As we near the end of the book, I have to say, the world here is much less destroyed than most post-apocalypse media I have consumed. Mad Max’s deserts and Cormac McCarthy’s road are both bombed out hellscapes. I imagined that sort of landscape when Fan left B-mor and was summarily hit by a car. Upon further reading, it really seems like Armageddon came with a whimper, and that if you took a picture of the Fan’s world, it would match up fairly well with ours.
I imagine the setting could be the result of a few different things: commentary on economic/environmental policies today, a style choice to allow for fan to traverse the world easier, or something obvious that I’m missing. What do you guys think?
aortiz7
AMartsen
Chad
efcall
garrity21
jenteganhunt
jessicahoveryahoocom
Live Out Loud Berkshires
Elizabeth Kowalczyk
mharford
Nell
kenbastard
Charlotte
shamusmac21
shelbyboyer
tellsy4
English 245: Modern Fiction 
March 8, 2016 at 9:25 pm
I do not think Fan’s world is supposed to be post apocalyptic. It is just a possible future that could happen if global warming and population get out of hand. There was never mention of war pr any great natural disasters.
LikeLike
March 9, 2016 at 10:26 am
First, I have to point out that an Apocalypse doesn’t have to be war. Volcanoes, meteor strikes, and giant floods are all examples of different natural apocalypses. Now that isn’t to say I believe Fan’s world had gone through an Apocalypse. I will say I am curious where Mharford got Global Warming, as there was no mention of that either. I simple had thought maybe science got a little cocky and carried away. That something like Chernobyl happened but bigger, which years later the radiation is still everywhere in the world. I could be completely because I didn’t think about it much. I don’t really think the details of the environment are that important, or we would have gotten more details and back story.
LikeLike
March 9, 2016 at 8:40 pm
Post apocalyptic could mean many things. Civilization is only a thin veneer on our most base animal instincts. A simple melt-down of our economic system could trigger a catastrophe that would decimate what we call the status quo.
It’s not for nothing, I think, that the apparent dominant races in this world seem to be Black, Asian and Mixed. It could be said that these are the races that are most used to adversity, due to racism and bad luck on the part of African Americans, and the sheer numbers of Asians(Chinese), so they had the “stuff” to adapt and survive a slow going apocalypse.
Things change. Sometimes they change quickly, or the just develop over time. Human Beings adapt. They take advantage of what they have to overcome what they don’t have. If one society collapses it only stands to reason another will take it’s place. Obviously this is what has happened in the world Lee has fashioned. Something happened to this version of America, and like others have said, it’s not important what, but the fact is in it’s wake something else sprung up, or took over, the remnants and made a society that worked.
Whether that society is sustainable is another question.
LikeLike