'The Road' Implications Analysis

In 'The Road', subtle implications are made which hint at the nature(s) of people. Mainly, the missing thumbs of some characters imply that they were once apart of some commune, and were perhaps outcasted. The missing thumbs also relate to the thing which differentiates Humans from other animals on Earth (Humans have thumbs whereas other animals don't); the cannibal characters shown do have thumbs, whereas the non-hostile characters do not -- this implies that the non-canibals have become the prey and are now the equivalent to pre-apocalypse Human-hunted animals.

Also relating to the 'animals' implication, neither "The Man" nor "The Boy" are given names in this movie, which relates back to primal Man when Humans hunted and were hunted.

Implications such as these can be very important in a 'Post-Apocalyptic' movie because they often focus heavily on the atmosphere and environment, as opposed to being told things during dialog between characters.