"The Road" by Cormac McCarthy, Bird Box" book by Josh Malerman, and "The Passage" by Justin Cronin

The rise in popularity of texts such as "The Road" by Cormac McCarthy, "Bird Box" book by Josh Malerman, and "The Passage" by Justin Cronin is attributed to the societal impact it has because it addresses the issues of end of civilization and humanity and creates fear and confusion. This makes the audience get interested in what will happen next due to the mixed reactions created by the text.

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Nature of the problem

In modern American times people are so addicted to apocalyptic movies. This is due to the reason that the films offer the audience a theme that shows the end of civilization and humanity. The audience is eager to know what will happen in case the world comes to an end. In this way, they will know various ways to get prepared. In the movies, the leaders are the cause of the collapse of the world. They push the nations towards disaster. In the apocalyptic films power usually is hoarded and the profit-oriented decisions that threatens the world crumble.

The other exciting thing that makes people more interested in this film is the way technology takes over the world by things such as terminator. This fascinates the audience and makes them eager to know what next after the end of the world. In any apocalyptic film, many people die, but at the end of the day, only a few can survive. This document will analyze three apocalyptic books, "The Road" by Cormac McCarthy, "Bird Box" book by Josh Malerman, and "The Passage" by Justin Cronin. Each book has a different narrative on the apocalyptic life and the reason why audience like them.

"The Road" by Cormac Mc Cathy

The text "The Road" by Cormac McCarthy is set in post-apocalyptic America in a place of smoking ashes. "The Road" narrates a story of a son and a father who took a journey towards the sea with uncertain salvation. The central theme of the book is a father and a son trying to escape the oncoming Appalachian winter and thus head towards the southern coast. They pass along the most carefully chosen back roads (McCarthy, and Stechschulte). During their journey, they pass through blasted cities and scorched countryside. Blackened looters hold the cities crawled from the rubble with white of tooth and tunneled among ruins. In the text, it shows a world that is starved (McCarthy, and Stechschulte). There is no animal or plant life. One thing that is witnessed is human beings eat each other for them to be able to survive. The son and the father are seen searching for food and shelter in ruins (McCarthy, and Stechschulte). The place is full of people scavenging for human blood. The father tries to find out places where he can get security and keep them safe from the murderous bands. The only things that they pose as security is the clothes they are wearing, a pistol and a cart of scavenged food.

Analysis

The apocalyptic book captures the minds of the audience. Each person is left in suspense of what will happen next. This is seen by how the father and the son walk in a Road that is full of darkness (Shah). This shows a factious world where there is no humanity. People survive for the fittest. This is interesting since it takes the audience away from normal life. It gives them another world where if people only ate other people for survival. It shows how humanity and civilization are being lost. In normal books, it gives a theme that is of the normal way of life. This makes the audience feel bored (Shah). The other thing in the film is there is no morals and culture. The killing and eating of people in the fictitious world is ordinary. There are starvation and dead animal and plants. This shows that life has come to an end and the only option is to look for ways that you can be able to survive another day. In the road, the author brings the audience to feel that they are part of the film by using the father and a son.

"Bird Box" book by Josh Malerman

The book is a post-apocalyptic book which begins by Malorie who is standing by the kitchen. She contemplates on whether it is the final time to begin the journey. She would like to be accompanied by two children (Malerman). Surprisingly she looks at the grand house and notices some cracks in the dishes plus a horrible mess that surrounds her. Malorie believes that the presence of the fog would give her and the children protection from enemies through the covered windows. In the book, it is clear that no one had ever seen a clear sky for the past four years (Malerman). After critical thinking, Malorie decides to set herself for the journey. She instructed the children to follow her instructions and never to take their blindfolds off. This book flashes back to the time the children were born. Despite the mass suicides in Russia dominating the news, she is concerned with how she got pregnant, yet the person responsible is not picking her calls (Malerman). The journey ahead of them was very critical in that any wrong choice and they all die. In the journey, they were engulfed by both frightening and unfamiliar sounds. She embarks on a journey that is in the unseen world.

Analysis

The book is filled with fear. The whole novel shows a world that is not real. The world where people have not seen the sun for nearly four years. The children are blindfolded to avoid them from making any wrong choice. This book creates a scenario that makes the audience wonder about how the character should behave to avoid dying. The plot is very captivating. The other thing is that the culture being practiced shows that there is no respect for humanity since their lot of killings. The fear is what makes the American people think that post-apocalyptic movies create a different view of the film industry.

The book people in suspense do not know what would happen next. The audience is eager to know how Malorie could be able to live for four years without having seen a clear sky. The wild sounds that made them feel frightened. It creates a mood that each person fears and wishes that modern humans could not reach that level. This makes the book interesting. Most Americans are concerned about what will happen in the end times and thus would like to get involved with such movies that make it fascinating.

"The Passage" by Justin Cronin

The book is a post-apocalyptic novel that mainly talks about mortality, faith, and future. The story begins by focusing on a little girl called Amy (Cronin, and Brick). The main mission of the little girl is to liberate the world against the outbreak of the apocalyptic vampires. In the novel, Professor Jonas thinks that he has a cure for death (Weinbrot). So he decides that deep down the jungles of Bolivia with his army they will be able to carry out the research (Cronin, and Brick). The virus does not become successful because most of the people die from the cure. Later the military was able to retrieve the sample of the virus. "Project Noah" this is the code that the virus was labeled.

The mother of the little girl had turned into prostitution for her to be able to provide for the family (Cronin, and Brick). During one of the days, she was able to kill a boy who wanted to gang rape her. She always had hopes that she would provide a good life to the daughter, but she had to live her with her sister Lacey. Lacey is taken to Colorado and is injected with the virus. The virus had caused people to be immortal, and they were now vampires.

Analysis

In the book, it is seen that the author has created a lot of tension from how the virus was designed to how people lost their lives. It is not common in the real world for someone to develop a virus that can make people immortal, but in this situation, there is a virus that can now cure death (Chan, and Miller). The virus at first made a lot of people to die. This makes the readers get confused and left in suspense about what can happen in the future. They will be left trying to want to know what will happen next. The fiction story makes the book interesting. The virus turns people to be vampires. The Americans want to know whether vampires exist or it is just fiction.

The book supports the reason why Americans view movies to find out life after death. In the book, it is seen as there is no way to survive and people are turning to different vices for their survival. The issue of Amy's mother turning into prostitution shows that it was a man eat man society (Chan, and Miller). The vampires were the people who determined the population by killing people. Every creature lives in fear of what could happen next. This uncertainty is what it makes it hard for most people to survive. The apocalyptic books also create themes that are relevant to the current society such as fear and confusion.

How books are interconnected.

The books are all connected. The main theme they cover is fiction. They talk about a world that is not possible (Maatta). They both encourage people to read the text. In the book the bird it is about a journey that is full of uncertainty (Maatta). This shows how life or humanity matters. What they face is people who are scavengers. They fear if they would be able to reach the destination.

So what the books try to create is a situation that is engulfed with fear. The other thing is they are all post-apocalyptic. They express a world that is beyond the reach by a normal human being (Maatta). The world is faced with a lot of problems such as lack of food and survival for the fittest. The other thing is suspense. The apocalyptic book creates a mood that would make the reader even yarn for the next publication. This is the reason why there are more science fiction films. People want something that is beyond their imagination (Maatta). They would like to know how a vampire looks like, and in case they ever live in such a world how would they be able to cope up.

Counter-arguments

The books display how culture can differ in the post-apocalyptic world. In that world, there is no rules or morals that bind anybody (O'Regan). Though people might argue that they are trying to depict a world that is full of violence and it does not promote morality. The other counter-arguments is that the books are like a cult since they use different animals such as the zombies and vampires who suck blood and eat human flesh. This shows how the

Conclusion

In conclusion, the document has portrayed the way apocalyptic movies create fear and confusion. The audience is always given a picture that can leave them wondering. This is what makes the text to be engaging. Without the confusion and anxiety, people could find it boring. The end of humanity and civilization is witnessed. There are no rules that are being followed. Everybody feels that he is right as compared to the real world where there are morals that guide each person. The rise in the reading or use of apocalyptic text can be attributed to its setting. Most people would like to be in a world where they see things as not being normal. So the text that has been analyzed has given a correct outlook of what the society expects from the apocalyptic text.

Work cited

Chan, Michael J., and Joshua C. Miller. "Apocalyptic Eschatology: Lutheran-Pentecostal Reflections On The End". Dialog, vol 55, no. 4, 2016, pp. 343-354. Wiley, doi:10.1111/dial.12280.

Cronin, Justin, and Scott Brick. The Passage. Books On Tape, 2010.

Maatta, Jerry. "Keeping Count Of The End Of The World: A Statistical Analysis Of The Historiography, Canonisation, And Historical Fluctuations Of Anglophone Apocalyptic And Post-Apocalyptic Disaster Narratives". Culture Unbound: Journal Of Current Cultural Research, vol 7, no. 3, 2015, pp. 411-432. Linkoping University Electronic Press, doi:10.3384/cu.2000.1525.1572411.

Malerman, Josh. Bird Box.

McCarthy, Cormac, and Tom Stechschulte. The Road. Recorded Books, 2006.

O'Regan, Cyril. "Two Forms Of Catholic Apocal...