, the story itself ends with the father's death and the son continuing his voyage with some people that claim to be good guys as well. Right after this happens, McCarthy closes the novel with the following paragraph:

Once there were brook trout in the streams in the mountains. You could see them
standing in the amber current where the white edges of their fins wimpled softly in
the flow. They smelled of moss in your hand. Polished and muscular and torsional.
On their backs were vermiculate patterns that were maps of the world in its
becoming. Maps and mazes. Of a thing which could not be put back. Not be made
right again. In the deep glens where they lived all things were older than man and they
hummed of mystery." (pg 286 - 287)

I was fascinated by this last paragraph, both by its form and content. In terms of its form, I appreciated  the beauty of the language, which symbolized the underestimated beauty of the world we live in. The content of this last section also absorbed me because it marks a contrast between today's world and the one of the story. The world we live in today can still be saved by humans, if they become responsible and considerate with their actions.The book's ultimate message is portrayed through this final passage, which exemplifies how humans are exposing themselves to their destruction, but it also helps us reflect by showing that there's still time to change.