One principle that I believe every person should hold themselves to is to respect your parents. Parents teach their kids how to be human. They show them what is allowed and what is considered unorthodox. Parents teach humanity. After they teach you to walk, talk and be safe, they teach you what makes a person human. Parents are the ones that teach compassion, sympathy and empathy. If people were to stop respecting those that make them human, then humanity is lost. If parents are ignored then all the emotions that make a person human would go extinct.
In The Road, the son is the most compassionate character. He was born in an unforgiving, desolate world. If anyone were to be cold and heartless, I would expect the son to be. The only reason that he is compassionate and empathetic is because of his dad. He has no one else at all in his life, and the environment he lives stripes away the humanity of people. His dad is the one that has made him caring, and if it were not for the boy's deep respect for him, the boy would be a heartless survivor.
