Civilization And Capitalism In Rachel Wilson's The Road

Dystopian fiction is a critique of contemporary society based on the extrapolation a characteristic and conveying the consequences of its full expression, serving as a positive warning against excess.

The Road is a post-apocalyptic film directed by John Hillcoat, based on the novel by John McCarthy which positions the audience to speculate the virulent implications of economic globalisation and capitalism arising from the Industrial Revolution. The film exposes the dark psychological depths of the human condition in surrendering to impulses, at the same time exploring the role of morality in the hope of restoring civilisation.

The Road addresses the issue of survival by extrapolating on mankind’s exploitation of power and unremitting contamination

Carson asserts that human actions are the driving forces of modern society’s war against nature as only within the previous century has man acquired the power to disturb the balance of nature . Despite the eons of time involved in evolving life to reach a state of adjustment and balance with the environment, man has the utmost power to regress this adjustment/balance. This notion of disruption is furthered by the rapid increases to the demands placed on the environment during the Industrial Revolution as the environment was changed to follow the impetuous pace of man rather than the course of nature. The most profound repercussion of releasing toxins and pollution into the atmosphere embodies/centres on the irreversible destruction to living organisms, killing off all vegetation and animals. Hillcoat exemplifies this destructiveness of man’s power over nature throughout the film using wide camera panning across the post-apocalyptic landscape, diminishing human beings. By doing so, he highlights the implications of disturbing the balance of nature, presenting the audience to the horrifying possibility of extinction of mankind by environmental

These implications are conveyed in The Road through the mass dehumanisation of civilisation as citizens live under constant surveillance and are being hunted down like animals. Hillcoat emphasises the deterioration of civilisation by exposing to the unrelenting danger of mankind in the encounters of savagery within the film by incorporating sudden contrasts between the vast landscape and violent savagery. He achieves this comparison