Post-Apocalyptic Literature

Post-Apocalyptic Literature

Post-apocalyptic narratives are set after some devastating event has occurred which has destroyed the fabric of society. This might be anything from nuclear war, terrorism, biological warfare or industrial disaster to disease, climate change or technological meltdown. In some cases the event which has brought about such devastation might never be specified.

Fall of Civilisation

Throughout this novel, McCarthy’s frequent use of items that have very little importance to us, convey that we have the potential to be the cause of our own destruction of civilisation.  The threat of death, which is prominent within the idea of the “pilgrimage” that the boy takes the father on, leading him to death, foreshadows that there is no hope for anyone, that they are, “borrowing time”.  All these everyday items, ironically could lead to the cause of our own death.  For example, the grocery-cart  that is used, although insignificant to us, portrays how much they have lost and the little that they have left to hold onto in this decaying world.  Also, when the father shares the boys first can of Coca-cola with him, there is an effect of loss and high value that they hold towards this item from the past world which is very daunting towards the reader and feels almost haunting that they very little hope.  The violence within this moral collapse however, as McCarthy keeps these items with the father and the boy, suggests that this evil has always been within humanity and this gives a larger threat within the overall novel itself towards the power of the unknown.

Civilisation has always been criticised for wanting move forward with technology, development and always reaching for something more. McCarthy identifies this within this novel perhaps a fall to humanity as we have overreached and not appreciated anything around us.  Although there has already been destruction beyond hope towards this world, the father continues to search for something more, hence why they never stop on the road, only when they reach the coast and the father dies.  Through ignoring the moral code, there is never any end or satisfaction that is displayed. The boy is a contrasting character within this overall presentation of humanity. He has grown up in this world and we are able to see how he is able to find the good in things that are existing,unlike others. He perceives everything that is ruined and he highlights how much has been lost  and is still being lost due to our actions. The definition of “apocalypse” is a Greek word meaning “to uncover” which gives the idea that through humanity uncovering too much of the earths potential, it will lead inevitably to destruction. 

We are familiar with all of this decaying imagery and the description of how humans have contributed to this presents the idea that we are going to lead to being morally corrupted.   There is not only a metaphorical fall of civilisation but almost a physical one.  The moral decline within the violence that McCarthy portrays is disturbing, for example the cellar scene in the abandoned house, “On the mattress lay a man with his legs gone to the hip and the stumps of them blackened and burnt. The smell was hideous.”   There is no escape from this imagery, even within the decaying landscape which is “dead and black” and “gray and nameless”. There is an overall feeling of complete destruction within all aspects, we seem to be the cause of the end to civilisation but there is the overwhelming feeling that we have already began to sew the seeds for our own destruction in the future. 

Mythologizing of the past

McCarthy’s elegiac language portrays the idea of the past having similar traits to a “myth” connoting something that has been perhaps altered by interpretation, unrepeatable, past on and that isn't always strictly true (could be seen as having an ambiguous frame).  Things and creatures that once alive are described with beauty for example the trout in the river,” You could see them standing in the amber current where the white edges of their fins wimpled softly in the flow. They smelled of moss in your hand, Polished and muscular and torsional.” There is an extensive amount of detail which contrasts deeply to the language when describing the present “dust and ash everywhere”, “cold and silent”. As the man is referring to the past in this manner, his attitude represents that everything was better than their current life; it was a life where they had hope and familiarity. This hope is also shown when the man described how the people used to behave “their eyes bright in their skulls... in the first few years, the roads were peopled with refugees shrouded in their clothing”. 

It can be interpreted that when the man is remembering the past, he feels as though he is altering his memories of it so he tries to preserve it. For example when he is thinking of his wife, he abruptly states, ”freeze this frame” and replaces it with negative imagery. I think that the man throughout tries to control what he wants to remember from his memories by being selective with how he imagines his wife and the beauty that they have lost. The irony in one of the most prominent lines to this idea, “you forget what you want to remember and remember what you want to forget” is that he is unable to cast of this previous life and he “mistrusted all of that”; everything becomes bitter to him.  When mythologizing of his wife, she becomes a figure of near perfection “her nipples were pipeclayed and her rib bones painted white. She wore a dress of cause and her dark hair was carried up in combs of ivory” particularly plays on his view of her, he focuses on the sensual details, not the emotion.  She is the reason for his attitude to this world; his memories of her change, “the coldness of it was her final fit” to be dark.  The mans cynicism towards the world, unlike the boy, means he has no hope of finding beauty in this world and must rely on the past.

The boy, in comparison, has no recollection of the past life, only of the stories that his father tells him of although he sometimes is unable to believe them because of what he perceives around him.  Everything that once existed is only left to human memory; the humans that have survived are already living in an empty world but the boy hasn’t been taken by the past. I think that the father sees this perhaps potential in the boy, hence why they carry the fire, representing hope of a new world beginning with a new generation that isn't inflicted by the past.

The thoughts and actions of the survivors are what counts

The characters of the man and the boy in the midst of this barbaric world are focalised throughout as they hold a surprisingly tender story of compassion and protection throughout the novel. The theme of love is prominent within their relationship; they care for each other with a level of self-sacrifice which undermines perhaps a reality to the extent they would do for each other, particularly the father.  When the father and the son are talking of death the man tells him, “If you died I would want to die too...Yes. So i could be with you”.  Their isolation creates the idea that their love portrayed is precious and we, as readers, focus on the value of how it has stayed within these survivors (it is a rarity).  When analysing the man’s thoughts, his parental figure is reflected in his actions towards the boy, “They had a single blanket, in the back and he got it out and covered the boy with it and he unzipped his parka and held the boy up against him” , there is a responsibility always there. This story of the survivors presents the man as willing to do anything within his actions to keep them both (particularly the boy) safe from the horrors of the outside world. The soulful feeling created within this aspect focuses more on the minds of those who have been left in this destruction.

These survivors that McCarthy develops his novel around have certain significance that isn't able to be seen within the other characters.  The idea of the son’s breathing, “his hand rose and fell softly with each precious breath”, “sustained by a breath” provokes us to question the purpose of the man and the boy within this dying world. Why would a breath be called “precious” if it as no significance to a post-apocalyptic place without hope of recovering? The father talks of the “frailty of everything revealed at last” which connotes that he values his sons existence more than anything else; it is his hope to his sons survival that we see throughout this with the compassion of keeping him alive above all obstacles.  These two characters hold the only significant part of life in this otherwise dead world.  The representation of light, “carrying the fire” is the hope that the father, through his actions towards the boy, ensures that they boy will never loose this, even when he has gone, “You have to carry the fire...Yes you do. Its inside you. It always was there. I can see it.”  When the father does leave the boy at the end, the boy asks a man who approaches him “are you carrying the fire” which is hopeful in the sense of security; the boy will continue to be a survivor. 

The protagonists use a language that is different to the language spoken by other characters to describe the goodness in the world. The theme of “good versus evil” is portrayed through these two characters and through the fathers distinction to the boy they are the “good guys” but there are also “bad guys” who are a threat; McCarthy creates the plot as almost a “game” to survival. At moments the father has to reassure the boy that they are still the good guys when they commit a crime, such as killing the road rat, “Yes we’re still the good guys...and we always will be”. When the father kills the roadrat and uses one of the two bullets they have, we see that the father has faced a difficult decision as these bullets were their last resort to suicide. By shooting the road rat, he commits to staying alive to be able to protect the boy but also he condemns them to a horrific torturous death. It is shocking how those who do not kill their own kind and are not cannibalistic are considered the “good guys” which makes us focus intensely on how the man and the boy have been able to survive and their behavior when perceiving this world.  It is a battle of morality, there is a potential for good within the boys relentless positive attitude which protects his father from insanity but there is also the clear endless and threatening potential of evil.  This is presented in the primitive nature of the bandits, “He wore a beard that had been cut square across the bottom with shears and he had a tattoo of a bird done by someone with an illformed notion of their appearance...carrying three-foot lengths of pipe with leather wrappings...Behind them came waagvns drawn by slaves in harnesses”. These characters represent the corruption and disintegration of society which the boy and man constantly fight against.