OF DAYS OF DAYSSymposium END

Plot Summary

End of Days by Walters showcases two great characters as they independently brace themselves for the end of the world. 28 years after a satellite transmits a message that an asteroid is coming to destroy Earth, only professors and scientists can find a solution. As soon as the rest of the world finds out, people become violent, battling for supplies and resources to sustain their existence. Professor Sheppard is a main character who works for a secret space program who hopes to find a way to stop the asteroid. When there is only one year left, Billy Phillips, a teenager from New York is known as a leader of a pack of kids. As the timeline counts down to years, then months, than days, Billy and Sheppard finally meet and they must make many life changing decisions that not only control their fate but the fate of civilization.

Thesis

“ The main individuals of Life As We Knew It by Pfeffer and End of Days by Walters have the will to survive traumatic events and discover a true side to themselves by experiencing a once and lifetime phenomenon.”

Themes

Role of Religion - The theme of religion demonstrates the impacts religion can bestow on a society. In this novel, people are caught between an argument made by religious fanatics that the this future destruction is the wrath of god and the end of the world. This splits the whole world into two sections, trying to avoid the destruction by coming up with a solution or let people suffer the wrath of god. In this story the religious people are considered dangerous because they preform consistent violent demonstrations. The religious people who believe in this prophecy are considered the anti-hero.

Chaos and Order - When the rest of the world finds out that the end is coming it launches into mayhem. The government has fallen, stock markets crash and public violence is occurring repeatedly. The time period of a few years has brought the world into a new era of darkness. This connects to another theme of darkness and light. In this case, order no longer exists and the people have reached a dehumanized state. This idea of no order shows the reader what it would be like without a leader.

Courage to Take the Lead - The protagonist Billy Phillips is the base of this theme. After the world turned to chaos, he launched his own colony of kids and led them to survive. Once he was in a new facility, he learns so much about himself and the gifts he failed to see the first time. Billy had to rise above and take courage to lead the last humans on Earth into space and one day return to Earth, hoping he can lead them back to a thriving population.

Connections from Theme to World

The asteroid planning to hit the Earth in the novel is said to be so extremely gigantic that the Earth would receive great impacts and the population of everything would be diminished. A historical reference that was made was to the extinction of the dinosaurs. This was one of the ways to explain to rest of global population how devastating the results were going to be. They say that the asteroid that wiped out the dinosaurs was 10 km wide, the asteroid in this novel was 200 km wide. A section of the novel reminds me of the Cold War. In the story, the solution to destroy the asteroid was to launch 30 rockets with 1500 nuclear devices each. Citizens and scientists were concerned that they would not launch correctly and they would end up blowing up a part of the Earth’s surface. This connects to the Cold War because that’s when countries had nuclear weapons and people were worried they would be a target. The two points that connect is the worry and relying on nuclear mechanisms.

End of Days vs Life as we Knew it

Contrasting the format of the two sources and seeing how both styles help better understand the theme. End of days is written out as a timeline, focusing on different scenarios told from multiple viewpoints. The author of Life as we Knew it writes her novel by only one viewpoint and is told in a format of diary entries. Recognizing the protagonists in the novels and how their roles influence their stories. In End of Days, there is no clear protagonist and an argument could be made. In one story there is a stand out character who is no doubt the protagonist. Each protagonist develops a moral throughout the story. This moral in all sources help better understand the theme. Both characters have gone through a natural disaster that has made them discover aspects to themselves that they failed to see the first time.

Themes are Relevant to Us Now!

Religion in the world today influences what we believe in. People choose different types of religion based on their point of view. In the story, religion defined whether you wanted to live or die. You have a choice whether you want to believe in a certain entity or not. The idea of chaos vs order is heavily found in our society. My book has shown me that chaos breakdown the world. Without order or government, there is no rules or leaders that can guide a population. Right now we live in a civilized society where order is enforced. It seems that chaos will lead to dysfunction and mayhem when rules are not considered.

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