Sacrifice

This novel gets tougher and more nightmarish as the pages turn. The incident at the house was until now the most horrible scene that the book has presented.
Starving and desperate for food, the man leads the way to a seemingly abandoned house in hopes of finding anything edible. Despite the kid's pleas, the man forces a locked door open, and soon he regrets doing so as he encounters a horde of people sitting naked in the dark basement, probably next in line to be eaten by the "bad guys". The cannibals see them, and as the man and his son run for dear life, a new and terrible situation is set on the table. "Take it” said the man giving the revolver to his son. "If they find you, you are going to have to do it. Do you understand? You know how to do it."(p. 113). The horror of asking his own son to kill himself is just too terrible to imagine. How savage and inhumane has the world become in order to render self-destruction as a better alternative than being caught by the cannibals.
I can't help but wonder how the man and his son have managed to preserve the desire to keep living in such an inhospitable world. Is there any hope for them at all? Is there any reason for them to keep enduring such a tortuous existence? The mother obviously decided she wasn’t willing to withstand it. Why has the man decided that it's worth maintaining him and his son alive? So far, their condition is so depressing, bleak and unfavorable that I can't help but look at their future pessimistically. The prospect of a better future is still covered by the falling snow and ashes.