The Road Part 1

As we read further in The Road, certain aspects of the characters' past lives are slowly revealed to us.  First we get hints that the boy's mother is dead, as well as seemingly most of the human population.  I assumed she died like most people did in whatever horrific catastrophe basically destroyed the Earth.  Later on we learned that she actually took her own life, and had wanted her husband and son to do the same.  Apparently she had been discussing this with her husband for a long time.  Even the boy was aware of it.  When one morning they left without her he simply asked, "Is she dead?" and the father replied, "yes".  Her reasoning was that they were going to die a horrible death if they waited any longer.  This is actually pretty likely considering the circumstances, but it was completely selfish to leave her family behind, especially her son.  It was her responsibility to care for him, and if she really loved her son I believe she would have stayed with him no matter what the future might hold.