The Road

So, for our in-class discussion about The Road we were supposed to talk about:
-a scene that stood out a lot to us
-an open-ended question about the book
-our impression of the book so far.

The scene that I chose was from a flashback, in a discussion the man has with his wife before she leaves.
"You say you would die for us but what good is that? I'd take him with me if it werent for you. You know I would. It's the right thing to do.
You're talking crazy.
No, I'm speaking the truth. Sooner or later they will catch us and they will kill us. They will rape me. They'll rape him. They are going to rape us and kill us and eat us and you wont face it. You'd rather wait for it to happen. But I cant. I cant."

Their discussion goes on for a few pages, but basically the man believes that it is better for them to survive and live in these bad conditions for their son, while the woman believes they should just all give up. Eventually she leaves and kills herself, and years later the man and his son have survived.

Now, my open-ended question was: Who do you think is right?

It's not an easy decision. But in my opinion, when there is no chance of your life improving from the hell it is, it may be best to let it come to an end. If you can be happy or if the struggles you're going through are temporary, then you should definitely keep trying and fighting. But in this situation, I'm going to have to side with the woman. The world is ending, people are cannibals and the environment is shutting down. The man and his son are both starving and in constant danger. There is no happy ending in store for this book, unless something crazy drastic happens. But that's just my opinion.

What do you all think?