Post-Apocalyptic Literature

Post apocalyptic narratives are set sometime after a devastating event that has occurred, which has destroyed the fabric of society.

 



 

"The thoughts and actions of the survivors are what counts"

• The man seems to always be thinking with a positive mind set. When the woman thinks they are going to 'raped, killed and eaten', the man reassures her that things will be okay, although in reality he knows the truth and knows that things may only get worse:

          'we're survivors' - the man (pg 57)

          'we're not survivors. We're the walking dead in a horror film' - the woman

 

• (pg 68) The man sacrifices one of only two last bullets they have in their revolver to kill the 'roadrat' who tries to threaten the man and boy by putting a knife to the boys throat. To ensure their safety, the man shoots the roadrat; even though the consequences may be that the 'gang' the roadrat was travelling with heard the shot of the gun, leading the man and boy to try and make a quick escape. Choosing to kill the roadrat ultimately saved the boy and his own life, if the boy had have been killed the man would no longer have anything to live for so would end up using the last bullet to kill himself. Sacrificing one bullet meant ensuring both of their lives were safe, for that moment anyway.

          'The man had already dropped to the ground and he swung with him and levelled the pistol and fired from a two handed position balanced on both knees at a distance of six feet. The man fell back instantly and lay with blood bubbling from the hole in his forehead.'

 

• The man, although never really showing emotional love towards his child, always puts his needs before his own. He notices that the young boy is frail and weak and does his best to take care of him in such a harsh environment. The man's caring a thoughtful actions ultimately lead to boy surviving in the end of the novel against all odds. There are times when the man gives the boys the opportunity to survive even if he himself doesn't, for example when the man tells the boy to take the gun in order to keep himself safe. The man takes full responsibility and constantly puts the boy's wellbeing before his own.

          'They had a single blanket in the pack and he got it out and covered the boy with it and he unzipped his parka and held the boy against him.' (pg 70)

         

          'Take the gun'

          'I don't want the gun'

          'I didn't ask you if you wanted it. Take it.' (pg 73)

 

• Sometimes it is evident that the boy has seen so much bad and so much destruction in his short life that he tries to pick out the positive and hopeful things in a situation, even if the man is disagreeing. This positive thinking in turn leads the boy to making the right choices in order to keep himself and his father safe. Small glimmers of hope from the boy seem to give the man the urge to carry on and not give up, managing to get them to the coast. 

          'Is it the bad guys?'

          'Yes. I'm afraid so.'

          'They could be the good guys couldn't they?' (pg 108)

 

• In order to keep the child safe, the man teaches the boy certain tricks and techniques in case any 'bad guys' do come by them. He is always thinking about the boy's welfare and how to keep him safe if he is not around. The boy takes on his father's advice and manages to stay safe if there ever becomes a time when the man isn't around and the boy needs to protect himself.

          'He'd tried to teach him to lie in the woods like a fawn.'

 

 

"'Apocalypse' derives from the Greek word for 'revelation'"

 

•  It could be seen as a revelation that the man chooses to shoot the roadrat in order to save the boy's life. If he hadn't then the boy would have died and the man would have had no uses left to live. But in shooting the roadrat he saved both of their lives and in turn creating a revelation that the man is powerful, strong willed and caring. (pg 68)
• The world that the man and boy now live in is grotesque and dark. They discover some disturbing things along the road and also off the road. It is a contrast to the world before that the man remembers and they see many sights the young boy should not be subjected to see. This new world that they live in could be seen as a revelation:

          'A charred human infant headless and gutted and blackening on the spit' (pg 212)

 

• When the man and boy come across across the bunker in the ground which is full of food they seem to have discovered a revelation because after thinking their lives would be over due to starvation and illness they find this saviour in a sea of badness. This 'revelation' means that their lives are extended even more, giving them the chance to get to the coast and find hope.

          'Crate upon crate of canned goods. Tomatoes, peaches, beans, apricots...'



"Mythologizing the past"

• During the most depressing times along the road, the man chooses to reminisce about his childhood and remember his uncle. This is to clear his mind of the badness and think, just for a few minutes, of the good life he once had. It's never actually clear if these memories are true or not, for the reader interprets them in their own way. The man could be 'mythologizing' his memories just to make his present situation seem cheerier and more uplifting.

          'This was the perfect day of his childhood. This the day to shape the days upon.' (pg 11)

• In the silence of the road, the man thinks back to when his wife was the bride. He remembers how she looked saying: 'Her nipples were pipeclayed and her rib bones painted white. She wore a dress of gauze and her dark hair was carried up in combs of ivory'. Although after thinking it through he says: 'He mistrusted all  of that.' For he may have been mythologizing his past with his wife, she may not have been that beautiful; although due to his bitterness it could be that she was that beautiful but he chose to pretend that she wasn't. (Pg 17)
• Although, straight after the apocalypse things weren't much better, they seemed far much better to the man and boy compared to their current life on the road. They remember seeing people crowded along the edge of the road, where as now they merely see anyone along the road and if they do they instantly think it's a 'bad guy'. He describes the people to seem healthier than the people they now see which shows the prolonged badness of the world.

          'Their eyes were bright in their skulls.'
          'In the first years, the roads were peopled with refugees shrouded up in their clothing.' (pg 28)

• The man remembers the day the clocks freeze and remembers his wife questioning what is happening. He also remembers seeing birds flying overhead and only seeing them circle above him a few times before never seeing them again. Here the man could be mythologizing the past because it seems all a daze to him, a distant/faint memory which he chooses to remember because he no longer sees birds flying.

          'lay listening to flocks of migrating birds over head...'