Key Episodes (Part 1)

Coming across the man who has been struck by lightening (page 50-53)

When the man and the boy come across the tracks that had "suddenly appeared", it made me question who or what had made the tracks. Throughout the book leading up to this moment, the man and boy hadn't really encountered anything living and tension is created due to the sudden arrival of signs of life. However, as the man and the boy had camped on the "actual road" and whoever it was would have to have passed straight past them. They had not been bothered by them so they can't be that dangerous or they can't hurt them. When the boy asks who the person could be, the man responds by saying "who is anybody?" showing his acceptance of the loss of identity of people. Who needs a personality, or personal traits when all you need to do is survive.
The boy's empathetic nature is prominent throughout the episode. When they come across the man, the boy immediately asks what they should do, inferring that he wants to help. The man just tells him that they are going to follow and watch, a consistent characteristic of his, distancing himself from everything that isn't key to survival. McCarthy's contrast of the characters is prevalent through The Road and is made even more evident in episodes like this. When the man and the boy leave the injured man, the boy was "crying. He kept looking back". This reinforces the boy's loving nature and also his naivety. The man knows that if they helped the injured man, they will die. The boy cannot accept this.
  We gain an insight to the man's feelings during this episode. McCarthy flashes back to an incident where the man leaves his wallet, including evidences of the pre-apocalyptic world, on the road. McCarthy cleverly places this flash back during this episode, as they mirror each other. The man leaves behind "His driver's license. A picture of his wife." as they won't help him along his journey, and are an emotional burden. They will only remind him of his past which won't help him survive. The same is true of leaving the injured man, as he would be a physical burden to the pair, not helping them survive; survival is key throughout the novel.

Shooting the 'road rat' (page 62-69)

This episode is different in pace and tension to a lot of the episodes in the book. McCarthy draws us into a false sense of security to begin with on page 62. The boy is playing with his truck and making truck noises (reminding the reader of his young age) and they fall asleep in the leaves on a day that "seemed almost warm.". The man falls asleep, showing that he feels safe, as he usually does not sleep. He just watches the boy. When the man is woken, it is by men with a truck. This is ironic as the boy had been 'happy' whilst he was playing with his toy truck. McCarthy shortens the length of the sentences on page 63 ("We have to run. Dont look back. Come on." This increases the tension, due to the quick pace of which you have to read.
We gain a sense of the desperation of people in this episode. McCarthy describes one of the men as being like "an animal inside a skull looking out the eyeholes". The humans left have regressed to animals, and as the same man says, they eat "Whatever we can find." This seems to infer cannibalism.
We gain an insight into what the father's career/life was like before the apocalypse in this episode. He talks to one of the men about the brain in detail ("A frontall lobe and things with names like colliculus and temporal gyrus") He is very well educated, and may have been a doctor. By infering that he was a doctor, McCarthy may be saying that it didn't matter who/what you were before the apocalypse; everyone lost everything.
Also, the man "dove and grabbed the boy and rolled [...] and fired from a two-handed position on both knees at a distance of six feet." The man has clearly done something similar to this due to his precision and accuracy of aim.
Images of horror are present on page 68/9. After the man shoots the roadrat, he lay "with blood bubbling from the hole in his forehead" The image is quite gory and scary. The boy ends up "covered in gore", which is horrible as he is only young. Even then, the boy seems to be empathetic as he was "clutching his forehead". He can't believe what has just happened.
I believe that this episode highlights the dangerous world in which the pair live in. McCarthy is showing us that regardless of how safe they feel, the man and the boy will always be under threat of danger.