To endure, adapt, and improvise. The following gestures are significant elements of survival, where two notable authors conceptualize a menacing environment and how humanity endured this adversity. First, Suzanne Collins's The Hunger Games presents a teenage woman who faces a competition structured to kill other humans for victory, along with the domineering Capitol who views her bravery with suspicion. The second novel, Cormac McCarthy's The Road, describes a father and son persisting through a post-apocalyptic world to find prosperity in the southern region. Using literary devices, Collins uses the bow and arrow to symbolize the theme, where the object offers Katniss leverage to survive the Games and District Twelve. Similarly, Cormac McCarthy uses fire, where the protagonists perceive the element as their idea of persistence. Along with the usage of symbolism, both texts also present imagery to illustrate the theme's deeper context of a dystopic setting. Thus, the concept of survival in The Hunger Games and The Road interprets humanity's instinctive nature using literary devices that present man's persistence against a dystopic world.
The Text’s Portrayal of Survival
Both novels' symbolic descriptions share the theme's portrayal of humanity's potential. In Collin's story, the bow and arrow represent survival through Katniss's usage of the object. Before the Games, Katniss perceives the object as a source of support for her family. After her father's death, his remaining guidance bestowed her courage to venture through the woods and hunt for resources to feed her family (Collins 51). Gale, who serves as her faithful friend and hunting partner, emphasizes the item's semblance in the Games, "a weak bow is better than no bow at all." (Collins 39). This essence showed when her luck finding the item through Glimmer offered bravery against other tributes, "If Cato broke through the trees right now, I wouldn't flee, I'd shoot." (Collins 197). Through her expertise, the bow and arrow represent Katniss's determination against her dystopic realm. Survival prevails by the object resembling Katniss's experiences, thus revealing the survivor she truly portrays.
The family's perception of fire in McCarthy's novel becomes a central representation. One prominent aspect includes the phrase, 'carrying the fire (129). Amid hunger, violence, and cannibalism, a father and son resist hopelessness and grip on a faith they perceive from the object. Even with the man's last words, he proclaims the fire he sees in his son, "Where is it? I don't know where it is. Yes you do. It's inside you. It always was there. I can see it." (McCarthy 279). It thus symbolizes their will to overcome the circumstances ahead of them. McCarthy places the theme through an emotional aspect, where survival lies within one's mental capacity to progress further. A man's hope for an element presents its profound meaning of safety and peace. Thus, their reassurance interprets humanity's adherence to tranquility in a world that has lost this ideal.
Besides symbolism, both authors used imagery to share the theme's intended interpretation. Katniss' obstacles offer details on what pushes humanity to take drastic measures for their life, "A foul, rotten taste pervades my mouth, and the water has little effect on it. I drag myself over the honeysuckle bush and pluck a flower…the sweetness spreads through my mouth, down my throat, warming my veins with memories of summer…." (Collins 196). The imagery offers methods of survival through a life-threatening scenario. Katniss endured injuries and starvation during the first part of the Games and seeing the honeysuckle tree was the only provision she could attain. The character then shows desperation by insisting on eating for survival despite her wounded form. The sensory details enhance the experience since survival skills require recognizing one's mortal limit. Collins thus proves the theme's interpretation of human instincts by creating a lethal situation for drastic measures to exist.
Meanwhile, McCarthy depicts survival through the environment. One example occurs through the following text, "He walked out in the gray light and stood, and he saw for a brief moment the absolute truth of the world. The cold relentless circling of the intestate earth. Darkness implacable… The crushing black vacuum of the universe." (McCarthy 130). The dystopic image McCarthy painted offers a deeper meaning to the theme. The imagery's implication of the world's deserted and ominous state provides no room for other desires but survival. Personal goals like graduating, marriage, or building a family deem to be ancient and forgotten in this realm. However, a father's love for his son drives him forward to seek "physical and spiritual safety" in a world that seems to abolish this opportunity (Kunsa 2009). The imagery thus entails how McCarthy metaphorically interprets the theme to establish the emotional process of overcoming adversity.
The Face of Survival: Similarities and Differences
The similarity of both novels includes the interpretation's explicit yet intriguing image of the theme. Both Collins and McCarthy have their protagonist depict a dystopic world through their own eyes and show elements that drive them to the brink of demise. Ashley Kunsa offers a supporting detail in Collin's and McCarthy's story, where the depravity of each dystopia pushes "human existence [to reduce] to the basics." (2009). The previously stated imageries in both stories provide evidential sources. Both prospects entail a human's reason to prioritize the state of survival and how they take those drastic measures.
As for its differences, the theme's figurative and literal aspects transpire separately in each novel. Collins offers a literal presentation using Katniss' physical encounters. The bow and arrow's symbolism and sensory details from the honeysuckle example prove physical descriptions of the theme and its essential idea of human survival. Katniss' desperation to find the nearest nourishment and her weapon's value in fighting against other tributes demonstrates the theme's physical portrayal as a central aspect (Collins 196-197). As for McCarthy, his artistry weighs on figurative elements. The phrase 'carrying the fire' and the dystopic imagery of a cold world implicate humanity's survival against barbarity (Collins 83&130). A father and son's encounter with evilness obtains an emotional perspective of the theme, where each endures "a contest of instinct and ethics, body and spirit, hope and despair." (Fryer 171). Each traumatic event provides a mental test to dwell in humankind's destruction or sustain human bonds and goodness. Through Collin's and McCarthy's distinctive interpretations, it conceptualizes how survival includes internal and external forces to test humanity's intuitive abilities.
The theme's impact adds to the popularity by illuminating a new perspective on humanity's instinctive nature and its essence in surviving a dystopia. Collins allows readers to view this using a female teenager that endures a harsh reality while struggling with the choices to persevere at a young age (Pharr 90). The outlook resonates with the audience through Katniss being a teenager, in which a young character offers profound comprehension of an issue commonly approached by adults. The "drive to [survive]" before and during the Games is what readers anticipate due to Katniss's hunting expertise and emotional downfalls that help her evolve (Pharr 90). Meanwhile, McCarthy illuminates the theme through its figurative portrayal. The metaphorical aspects allow readers to reflect on indirect messages in the narrative, where 'carrying the fire' means more to its phrase (McCarthy 129). Their journey offers luck and trauma, where the family always anticipates obstacles and a never-ending search for hope amid the "tortured sense of brevity and loss" (Fryer 178). This aspect resonates with the popular audience based on ethical instincts to resist depravity and sustain physical health and moral practice (Fryer 178). Through each novel capturing the theme in its respective methods, its audience develops a profound idea of human instincts and their beneficial usage for surviving a dystopic situation.
Their Influence on Contemporary Culture
The text involving a dystopian system and overcoming its toxic factors derives from the influences of today's society. Based on a source by Matthew Leggat, the collective knowledge of survival in contemporary culture would derive from experiencing "a decade that [witnessed] the advent of new kinds of war ... financial collapse, economic and global strife, and concerns about the future sustainability of the planet and of our way of life" (11). These situations from history have shifted the contemporary audience into a perspective that always 'worries' about the future. Along with foreshadowing the world's end, the means to take drastic measures occur for the sake of surviving. In each text, Katniss's skills in hunting and the protagonists' goal to move south in The Road derive from the same purpose: survival. This thematic concept resonates with the popular audience due to experiences that drove them towards the same road. Therefore, developing a story related to the reader's mindset becomes crucial to "remind ourselves of the bleakness of the future" and find methods to adapt to the inevitable outcome (Legatt 13). With a societal idea to contribute to each text's commercial success, the dystopic depiction of The Road and Hunger Games serves as an emblematic foundation for the theme, causing contemporary readers to understand a character's struggle of facing the unthinkable.
The historical context of Collins' and McCarthy's novel produces another critical factor in its influential impact. As both texts would apply the idea of surviving a dystopia, it is evident how their content could derive from a post-9/11 context. Matthew Leggat explains how the traumatic event becomes a symbolic change in society's perspective, serving as the event that "changed everything" (Leggatt 2). The idea of witnessing the world's doom before their eyes become tangible during this moment and shifts thoughts on destruction and tragedy. Paula Martin Salvan presents a supporting argument where an event to pose a triggering effect "must happen beyond the common language, and thus be unnamable" due to its horrifying memory (Salvan 66). The literary field also adapts to the generation's new perception. It creates works that may resemble society's understanding of facing "a world gone to hell and a planet slowly dying" (Leggatt 7). Such traumatic events that shifted the world's perspective on life became a central point that Collins and McCarthy established in their works. The Hunger Games depicts its image of a post-9/11 piece, where its renowned catchphrase, "may the odds be ever in your favor," represents the idea of living with an uncompromising system (Collins 19). The Road presents its demonstration using its apocalyptic environment as a base for the protagonist's journey to withstand the new face of nature. Both novels inspire a way to paint the event's influence using a disheartening reality. As they obtain a powerful concept from the Twin Towers tragedy, a mutual understanding occurs between the novel and the reader by witnessing the world at its lowest and enduring the inevitable crisis.
Conclusion
Enduring a world void of life and morals guarantee a tormenting journey of hopelessness, as seen through Collin's and McCarthy's novel. And through their artistry, the thematic concept of survival represents essential aspects of humanity's willingness to stay alive. Using imagery and symbolism, Collins and McCarthy intend to share the theme through an illustrative and profound level. Placing humanity's worst fear— hunger, barbarity, and death— enhances the perspective of mankind's survival, where bringing the most detrimental situation to the population could help an individual reflect on humanness. This aspect adds to the novel's success by using their obstacle to resonate with society's perception of survival. Their interpretations of overcoming a dystopic area significantly influence contemporary culture. Such perspectives allow readers to reflect on survival's true meaning, where a person prioritizes health, emotional persistence, and moral ethics to progress further. Therefore, the theme concludes its prevalence in both novels by entailing one's endurance towards any situation threatening humanity's wellness.
Works Cited:
Collins, Suzanne. The Hunger Games. Scholastic Press, 2008.
Frye, Steven. Understanding Cormac McCarthy. University of South Carolina Press, 2009. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=e000xna&AN=478080&site=ehost-live&scope=site. Accessed 17 Apr. 2020.
Kunst, Ashley. "'Maps of the world in its becoming': post-apocalyptic naming in Cormac McCarthy's The Road." Journal of Modern Literature, vol. 33, no. 1, 2009, p. 57+. Gale Literature Resource Center, https://link-gale-com.ezproxy.snhu.edu/apps/doc/A215306994/LitRC?u=nhc_main&sid=LitRC&xid=644e8ec4. Accessed 17 Apr. 2020.
Leggatt, Matthew. "'Melancholic and Hungry Games: Post-9/11 Cinema and the Culture of Apocalypse." "Popping Culture: Seventh Edition," ed. Murray Pomerance and John Sakeris (2013): n. pag. Print. Accessed 17 Apr. 2020
Martín Salván, Paula. "Apocalypse, Memory and Survival: A Reading of Cormac McCarthy's The Road As Trauma Narrative." Contemporary Literary Criticism, edited by Jennifer Stock, vol. 460, Gale, 2020, pp. 64-72. Gale Literature Criticism, https://link-gale-com.ezproxy.sasnhu.edu/apps/doc/JFAKFA268623580/GLS?u=nhc_main&sid=GLS&xid=a8b74210. Accessed 17 Apr. 2020. Originally published in Between the Urge to Know and the Need to Deny, edited by Dolores Herrero and Sonia Baelo-Allué, Universitätsverlag Winter, 2011, pp. 145-160.
McCarthy, Cormac. The Road. Vintage Books, 2006.
Pharr, Mary F., et al. Of Bread, Blood and The Hunger Games: Critical Essays on the Suzanne Collins Trilogy. McFarland, 2012. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=nlebk&AN=476060&site=ehost-live. Accessed 17 Apr. 2020.
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