'War is god'

Joe Penhall argues that in some respects The Road is McCarthy's most optimistic novel:

His other books give the impression that he thinks inhumanity is intrinsic. Those books are about the worst, the extent of man's inhumanity. The Road is very much about the best. It seems to be very autobiographical - a clever love story about McCarthy and his son, who was eight when he wrote it - but thrown into this post-apocalyptic landscape.

Contrast this, spoken by the judge in Blood Meridian:

It makes no difference what men think of war...War endures. As well ask men what they think of stone. War was always here. Before man was, war waited for him. The ultimate trade awaiting its ultimate practitioner. That is the way it was and will be. That way and not some other way.