After the End Post-Apolcayptic Features in The Road and The Survivor (original) (raw)

2023, After the End Post-Apolcayptic Features in The Road and The Survivor

The word apocalyptic, with its double meaning of "end of the world" and "revelation, enlightenment", implies not only collapse, destruction, and extinction but also hope and new beginnings. Post-apocalyptic, on the other hand, deals with the aftermath of great destruction and disaster. The causes of these disasters can be natural or social, or they can be caused by non-human beings/extraterrestrial beings. Today, developing war technology and the increasing race for hegemony in the international arena have accelerated the circulation of disaster, destruction, and extinction. Set in a post-apocalyptic universe, Cormac McCarthy's The Road (2009) and Julie Guinand's The Survivor (2019) depict the human race's struggle for hope and survival, centering on the aftermath of a catastrophe in which human civilization is destroyed and very few people survive. This study aims to compare these two novels in the context of post-apocalyptic features. In this comparison, Frank Kermode's A Sense of an Ending (1966) and James Berger's After the End (1954) are utilized from a theoretical perspective. Kermode's concept of "apocalyptic pattern" and Berger's concept of "post-apocalyptic representation" are investigated and the findings are compared. Accordingly, based on the concept of "apocalyptic pattern", it is determined that the two novels differ to a great extent in indicators such as immanence, horror-decadence, crisis, beginning-end, harmony, and existential anxiety. Similarly, based on the concept of "post-apocalyptic representation", it is seen that the two novels follow a different trajectory in indicators such as beginning-end, trauma, and memory reconstruction. On the one hand, The Road mostly contains the usual features of post-apocalyptic narratives such as "the sense of the end being immanent everywhere, the narrative being accompanied by a collapse, the prevalence of moments of crisis, the motif of the end also signifying a beginning"; on the other hand, in The Survivor, the elements of "collapse, great destruction, horror" are missing and a story of introversion is observed. Similar distinctions and tendencies are also identified on the basis of the concept of "post-apocalyptic representation". The findings of the aforementioned comparison also provide clues about the medium in which the post-apocalyptic narrative has evolved.