Post-Apocalyptic Literature

10 observations on the features, themes and functions of post-apocalyptic fiction.  

1.

Protected bastions of humanity in a sea of inhospitable waste or wilderness or danger, such as enclosed cities, underground caverns, and bunkers. - This feature appears in The Road though the bunker, which resembles salvation, as the man and the boy find peace and safety here for a few days, protecting themselves from the outside world.

2.

Marauding gangs of bandits. - There are a lot of these in The Road; the 'road-rats', the group of people who own the house with the basement of bodies, the group who put the baby on the fire...

3.

‘Apocalypse’ derives from the Greek word for ‘revelation’. - Revelation is often used in the semantic field of religion and christianity, and the last book of the bible is called 'Revelations'. Some definitions of revelations are: "a surprising and previously unknown fact that has been disclosed to others." and "the divine or supernatural disclosure to humans of something relating to human existence.Fall of civilisation." Revelations could be an underlying theme in The Road, as there are some references to God and christianity, such as 'If he isn't the word of God God never spoke". Dreams is also a very sting theme throughout the novel, and revelations - especially biblical ones- are often delivered through dreams.

5.

Mythologizing of the past. - There is a small amount of discussion about the past in The Road, and most of it is down through flash backs and so isn't mythologized.

6.

The thoughts and actions of the survivors are what counts. - You could say no, as the man has numerous flashbacks and dreams to his wife, who committed suicide (so is obviously dead) and her actions seemed to have influenced him quite a lot, for example "the coldness of it was he only gift" when talking about her suicide, taught him to be distant from the boy so he doesn't get too attached. Another quote is "Suppose you were the last one left? Suppose you did that to yourself?" showing that to be the last one alive wouldn't be a good thing. Although there are manny times at which it seems that if death is inevitable then that person no longer matters - the man not wanting to help the people who will definitely die.

7.

Humanity has always imagined its own destruction. Each generation believes the end is somewhere round the corner, and our catastrophic fantasies are a good barometer of what’s currently troubling us. - In The Road, the readers do not know what has caused the end of the world - although we can make educated guesses. For example, it could have been due to global warming - the forest fires and dead nature, or it could have been an atomic bomb, the light and the noise and the toxic air etc. Global warming is secondly human's own doing, while the atomic bomb would be primary. It is unknown whether humans caused the end of the world in The Road, but it seems probable.

8.

Post-apocalyptic novels are a dark, bleak and often illuminating genre. - This is true with The Road to a certain extent, as it is dark and it is bleak. It is dark and bleak in its description, in its characters and in its story. But it is, as the statement says, also an illuminating genre. I don't fully understand what it means by that but i think it means it illuminates/lights up certain aspects of the world and life that you wouldn't have thought of before, and i agree. "'The Road' offers nothing in the way if escape or comfort, but its fearless wisdom is more indelible than reassurance could ever be."

9.

Punishment for our wicked overreaching. - In the road this occurs a few times, for example the road rat with missing fingers. It is never a main theme or topic explored however I don't think. Even though there are numerous cases where it is clear punishment has been take too far - like the road rat, and the dead bodies on spears by the side of the road - I don't think it is ever looked into in the same detail as dreams or simplicity.

10.

A chaotic dark age, in which robber bands, bizarre millenarian religious sects, nomads, hunters and foragers of all sorts are found. The remains of the industrial society – its rotting industrial plants, its collapsed cities – litter the landscape, archaeology rather than evidence of recent catastrophe. - The Road does seem chaotic, society has completely broken down and the remaining survivors mainly seem to be greatly corrupted, turning into cannibals and murderers. The earth too has become littered with the absence of anything living. No animals, dead nature, dead people.