9/19/19 Anthony Cheng PD 7

9/19/19

Modern Mythology

Anthony Cheng PD 7

Aim: How can we use our knowledge of The Road to illustrate possible causes for the Apocalypse? 

Today in class, groups presented their book cover projects and shared their ideas on what

caused the world to be like what it is in The Road.

The first group to present was the Shopping Cart Crusaders:

Taya explained how in an attempt to satisfy the world’s growing demand for fossil fuels,

scientists decided to drill deep into the Earth’s crust. She went on to compare the Earth to

a balloon, reasoning that drilling too deep into the Earth will cause it to explode. She continued

by saying that as a result of our drilling, massive explosions occurred throughout the world.

The resulting soot and smoke would then block out the sun causing the eternal winter seen

in the novel. Dejon then added that explosions weren’t the only consequence of the drilling.

Massive shifts in the tectonic plates would then cause devastating earthquakes, explaining why

the clocks stopped working in the novel. Alex then explained that the long shear of light seen

in the novel was actually volcanic lightning, a real life phenomenon where an electrical

discharge is caused by a volcanic eruption, rather than from an ordinary thunderstorm. Alex

revealed that the real cause for the apocalypse was not the Earth’s crust exploding or volcanoes,

the real cause was humanity’s greed. As a result of the never-ending greed of governments

across the world, the world was destroyed and rendered into the desolate wasteland seen in the

novel. Picking up from Alex, Allen explained the reasons for why humanity made the choices

that took place in the novel. He reasoned that since governments fell apart as a result of the apocalypse,

ruthless death cults were created to pick up what was left behind and people

were forced to join to survive. He then discussed the moral degradation of the world, with

things that were once seen as immoral now becoming necessity, such as cannibalism,

murder, stealing, and slaves. Kelly and Iandra then presented their group’s book cover and explained its deep symbolism

.

The novel’s name is a play on words of the song “Highway to Hell,” further emphasizing

the consequences of humanity’s greed. The hole drilled into the paper represents the drilling

into the Earth’s crust and The Boy is seen all alone. When opened, the cover reveals life before

and after the Apocalypse. Drills are seen in the background and the man possesses most of “the fire.”

The long shear of light in the middle represents the Apocalypse taking place and the open door

has a double meaning of either the bunker or the basement of slaves, illustrating how the new

world is full of uncertainty and something could easily be either a tranquil paradise or

just another depiction of how far humanity has fallen. On the right side of the poster, as The Boy and The Man continue to walk down the road, it becomes shattered and broken, similar to the world itself.As they progress, The Man gives The Boy all of “the fire” that he possesses and dies, forcing The Boy to continue on his journey to restore light in this bleak world alone. 

The next group to present was Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs:

Their presentation was a video and it began with an asteroid striking the Earth, devastating

it and knocking out electricity across the world. Volcanic activity then occurred as a result

of the asteroids striking the Earth and the ensuing smoke and sulfur would then block out the

sun, freezing the world. Despite all this, some remained hopeful that the government would

save them from what was to come. Unsurprisingly, the government failed and the world order

was destroyed. Cults were formed everywhere and murdered and cannibalized any survivors.

They reasoned that cannibalizing was a sign of mercy, releasing them from the cruel world they

live in. The group then explained the difference between The Man and The Boy and the road

agents, pointing out that despite all living in the same conditions, The Man and The Boy kept

their morals in a broken world and never devolved into savages.

The last group to present was my group Me and the Boys:

Billy started the presentation off by stating the name of our novel and relating the destruction

and death of the Normandy Landings to the events that take place before The Road. I then read a quote from our novel, “The world saw it coming. It was everywhere. The news, the media, and

the internet. But no one could stop it….. one day, it just exploded. The whole world turned dark within a matter of days. Ashes everywhere. The sky, the oceans, and the land,” and explained how

the world was reduced to its current state in The Road due to a supervolcano on a scale never seen before that devastated the world. The smoke and sulfur from the resulting eruption blocked out

the sun and caused the winter seen in the novel. Marcus presented our cover and explained how the figure in the back represents The Man witnessing the destruction of the world. The figure in the front represents The Boy and although he is not born yet, he represents the future the man has coming and his desire to protect him from the barbaric world.

Kevin explained the events that took place in our novel. He explained that a super volcano that was predicted to erupt every 17,000 years last erupted 74,000 years ago and was long overdue. Thought to have remained dormant, no one expected it to suddenly erupt. The world that everyone knew was about to change. On the Friday of September 13th, a huge eruption shook the Earth. Ryan picked up from Kevin and said that most died nearly instantly. Eruptions continued over the span of a few months causing unimaginable damage to the world before it had finally stopped. By the time the eruptions stopped, the world was completely dark, covered with ashes and fumes spread by the wind. Terrance talked about the consequences of the disaster and included drastic temperature drops due to the sun being blocked out by all the smoke and sulfur and the resulting extinction of several plants and animal species.Water became polluted and food supplies dwindled as the world fell apart and society crumbled away. Billy then revealed how humans were affected by the disaster and talked about how many turned to cannibalism in order to stay alive as a result of the lack of food, trading their humanity for survival.  

Student Reflection:

All in all, every group did a great job and it was interesting to see the various causes we came up with. A big takeaway from the presentations is our tendency to take the Earth for granted and not making enough of an effort to preserve it. Although The Road is a work of fiction, serious problems like global warming, pollution, and deforestation are not. The groups cited grand causes for the destruction of the world, such as supervolcanoes or gigantic asteroids. However, if we replace those with the very real harmful activities that we perform on a daily basis, it seems as if humanity doesn’t need an outside force to destroy our world, we are already slowly doing it ourselves. What the presentations have taught me is that we only have one world, we must make a greater effort to preserve it or fiction will become reality.