Introduction As seen in the writings of Plato regarding Socrates, which some will argue is a blending of the two philosophers’ ideas, one of the requirements for a moral and ethical man is that he must first know “his spiritual self as it really is, including all its shortcomings, strengths and potentialities” (Sahakian, Sahakian 32). This is, ultimately, the journey being taken by the unnamed man and boy in Cormac McCarthy’s novel The Road (2006) as they travel from somewhere in the northern United States to the south in order to find a climate they can survive in the post-apocalyptic wasteland the country has become. As Plato was a disciple of Socrates and the source of much of the information we have regarding much of what this man had to say, Socrates’ concept of ethics is relevant to an understanding of Plato’s views and the discoveries of the characters in Cormac McCarthy’s novel. According to Socrates, it is the man who does not know himself who cannot accurately judge his own capabilities and his own unique path to the greatest good based on accurate use of his strengths and knowledge of his weaknesses. Socrates takes this another step by suggesting that knowledge of oneself will instruct from within regarding those things which are good (moral and ethical) and those things which are not. He suggests this by claiming that things that are good will make us feel happy inside while things that are bad will be immediately recognizable to the man who knows himself because these actions will cause “spiritual degradation and mental deterioration” (Sahakian, Sahakian 33) that will be immediately apparent. As the man and boy travel through the barren landscape, it can be seen that the ethics of the boy have developed along different routes than the ethics of his father, leading them each to different paths of salvation. This progression can be most clearly seen by making a comparison between Plato’s Allegory of the Cave and the situation in which the man and boy find themselves within McCarthy’s novel, particularly in terms of the characteristics of the cave, the nature of the forms presented and the ultimate enlightenment each character receives. The cave Plato’s allegory begins with the placement of all humans within a dark cave, positioned in such a way that they can only see what their captors have elected to allow them to see. Within the primitive technology of his time, Plato described such a position. In the dialogue he presents, Socrates explains “here they [human beings] have been from their childhood, and have their legs and necks chained so that they cannot move, and can only see before them, being prevented by the chains from turning round their heads” (Kreis 2004). From where they sit, the world is composed of the shadows of things that are passing behind them, illuminated by a light source that cannot be seen or guessed at. Within this world, there is no color or natural light. What the people know about their world is extremely limited and sharply defined by the simple and relatively concrete terms of dark, light, hot, cold, here and not here. It is two dimensional, defined by height and width but never provided depth or texture. There are no real conceptions for shades of grey, no need to make fine distinctions and no decisions that must be made that are not drastic, such as the decisions one might need to decide if one suddenly found oneself free of their constraints. Within the dialogue, Socrates goes on to explain that when one of these indi