Survival of the fittest is the best theme for Pat Frank’s book Alas, Babylon. Throughout the book all of the characters have to overcome something, some things are bigger than others. Richard Schwartz says in Family, Gender, and Society in 1950s American Fiction of Nuclear Apocalypse: Shadow on the Hearth, Tomorrow!, The Last Day, and Alas, Babylon, “When the bomb is dropped on The Day humanity reverts back to a Stone Age” (Schwartz 410). Humans must now defeat and overcome the unfair odds against them. They must now learn how adapt when everything is wiped out. They not only require physical strength but they also rely on mental strength too. Usually, when one thinks of survival of the fittest, they think about strength and how physically …show more content…
Randy Bragg had essentially become their leader. He was once addicted to sex and was an alcoholic. He transitions into a natural leader in this time of crisis. Randy shows his leadership by saying, “The strong survive. The frail die. The exotic fish die because the aquarium isn’t heated. The common guppy lives. So does the tough catfish…We’re going to have to be catfish” (Frank 176-177). Many people fall apart in times of life threatening situations, like the one presented in Alas, Babylon. Another person who became a natural leader was, Dr. Dan Gunn. He was the person who one would want to go to if they had a medical emergency. There are many times where he is heavily relied upon. Frank shows how the human race could survive during this time of crisis. In this form of dystopian society people are trying to gain back their lives. People’s weaknesses are revealed when they have no electricity. Some of them die because of it. “So the struggle was not against a human enemy, or for victory. The struggle, for those who survived The Day, was to survive the next” (Frank 123-124). Even though they had already survived The Day, which was frightening and tough but it was not the toughest