spoilerific mini-commentary on The Road

Anyone who finds "hope" in The Road wasn't reading very carefully, or alternately, I wasn't reading very carefully.

The book made it pretty clear to me that all non-human life was dead: trees, birds, fish. I don't think we ever saw an insect, although I also do not recall insects specifically mentioned as wiped out.

Anyhow, with no plants, no animals, and no food source other than fellow humans, what exactly is there to be hopeful about? The kid finds a new family (maybe) at the end, but once the canned potatoes run out, there won't be any more. Unless life is thriving on some other continent, there's nothing to be particularly hopeful about. The author does not paint a clear picture of the world, instead focusing on relentlessly driving home the mood. The mood is: everything's totally fucked. I'm not getting the hope, and since I couldn't find any in the book, I found it to be a pointless exercise in mood writing. Yup, the author very successfully set a mood. But in the absence of story, in the absence of any hope for a future, I could have just set that same mood by reflecting on my own life. WTF do I need a book for to be depressed?