The Road Lesson Plan

The man makes comparisons to aliens on two occasions. First he says, "The boy's candlecolored skin was all but translucent. With his great staring eyes he'd the look of an alien." Later, he posits that he himself must appear alien to his son. How could the boy be an alien to his father? How could the man be an alien to his son?

Though the first comparison is based on a physical description, it can also be seen as an indication of the man's difficulty understanding and communicating with his son. The boy was born as society was collapsing, and he grew up surrounded by hunger, death, and the harsh necessities of survival. His childhood is almost...