There’s a change happening within the characters–as well there should be, according to fiction "law"; but who’dve thought that McCarthy would abide?
Showing, via the dialogue, that as the man becomes more unsure of their fate, the boy, still frightened, begins to offer suggestions. The father begins to ask for his opinion. Mutual dependency develops as the boy becomes better as a lookout, a scout. Even his quiet acquiescent Okay becomes firmer. You can just tell and you start reading the same word differently as its meaning changes.
And what does this mean:
I think maybe they are watching, he (the man) said. They are watching for a thing that even death cannot undo and if they do not see it they will turn away from us and they will not come back. (p. 177)
The Lost Children: A Charity Anthology