Snow By Julia Alvarez Essay

From the dropping of the atomic bombs in Japan to the Collapse of the Soviet Union, the American people lived in fear of the concept of mutually assured destruction, commonly referred to as “MAD.” This idea revolves around the central principle that if one global power were to use a nuclear device against another, retaliatory actions would result in escalation that would ultimately lead to global annihilation. These fears are reflected in the works of many authors; however, the largest proliferation of these fears were through popular culture. Pop-culture generally portrayed the nuclear threat as being far more in control of the people by using comedy and softer images, in order to calm panic formed by the growing fear of MAD. The sheer fear of the atomic bomb is accurately portrayed in the memoir of Julia Alvarez, Snow. Alvarez describes her first experience witnessing snow in the US after coming from the Dominican Republic, stating that it looked like “the dots in the air

The 1964 movie Dr. Strangelove depicts the results of an all out nuclear war, and the sheer amount of damage it would cause, all the while making this scenario, one that at the time when the movie came out had been feared, seemed humorous. The movie is full of funny moments highly dramatizing, and at some points degrading, the work of the government, and ends with an upbeat montage of the destruction of the world through nuclear holocaust. Though the movie does portray the results of a nuclear strike less in the control of the people and more of the control of the government, unlike most other pop-culture, it does portray it in a similar comical light. The movie’s focus on the absurdity of war helps to create a comforting effect, similar to the Atomic War! Comic, by making the destruction seem like a distant threat, only possible through ridiculous