Survival Theme Of Cormac McCarthy's The Road In Post-Apocalyptic Fiction

Cormac McCarthy is a dominant writer in contemporary American literary field.So far,he has won many important literary awards in the United States,such as the Pulitzer Prize for fiction,the Goose Brush Prize,the National Book Critic Award and the Black Memorial Award in Britain.As a post-apocalyptic novel after the September 11 disaster,The Road has aroused the attention of all circles since its publication.The purpose of this thesis is to analyze the theme of survival including survival crisis,survival choices and possible survival outlets of human beings after the collapse of the world in The Road.First,with the advent of the end of the day,survival crisis begins to emerge.The natural and human environment has been damaged unprecedentedly.Meanwhile the human has to endure the severe physical and psychological torture.Secondly,with the intensification of survival crisis,people begin to make different choices between life and death.Under the pressure of survival,some people take a negative attitude,choosing to commit suicide or wait for death to come.Those who insist on fighting against death have their own survival choices.Finally,the author also hints to us that only by returning to self,nature,purity and belief,can human beings rebuild the civilization and obtain the hope of survival.Post-apocalyptic fiction with eschatological background aims at discussing how people cope with crises after disasters and seek survival path.Unlike other similar novels teeming with the grand pictures of human beings against zombies and virus,or heroic action of saving human beings,this work just focuses on a pair of ordinary people's struggle for life in the chaotic world.Taking The Road as an example,this paper attempts to provide relevant ideas for the study of survival in post-apocalyptic fiction.Finally,this extreme survival scenario also provides relevant enlightenment for mankind to reflect on modern civilization and explore the way out for survival,which is of great practical significance in the modern context.