The Road begins with the man waking from a dream. Describe what he sees in the dream. What could this dream tell us about the man, his situation, and what is going to happen later?

The Road opens with the man, one of the novel's two central, unnamed protagonists, awakening at night to check on his sleeping son. Even in sleep, the man and the boy wear facemasks. The man has been dreaming about wandering in a flowstone cave, led by his son, "Like pilgrims in a fable swallowed up and lost among the inward parts of some granitic beast" (3). In the dream, the man and his son arrive at a "black and ancient lake" across from a blind creature (3). The creature is translucent, and its innards are vaguely visible. The creature turns away from the man and the boy.