Modern humans, especially those who live in technologically advanced countries, have a sense that we have a mastery of nature. We can create synthetic chemicals, go to the moon, have nuclear power, and soon we may be able to manipulate the genes of our unborn children. In addition, our rhetoric many times uses phrases that suggest we can control nature and are even someway not actually apart of nature. Even environmentally liberal minded people engage in this form of hubris all the time when they talk about “saving the earth.” But, to quote the great comedian George Carlin “the earth is not going anywhere, we are.” (Unlike Mike Barnacle I actually attribute my quotes to Carlin when I use them) The past year of damages from Hurricanes, tsunamis, earthquakes, and the threat of Avian Flu and other viruses have woken humans up to the fact that by the grace of god (or Mother Nature depending on your beliefs) go we.

            In George R. Stewart’s book Earth Abides, we are given such a scenario in which Humans fall off their pedestal as the dominant species on Earth. The protagonist of the story named Ish, awakes after being stuck in a remote cabin suffering from a snakebite or a mysterious illness to find that the world devoid of humans. After scanning the newspapers he finds out a new type of disease that spreads and kills rapidly popped up all over the world due to plane travel almost simultaneously. Over the course of the book, Ish does meet a few survivors and they begin to try to recreate society. In my paper, I am going to discuss what happens to society’s institutions  after the disaster. Then, their will be an analysis of how different people react to the disaster and how the reactions of the individuals as well as the fate of institutions parallels events of the past few years.

            While some social institution continue usually in some sort of bastardized form after most of the population is wiped out in Earth Abides, most institutions completely disappear. One of the first to fade is Law or governmental social control. (Schaefer p.91) When Ish has first left the seclusion of his cabin, he is trying to deduce what has happened. When Ish spots a newspaper in a locked store, he is about to smash a window to get the paper when he thinks “You didn’t break into a store this way-you, a law abiding citizen” (Stewart p.13). When Ish finally decides to break the window with his hammer (more on the hammer later), he symbolically is ushering in a new age of society after the disaster where the old laws no longer apply. Throughout the rest of the story the old laws that used to hold society together such as the idea of personal property, laws against public drunkenness, polygamy, ext… no longer matter. For example, if Ish randomly took people’s cars to drive before the disaster as he does after the disaster then he would have been in put in jail as a serial car thief. But, after the disaster this taking of any car that works is a necessity for travel.

            Laws institutional cousin, government, also quickly faded away; When Ish reads the reports of the disaster in the paper, he learns that order was maintained and food was attempted to be delivered to the needy so government tried to due its part to curtail the disaster, but after the virus took its hold the only remnants of what used to be the mighty USA are the roads, electricity and water systems that continue to function for a while before they too decay.  Though law and government seem dead relicts, they due make a rebirth near the end of the story. After Ish and others have established a community a new person who could possibly disrupt the communities bonds and cause harm via the transmission of germs brings about the need for the seeds of law and government to take root. Ish and other community elders have a democratic vote to determine the fate of the new person named Charlie in which they vote on banishment or death. Death prevails, but before Ish writes his vote for death he thinks “was this even right? By writing this word, was he not bringing back …. The oppression of the individual by the mass” (Stewart p.256).

             Prior to the disaster, theoretically, there was a wall of separation between church and state of the United States government. Thus, one might expect religion to continue even while government faded away. This however was not the case; some of the member of the community who previously been part of organized religion like George and Maurine suggested that religious services should be held for the sake of the children. The services soon caused more division then unity and were quickly done away with. (Stewart p. 135) While organized religion no longer was relevant, religion was still around in its more infantile form superstition. The object with the most superstitious value was Ish’s hammer. The hammer came to be seen as a source of some sort of mythical power from the old times by the children of the community. Even Ish himself felt some sort of spiritual comfort from it. Furthermore, Ish being the owner of the hammer appeared to the children at times to have omni knowing god like abilities because he was one of the old ones and he was an American a term which began to have mythical connotations for the children. (Stewart p. 229)

            Belief in superstitions can be combated by education based on facts. For this and other reasons, Ish on many occasions tried and eventually failed to establish any sort of schooling for the children. The failure was due in most part because nearly all of the children did not show much interest in the abstract teaching of reading and numbers that Ish was trying to disseminate. The only bit of teaching by Ish that eventually caught on was how to make a bow in order to hunt game; a task with practical value. Many of the functions of education of the old times were to prepare a person to enter the economy in some form. After the disaster, there was no need for an economy.

            The one institution that did last in nearly the same form from the old times to the new was the family. But, like other institutions the family reverted to its most basic goal; rearing and raising children. Soon after Em and Ish met and cured each others loneliness they talked about the need to further the human race and the selfish want of a having a baby of one’s own. (Stewart p.109) After they met Ezra, who they both liked very much, they still treated him more as a friend then a family member and encouraged him to find a pretty girl to and eventually have a family of his own. (Stewart p. 129) Later on in the story the institutions of family is used as in the old days as a way to transition authority and power. Initially Ish hopes his son Joey will be his air apparent, but because of Joey death the position of leader is transferred from Ish to his great grandson on the male line named jack.

            While the children born after the great disaster adjusted to there surrounding easily because they did not know of anything else. The survivors from the old times all had different reaction to the disaster. Many were so in shock that they just reverted to what they find most comforting; these include the Negro family Ish encountered who continued to pick cotton and the people Ish met in New York who continued to drink fine wine and listen to music as if nothing had happened. Many others reverted to drinking away their sorrows.

            These reactions are similar to what happened in during recent disasters. The New York couple along with the Negro family who reverted to what they normally did and found comforting is similar to the many American micro reaction to 9/11 when people reverted to “comfort food” activities like watching a familiar T.V. show. Other analogous can be made to the hurricane Katrina disaster. After the disaster in Earth Abides, the people still alive raided supermarkets, liquor stores, gas stations and any other place that could give them sustenance to survive. This is similar to what people did when faced with the lack of human basics in New Orleans.

            On the other hand their have been many changes in our society especially technological since the time when Earth Abides was written. While people still constantly travel around the earth, news also travels a lot faster via TV, Radio, Internet, Cell Phones and other means. This might mean that if a new virus were to spread around the world news of it could reach a lot of people faster and information about the characteristics of the virus and how to prevent yourself from getting it or treat it could travel faster. In the end, what Earth Abides reminds us is that humans are just like any other species on earth and must do their best to adjust  to the moods of  nature.