Previous
Literary Devices
Definition of Allusion
In literature, an allusion is an unexplained reference to someone or something outside of the text. Writers commonly allude to other literary works, famous individuals, historical events, or philosophical ideas... read full definition
In literature, an allusion is an unexplained reference to someone or something outside of the text. Writers commonly allude to other literary works, famous individuals... read full definition
In literature, an allusion is an unexplained reference to someone or something outside of the text. Writers commonly allude to... read full definition
Pages 1-29
Explanation and Analysis—Coca-Cola:
One of the novel’s only references to proper names happens near the beginning of the man and boy’s journey, when they sift through the abandoned supermarket for supplies:
By the door were two softdrink machines that had been tilted over into the floor and opened with a prybar. Coins everywhere in the ash. He sat and ran his hand around in the works of the gutted machines and in the second one it closed over a cold metal cylinder. He withdrew his hand slowly and sat looking at a Coca Cola.
The allusion here encourages the reader to share the boy's feelings, which are mixed. The presence of this abandoned, unopened soda can seems both pathetic and oddly heartening. The soft drink brand—an iconic emblem of capitalist, corporate America—is one of the only recognizable entities left in the muddle of this world, and McCarthy’s treatment of this seems to generate multiple, complex interpretations. More than coincidentally left among the rest of the planet’s refuse, the can of Coca-Cola might function partly as a critique of commercialism. But it is also a source of immediate joy for the boy and the man, something “really good” that momentarily brightens their day. The relic of lazy consumerism happens to be one of the only touchstones of the past. There is something both slightly pitiful and comforting to this moment, in a novel where almost all the characters go unnamed and the world is just a shadow of its former self.
Related Themes:
