On: the end of worlds
SPOILER ALERTS FOR The Road and Castaway
At the end of the world, will I be able to loot? We think of looters as the criminals of the world, but when the whole structure breaks down, looting becomes a matter of survival. Who will repopulate the earth, given the possibility of repopulation? In the movie, The Road, the “good guys” – presumably the ones who don’t consume human flesh – must loot to survive. And so I wonder, will I be able to loot at the end of the world? Or will I be like the wife who exposes herself to the frigid night and dark woods rather than face the future?
I think that I would not be able to abandon my child in that situation. But I guess clinical depression could occur at the end of the world with or without the doctor’s pronouncement. She seemed depressed in the movie – loss of interest, suicidal – especially when they had to burn the piano to stay warm. Chronic pain can cause depression – would loss of beauty? Would the days be too short, too sad, to both survive and sing, or tell stories? Would it be too painful to do these things as the world burns around you?
It is true that this apocalyptic view of the future is dark. However, at the end, the boy starts his life over with a family; people who don’t eat human flesh, and who are by his father’s definition the “good guys”. Here at least is one girl who is not related to him who might someday grow to be the mother of his child. He’s not thinking of that, I’m sure, but as an adult watching the film, I am looking for any sign of hope that we will go on, even if we are “looters”. As an adult, I know that the boy will be protected, as much as an intact family unit can provide protection at the end of the world.
On Saturday, September 15, 2001, my husband and I watched Castaway. The date is significant to most of us at the first Saturday after 9/11. The movie is one that I can never think of watching again because it is so intimately caught up in the falling towers, the fires, the ashes at the end of an era. You know the story – a UPS delivery guy (Tom Hanks) is stranded on a deserted island when his plan crashes. He lives alone on the island for several years before he is rescued. Once he is rescued, he delivers one crucial package with his trusty sidekick “Wilson,” the soccer ball, at his side.
I don’t know if I would deliver the packages. I don’t remember the movie well enough, I think – because I’m thinking there was something about the final package that was significant. I remember that he sat in his truck at a rural crossroads before deciding to deliver the package. Metaphorically, we all sit at the crossroads for personal and national or world-wide disasters. The question is: which road will we take? According to Robert Frost, it really doesn’t matter. The will both take us into the future. And then, to quote Scarlett: “Tomorrow’s another day.”
