The fear of isolation exists in many aspects of life today. Everyone feels the need to be connected in one way or another, when people are isolated from someone or something, they feel as if they are unwanted, unloved, or unneeded. The Road by Cormac Mccarthy is about the struggles of two people as they trek alone across a post-Apocalyptic America with little food, water, or hope. The characters are isolated from sane society and along the way encounter many deadly situations. On the Beach by Nevil Shute is about the isolated country of Australia as they try to cope with the fact that they are all going to die in the coming months due to a war induced nuclear radiation cloud. The book shows struggles of global isolation within Australia as
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Both show the inability to think and behave in a normal and rational matter. In The Road, the characters are embraced in an isolated world where ravaging cannibals scour the streets looking for innocent people to take in and consume. In Mccarthy's novel, the level of insanity is exponential. People are used as food and kept trapped in human pantries: “Huddled against the back wall were naked people, male and female, all trying to hide, shielding their faces with their hands. On the mattress lay a man with his legs gone to the hip and the stumps of them blackened and burnt.”(Page___) The Man and Boy long for an encounter with someone who has yet to go insane, as they are isolated from trusting individuals like themselves. Meanwhile, in On the Beach, the society that the characters live in demonstrates characteristics of insanity as many of them lose their sanity in the remaining months approaching their certain death. In Shute's novel, people make rational decisions that appear to be influenced by the isolation they experience due to the minimal global population that remains. Crew members aboard the sub begin to lose their sanity when shipmate Yeoman Swain jumped overboard: “Swain got out through the escape hatch, sir… There was a splash in the water beside the hull as Mortimer ran off”.(Page__) Swain makes this choice knowing that he is going to more than likely die in the process, but follows through so that he can die in his
Both show the inability to think and behave in a normal and rational matter. In The Road, the characters are embraced in an isolated world where ravaging cannibals scour the streets looking for innocent people to take in and consume. In Mccarthy's novel, the level of insanity is exponential. People are used as food and kept trapped in human pantries: “Huddled against the back wall were naked people, male and female, all trying to hide, shielding their faces with their hands. On the mattress lay a man with his legs gone to the hip and the stumps of them blackened and burnt.”(Page___) The Man and Boy long for an encounter with someone who has yet to go insane, as they are isolated from trusting individuals like themselves. Meanwhile, in On the Beach, the society that the characters live in demonstrates characteristics of insanity as many of them lose their sanity in the remaining months approaching their certain death. In Shute's novel, people make rational decisions that appear to be influenced by the isolation they experience due to the minimal global population that remains. Crew members aboard the sub begin to lose their sanity when shipmate Yeoman Swain jumped overboard: “Swain got out through the escape hatch, sir… There was a splash in the water beside the hull as Mortimer ran off”.(Page__) Swain makes this choice knowing that he is going to more than likely die in the process, but follows through so that he can die in his