In this article, Yesilbas, Trendacosta, and Newitz, list thirteen examples of Armageddon stories that teach lessons about the real world and its end. One example they examine is Logan’s Run. This book depicts survivors of war, overpopulation, and pollution living in a city sealed off from the forgotten world. However, life and death are controlled by a computer and when a person turns 30 they are disintegrated and reborn. If you choose not to die, you will be referred to as a “runner”, a criminal hunted down and murdered by the police.
According to the passages, I’ll Know Victory or Defeat and Letter from James Meredith, Meredith had many good experiences and some not so well. He completed high school, had a good life in the military, and even became staff sergeant in the Air Force. All of these this affected his life in a positive way, and the world that he lived in. In the passage, Letter from James Meredith, it states “I walked to school, over four miles each way, everyday for eleven years.
Lysa Cohen Professor Freligh ENG-529 18 November 2016 How Setting Helps Develop Theme in Ray Bradbury’s “There Will Come Soft Rains” By 1950, Bradbury was well aware of the continuing threat of nuclear destruction through the very technology that was created make life more comfortable for the human race. In his short story “There Will Come Soft Rains”, Bradbury utilizes the setting of a fully automated home that continues to function independently after the human race is annihilated, to highlight the theme of the continuation of nature after the human race falls to the very technology they created.
Through trying to spark fear and remove denial, the author uses allusions and similes together to compare the outcome of nuclear war to past events and known events seen by people in the present and he is using all of this to try and make the reader see the true threats that are to come to this world if a nuclear war was to happen. When Sagan is explaining the size of the blast of a nuclear bomb, he alludes to the end of the sentence to the “bombs exploded in War World II.” The author using this allusion to compare the bombs that were in World War II to a bigger effect of a nuclear bomb. He also making the reader understand the size and blast difference of these two different bombs by alluding to the military bombs used in the Second World
One key person in The Crucible with ideals that completely changed from the beginning is Reverend Hale. In the beginning Reverend Hale came in believing that he was the ultimate authority on witches. Later on in the story, Hale was shaken by the arrest of Rebecca and the eventual arrest of John where he quits the court. Hale at the end does not believe in religion, but tells others to have faith. Reverend Hale from the beginning to the end is almost a completely different person; this is shown by him coming into the story being the authority on how to find witches, then he is shaken greatly by Rebecca and John’s arrest, and finally by him not having religion but keeping faith.
In the book Just Mercy, by Bryon Stevenson, he shares the story of his upbringing as a lawyer and company Equal Justice Initiative in Montgomery, Alabama. Through his career, he was able to understand the full extent of mercy and its ability to bring out people’s humanity. Additionally, Stevenson argues how people who act upon prejudiced beliefs are just as broken as those who have been condemned to life in prison without parole and on death row, because they have all been defeated by a sense of hopelessness and animosity within their own lives. In my critique, I describe my new found understanding of the cruelty behind the death penalty. Moreso, the trauma and brutality it brings to all the players involved, especially to those who are placed on death row.
In Cat’s Cradle, ice-nine creates apocalyptic collapse. Kurt Vonnegut wants to portray that the atomic bomb very well could’ve created apocalyptic collapse as well. In fact, the damage Hiroshima and Nagasaki endured was far worse than what scientists had predicted considering the burns and radiation many victims suffered for years prior. Even though the bombs did not end the world, they created an entirely new scheme of warfare. Both the atomic bomb and ice-nine are discoveries that were based off the smallest building blocks of matter.
Typically, the end of the world is shown as a dull and gloomy with no sense of moving forward with life. However, in Z Nation the cast members are focused on traveling towards the West to save what is left of humanity. Also, the survivors have no intentions of hurting others they find nor dwell on the negativity that followed the apocalypse.
The John Wyndham’s novel The Chrysalids was published in 1955, just a decade after World War II and the first uses of nuclear weapons. John Wyndham used the future apocalyptic theme as a warning about the continuing development of nuclear weapons. The nuclear disaster that wiped out the "Old People" is a strict warning from the author to humanity regarding what can happen to us if we continue research into nuclear weaponry.
“Noah and the Flood”, “Deucalion and Pyrrha”, and “Tower of Babel” all go through the apocalypse archetype. First, the world and the people in it become extremely corrupt. Second, some powerful force causes the apocalypse and ends the world. Lastly, there is a new world created that will supposedly be a better one. In the modern world shows like The Walking Dead follow apocalypse archetype.
Just Mercy Final Reflection In the United States, child incarceration has been a longstanding problem. According to the Sentencing Project of 2021, there are nearly 50,000 juveniles being held in detention centers, prisons, or other correctional facilities. This issue was brought to light from Just Mercy by Bryan Stevensons, which chronicles the work of Stevenson as a lawyer advocating for those who have been wrongly convicted, including children. Stevenson’s book is mainly centered around Walter McMillian, a black man wrongfully accused of murder and sentenced to death.
It is clear that John Wyndham wrote The Chrysalids as a warning for today’s society, based on the comparisons that are drawn between the society of Waknuk, the Old People, Sea land, and our current society. More specifically, the current technological advancements, the existence of fundamentalist groups, and the slowly changing concept of “freedom of speech”. The events of Tribulation serve as a warning to today’s society. Many current day countries have nuclear weaponry, chemical weaponry, bombs, and other massively destructive tools at their disposal. Comparably, the Old People had very advanced technology and the reader knows that a nuclear war has taken place based on the existence of such extreme mutations seen in both plants and people.
Trench warfare was first introduced during the Great War which began in 1914. In 1914, Europe was divided into two alliances; the triple alliance and the triple entente. Trench warfare was used by both sides; it was both good and bad for the war. This type of warfare, along with many other weapons, new fighting styles and techniques, played a huge role in not only the outcome, but the length of the war. Trench warfare was mainly developed by the introduction of rapid firing small arms.
Susuma Kimura, a witness of the bomb’s effect and how people suffered because
In order to understand apocalyptic literature, and determine its significance today, it is therefore vital to recognise its key characteristics. First, it must be noted that apocalyptic describes a literary genre, and must not be confused with apocalyptic eschatology, which pertains specifically to the end of all time, and which emerges in several literary forms. Equally, it must not be confused with apocalypticism, in which anticipation of the end of the age is emphasised. Indeed, Daniel ‘lacks most of the features of apocalyptic thought’, and is considered to be one of only two complete pieces of apocalyptic literature in scripture.
