Theme Of Survival In Pat Frank's Alas, Babylon

Pat Frank’s Alas, Babylon is a work that vividly displays American society’s fears during The Cold War. In the story, many Russian nuclear weapons destroy major American cities. The protagonist, Randy Bragg, is fortunate to have been out of the blast zone during detonation. However, over the course of the novel, Randy must change for his friends, family and his own life. Randy shows physical and mental hardening throughout the novel Alas, Babylon.

McCarthy, Cormac. The Road. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2006. Print. The Road is set in a grim atmosphere. It is after apocalypse world where all signs of life are extinct. People and animals are starving, and predatory groups of savages wander around with pieces of human bodies stuck in their teeth. It is both oppressive and disheartening. McCarthy sets an atmosphere like one mediately after the world wars. It is not far-fetched to imagine the possibility of such a sad environment today. The novel tells a story of an unnamed man and his son in who struggle to survive in this horrific environment. I feel that the language in the novel is verbose. McCarthy is blunt in his descriptions. He uses repeated struggles and similar scenes forcing the reader to share the tough experience of the characters. I agree with the author that The Road is the picture of a post-apocalyptic world. I also agree with the opinion that suffering might never end, like the novel indicates through imagery at the very end. The author manages to combine happy moments with sad ones even though the sad ones takes the larger share. In addition, he accomplished his aim of having an audience that is glued to the book all along sine it is both engaging and informative. The author has a perception that the world is composed of more bad things than the good ones. This novel will be important to me as I explore the themes of post-apocalyptic fears and human struggles. However, I do feel that he leans too heavily on sadness

During the Great Depression, the nation as a whole was stripped of financial security and forced into a survivalist way of living. This changed the ways that people interacted with one another and the overall mentality of society. In the Grapes of Wrath, the Joad family is torn from their land and find themselves with nothing, a common story for migrant farmers of that time, derogatorily called “Okies” by Californians. But this is not the only group that is struggling, the entire county was in a state of panic and bruteness, no matter how “well off” they seemed to be. This caused the formation

Both the poem, “The Uninvited” by Dorothy Livesay, and The Wars by Timothy Findley share a common theme of a haunting past. Both works illustrate the fact that past experiences have an evocative effect on one’s character, relationships, and decisions. In both works, the protagonist is met with a past experience that haunts them as they go about their everyday trials and tribulations, and this has a profound effect on their character, decision making, and ability to form relationships.

There are a plethora themes in this story, perhaps the utmost observable and distinguishable theme is the price for knowledge. Throughout the exposition of the story, the reader witnesses Johns’ tribe clueless about metals. In the story, it states “...he who touches the metal must be a priest or the son of a priest...He gave me the metal to hold—I took it and did not die…”. This portrays how concealed they are about knowledge, they presume he who touches metal ought to be a priest, if not, consequently, you die. Moreover, John doesn’t comprehend how self-explanatory utensils work. In the story, this occurs, “...In the washing-place, a thing said ‘Hot’ but it was not hot to the touch—another thing said ‘Cold’ but it was not cold. This must have been a strong magic, but the magic was gone, I do not understand—they had ways—I wish that I knew...”. This displays how John is oblivious to how a sink works, furthermore, it’s even frustrating for him being in the dark about how the gods function or live. In conclusion, knowledge comes at a price, but it could also lead to our demise.

In the book, The Outsiders, written by S.E. Hinton, the premise of The Outsiders is of a power struggle between two social classes, the Greasers and the Socs. This fictional book focuses on hot-button issues of that time period through the journey of Ponyboy and how he navigated through these times. The aftermath and effects of tensions in the group and when said tensions boiled over in the two groups were also shown. The three topics addressed in the down-to-earth novel are rich versus poor, the power of friendship and what it means to be a hero.

“Babylon Revisited” is a very detailed and well written story that has many ups and downs bound to leave the reader on the edge of their seat.F. Scott Fitzgerald uses many different types of writing techniques in “Babylon Revisited” to make this story grab the reader’s attention even more so than some of his previous works.Fitzgerald’s style portrays one of the most important aspects of this book by far, setting the tone for this story giving you more details throughout. From attention to detail, to setting, to literary devices used throughout this story, Fitzgerald really hit home with this one.With the many different writing details used in this story,

Undoubtedly one of the worst natural disasters in U.S. history, The San Francisco Earthquake of 1906, set the stage for understanding earths forces and how to handle them effectively. San Francisco's transformation into a destroyed city, effective response to wide-spread disaster, and expensive reconstruction were all hurtles for the city to climb back to its previous economic power. Despite these challenges, San Francisco was able to rebuild itself into an even greater and more advanced power. The 1906 earthquake gave way to developments that continue to have a positive effect in today's society.

In the short story “By the Waters of Babylon” the author Stephen Vincent Benét conveys the theme, “truth is a hard deer to hunt, if you eat too much of it at once, you may die of the truth” (Benét, 255). Which is a hyperbolic metaphor that means truth is like knowledge, hard to find. So, if too much of it is eaten at once, death is likely; as in truth is dangerous and hard to regulate among people if it is boundless. When the protagonist John was tired after travelling to the forbidden Place of Gods seeking knowledge, he fell asleep in one of the big dead-houses. He dreamed about the gods when they were alive long ago. He was terrified by the tools and knowledge the gods had and

The theoretical notion of personal resilience has been long explored. Charles Darwin a famous philosopher proclaims “It is not the strongest that survives, but the species that survives is the one that is able best to adapt and adjust to the changing environment in which it finds itself” (Megginson). Essentially, people are able to survive, if they adapt to the world around them. Octavia E. Butler creates this notion in her dystopian novel. In the year of 1993, Octavia E. Butler wrote the novel Parable of the Sower. The novel is set in the year of 2025, where the world is overrun by corruption, greed, criminals, violence, famine, thirst, slavery and division. The main character, Lauren Olamina, narrates her life and journey in the novel. Lauren describes the horrendous and corrupt world around her and notes of the population’s response to the violent acts. Lauren views the world around her when she

Will the future of Earth be bright or could it turn dark? In “Harrison Bergeron” by Kurt Vonnegut and “By The Waters of Babylon” by Stephen Vincent Benét, two ominous futures are portrayed along with their dangers. In “Harrison Bergeron” everyone is equal and has to wear handicaps to ensure equality. In “By The Waters of Babylon”, future New York is in ruins after a bombing based off man’s technology. The stories “Harrison Bergeron” and “By the Waters of Babylon” compare and contrast based on the future and the warnings of the future based off the technology used.

The Enlightenment was a period during the 1600 and 1700s where authority, power, government and law was questioned by philosophers. The causes of the Enlightenment was the Thirty Years’ War, centuries of mistreatment at the hands of monarchies and the church, greater exploration of the world, and European thinkers’ interest in the world (scientific study). A large part of the Enlightenment was natural law, which was the belief that people should live their lives and organize their society on the basis of rules and precepts laid down by nature or God; the principles of the Enlightenment in the 1600s through the 1700s influenced the development of the USA by advocating religious and social freedom, freeing the people from oppression, and providing

Society can get more work done in a timely manner than an individual during a crisis. Caputo writes, “A coordinator at the volunteer center told us that more than 14,000 people from every state in the union pitched in.” After a devastating tornado ripped through Tuscaloosa, Alabama, people united together to help rebuild the city. If society did

“The home is where the heart is”-Pliny the Elder. Perry Patetic in his passage claims that it is too easy to move away, the public lacks the close supportive relationships that the former generation enjoyed. The author supports his position by first illustrating that our “fast-moving society” makes it too easy to flee from family, close friends, and the “places of the past”; he continues by sharing with us some examples of the disadvantages. The authors purpose is to share with us the disadvantages of an “open, fast-[paced] society” so that the community may change the way live so that families and close relationships become even closer. The author creates a sincere tone for our fast-paced society. In conflict with Perry Patetic,

Supply Chain Management (SCM) department encounters a number of different stakeholders. Many different working relationships take place within each individual work on, from colleagues to clients, stakeholders, and suppliers. The internal supply chain that delivers the service is complicated and requires the co-ordination and co-operation of individuals and teams who have different skills and priorities. Hence, understanding stakeholder needs and working effectively with them is critical to the success of the procurement team. Cleland (1995: 151) recognised the need to develop an organisational structure of stakeholders through understanding each stakeholder’s interests, and negotiating both individually and collectively to define the best way