The Next Chapter

Although I found the end of the book to be very deep and satisfying, I would have enjoyed an epilogue. Here's one of the many possible endings I thought of -

The boy goes back to the veteran's hideout and learns many trades and skills. He grows up to become a jack of all trades, which is perfect for the conditions. He must make use of everything he gets his hands on and must not let anything go to waste. As he grows older and more independent, he leaves the family that helped nurture his growth and heads south towards the location where his father had originally wanted to go. There, he finds the rise of a new civilization. It is almost as if everyone is rewriting history. There is order and peace in this civilization and the boy learns the ways of this new society. From here, the boy helps rebuild the human race and lives happily ever after. This ending was like a  fairy tale.

My other alternative endings dealt with death and despair. One of my ideas was similar to Mrs. Wells' idea about farming the boy, except I thought the boy would be shot immediately, not farmed. Another idea was that some of the blood cults would arrive at the hideout and kill the entire family. These possible endings were so depressing because it played along with the tone of the rest of the book. A happy-go-lucky ending would seem out of the blue and very contrived.

In summation, I think Cormac McCarthy left the book at a very good point. A lot of speculation can be made about what happens to the boy, which is what I love about the text. My endings were on opposite sides of the spectrum - either really happy or really sad. If only McCarthy wrote an epilogue ...