The Last Coke of the Desert

The Road by Cormac McCarthy has begun with a chilling story of a man with his son, fighting to survive in a barren land destroyed by a yet unknown catastrophe. The cold is becoming unbearable and it seems that the only chance of survival rests in moving South.
McCarthy is able to transmit the obscurity of this situation with very direct and blunt prose, and lets his readers process the gravity of the situation through short but deeply significant incidents. A great example of his technique is the encounter with the unexpected Coca Cola can.
While walking through a run-down supermarket, the man and his son stumble upon a soft drink machine and manage to retrieve a small can of Coke. The man gives it to his son, and despite the son's efforts to share it with him, the man firmly declines. McCarthy ends this touching scene with the child's words,
"It's because I won't ever get to drink another one, isn't it?"(p.24)
It is revealed that the son is completely aware of how precarious their situation is and this can only emphasize the difficulties he has suffered along his father. McCarthy uses this technique to stress the horror and loss of innocence that the kid is going through. The blissful state of ignorance and carelessness which people were meant to enjoy during that beautiful period of life is snatched away from him and replaced with a savage fight for survival, roaming a barren land in hopes of finding food or warm clothing. It is a completely devastating scene.