Earth Abides

The sub-genre of science fiction called post-apocalyptic, which became popular in the later 20th century, is widely understood by literary critics to mirror society’s existential dread over its possible demise. Viewed from this perspective, Earth Abides reflects, albeit tangentially, Cold War paranoia about a potential nuclear apocalypse, fears about modern technology, and the rising tide of American nationalism that accompanied the Cold War.

Classic post-apocalyptic novels like On the Beach (1957) and A Canticle for Liebowitz (1959) as well as films like Planet of the Apes (1968), Logan’s Run (1976), and The Road Warrior (1981) all portray a world devastated by a nuclear war and the subsequent nuclear fallout. Earth Abides, however, chooses a different path. A plague, not a nuclear blast, eradicates humanity, and in this respect, Stewart’s narrative stands apart from its peers. Earth Abides uses a plague rather than war as its apocalyptic disaster at a time when the nuclear arms race preoccupied the world. Other science fiction works that feature plagues are H. G. Wells’s influential War of the Worlds (1897), Oryx and Crake (2003), and Station Eleven (2014).

Post-apocalyptic novels and films have imagined a variety of scenarios in the aftermath of the cataclysm: Humans living under sheltered domes in a youth-obsessed culture (Logan’s Run, 1976); survivors of nuclear war waiting for the inevitable nuclear fallout to engulf them (On the Beach, 1957); and the ever-popular zombie apocalypse (World War Z, 2006). In Earth Abides, the American landscape is devastated not by bombs but by neglect, as humans are simply not present to maintain the infrastructure. Roads are obstructed by fallen trees, pipes burst from rusting support beams, wildfires ravage the Bay Area hills. Stewart notes that all of these issues would be preventable if only people were around to prevent them.

The word apocalypse comes from the Biblical apocalypse described in the Book of Revelation, and many scholars have seen the apocalyptic idea—along with other Biblical topoi such as the Garden of Eden—as central to the Western literary imagination. Earth Abides includes other explicit references to the Bible. In addition to the characters of George and Maurine, who find solace in prayer, the title of the novel itself is a quotation from Ecclesiastes: “One generation passeth away, and another generation cometh: but the earth abideth for ever” (King James Version, Ecclesiastes 1:4). Earth Abides became newly relevant in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic. Just like in the case of a nuclear holocaust, the threat of an apocalyptic plague is both a real scientific possibility and a powerful and resonant literary trope.