The Apocalypse Market Is Booming: An Analysis

Imagining aiming down the sights of a weapon and seeing your neighbor that you used to consider your friend in the sights. No, you do not want to do this but this is what you must do for survival in an apocalyptic scenario. This is an example of what a world deprived of morality would look like. Humans would never survive in an apocalyptic environment if they were forced to turn against each other at every waking moment. No matter what, there will always be a portion of society that will hold on to past Morals taught to them. In “The Apocalypse Market is Booming,” Steve Almond describes how people find apocalypse literature interesting because of the intense violence of humans having to fight each other and morality being completely removed from society. He says, “They allow us to safely fantasize about what might be required of us to survive” (Arnold). The Dog Stars By Peter Heller is a complete contradiction to what Arnold believes in. There is a theme of friendship and camaraderie throughout this book that keeps the characters life and sanity in balance. The protagonist, Hig is a prime example of how you …show more content…
The Dog Stars clearly showcases how a few people that still have goodness in their hearts can bring great change and prosperity to help get through a challenge like this. Hig is able to successfully follow a code of ethics while keeping himself alive. Not only is he able to find a way to stay alive through trying to preserve life as best as possible but he also is able to bring people that would have been otherwise killing each other together. Morality is not something that society necessarily wants but deep down it needs it to survive and prosper. The companionship that is eventually created in the end of the novel is something that is unbreakable and will last into