Ugly Books

Recent news has focused on parents' dissatisfaction with a school board's decisions to include controversial books in their libraries available to young students. Some books deserve derision and access should be limited for their descriptions of gratuitous, explicit adult-to-adolescent sexual promiscuity. Schools, especially the health, English, Language Arts, and Literature courses are especially inclined to place an undue focus on the sexual habits of their students. Much of this criticism is valid and overdue. But in the middle of all this talk, one book was mentioned that deserves to stay on the shelf. This book is The Road, by Cormac McCarthy.

One concerned mother complained about the graphic nature of this book. It includes depictions of murder, severe starvation, and cannibalism. One scene especially is hard to read. But the heart of this story details the bond between a father and his son as they travel the hard road south to a place of hope, through a decaying and lifeless world. In this world, the only food available has been left behind by others. Scavenging from place to place and in a constant state of starvation, the father and son remain intensely loyal to each other while living in constant fear of others, afraid that they themselves may become a source of food for the ravaging bands in this free-for-all dystopia.

In such a desperate time, cannibalism can be an appealing option. Other books depicting cannibalism have remained on school bookshelves for decades. Alive: The Story of the Andes Survivors, by Piers Paul Read is one such book. The story of the Donner Party, a wagon train of pioneers lost in the winter of 1846-47 is another. For Christian families concerned about stories of cannibalism, the Old Testament tells of two mothers agreeing to eat their children during the siege of Samaria in Second Kings.

Finally, a story from ancient Greece tells of King Astyages who had commanded his general, Harpagus, to murder the King's own infant grandson for fear of his future overthrow. Harpagus refused and gave the boy to a shepherd who would go on to raise him as his own son. Upon learning of his disobedience, Astyages invited Harpagus to dinner, where he secretly fed to Harpagus his own son. At the end of the dinner, Astyages brought in the head of the child as proof of the deed. Harpagus later led a revolution against the king, delivering him to Cyrus.  

Such stories are appalling to the conscience. Yet they tell crucial truths about humanity and depravity. By nature, humans are capable of devolving into the most desperate and cruel behaviors. These stories tell us that such behavior does not come without consequence. They teach us that the will to survive can grow stronger than our morals and caution us against our more animalistic nature. Shocking stories like these spur us to build societies free from such atrocities.

It is true that books should be age-appropriate. Parents should have a strong voice when it comes to what books are made available to their kids. The strange fascination school officials have with a child's sexuality must be curbed. But The Road and books like it pose important moral questions with lessons to be learned in how we treat each other and how to find peace of mind and sense of purpose in whatever circumstance we are placed. The bond between the father and son in The Road is a lasting bond that endures terrible trial. They encourage each other to "carry the fire," and repeatedly question wether they are the "good ones." Surrounded by death and malice, the father and son hold together in hope.

Would to God that we should all have full bellies. But this is not the case for much of the world. In the United States we suffer from an overabundance of food. Obesity rates in the US have skyrocketed over recent decades. As we glut ourselves, others around the globe perish from malnutrition and starvation. Some of these horrors are the direct result of governmental action.

Venezuela has suffered under Maduro's rule. Families take turns skipping meals, and not because of some weight-loss intermittent fasting plan. Instead, they must ration their food to make sure everyone can eat in what was once one of the richest South American nations.

North Koreans suffer from a lack of food so astonishing that the average adult height is 3 inches shorter than their South Korean counterparts.

Stalin famously starved up to 20 million Ukrainian farmers to death while surrounded by food, threatened with summary execution if they should eat it.

I read The Road with my wife, taking turns reading to each other on a 1,200-mile road trip to Disneyland years ago, finishing it before we arrived. The contrast was not lost on me as I wandered through "the happiest place on earth." The book is striking in its detail and imagination. The stories of starvation made every morsel to my mind a blessing. For days afterward, I considered how lucky I am to live in such abundance. For weeks afterward, I pondered how readily I could eat a meal. For years afterward, I have remembered to be grateful that our society has not reached the level of depravity described in the book. And I have tried to live a more generous life because of it.

When read with the appropriate guidance, books like The Road offer invaluable lessons to be learned.