Context.

In pages 35-71 McCarthy introduces more of a context to the main characters' situation. We knew they were in America from the information at the back of the book, yet we find out that they are in North America, and what used to be the United States on page 43. They boy asks if "there's not anymore states" and the man replies, "I don't know exactly. That's a good question." (43) This information tells the reader that, for some reason, the United States collapsed and left a few struggling survivors. However this still leaves many questions unanswered, such as what happened for this powerful country to fall? What happened to the other countries in the world?And, if these countries are still in existence, why did none come to help the survivors?

The next information that we receive about the past of the man and the boy is when the man "sat by the roadside and took out... the contents [of his wallet]. Some money, credit cards. His driver's license. A picture of his wife." (51) Here we are introduced to the man's wife and (presumably) the boy's mother. She is obviously not with them, yet the fact that the man had been carrying a picture of her with him this whole time shows that he still cares for her and they did not split because of hate or violence. The revelation of the man's wife leaves us with more questions, such as: why is she not with them now?

"The clocks stopped at 1:17" takes us to the beginning of the catastrophe which the rest of the story follows. (52) This paragraph shows us the man and his wife, pregnant at the time, in their house. In their life before their world collapsed. Slightly further on, the boy tells the man, "I wish I was with my mom" and the man eventually responds: "you mean you wish you were dead." (55) Here we find out for sure that the wife has died, and it was after the birth of their son because he knows her enough to want to be with her. More questions: How and when did she die?

The next paragraph begins a conversation between the man and his wife that answers these questions. She appears cold, uncaring: "I don't care. I don't care if you cry. It doesn't mean anything to me... I don't care. It's meaningless. You can think of me as a faithless slut if you like. I've taken a new lover. He can give me what you cannot." (55-57) She walks out into the dark, frozen woods to die without saying goodbye to her son. The man begs her not to go, but I think she did the right thing. She was brave. She mentions people who will come to rape and torture and eat them. I wouldn't want to sit around and wait to meet them either. She made a sacrifice for her husband and son, there were only two bullets left. Someone was going to have to die another way, and she chose to save the two people who mattered most in the world to her- despite how much she insisted that she didn't care.