Does anyone know the meaning of the ending of "The Road" - Cormac McCarthy?

Question

*SPOILER*

After the boy finds the "good guys", there is a paragraph describing a woman hugging him. Could this be the boys mother who left the boy and the father>

Also, the very last paragraph describes trout in a stream, and the smells and looks of the trout, that will never exist again. Is there any symbolic meaning to this that im missing, like when McCarthy refers the the 'maps and mazes' on the trouts' backs?

Thanks!

Answer 1

I think that Cormac McCarthy uses the 'good people' in the book to symbolize the good in the hearts of all human beings.  It could also be a religious metaphor for the afterlife; that would be the only way that it could be his mother.  In the book, she didn't leave them.  She was pushed to the end of her rope by the situation around her, and shot herself to avoid being killed by the cannibals.