The Challenge of the Anthropocene: Climate Crisis and Human Survival in The Road

Abstract

With the intensification of the impact of human activities on the Earth’s systems, humankind has entered a new era in its history, the Anthropocene, which means that humankind has become the greatest threat to its survival and the Earth’s environment, and a major force for change in the Earth’s geological formations, however the consequences of human activity in the Anthropocene era were often uncontrolled and unintended, and so the Anthropocene also signaled the need for humans to take greater responsibility for the Earth. Cormac McCarthy’s novel The Road is mainly written through extreme weather, biological extinction, and ecological imbalance to show the climate disaster caused by human over-destruction of the earth’s ecology, to remind people to establish the “Anthropocene” thinking and take the road of sustainable development. McCarthy’s depiction of the desolate world of the end of time not only highlights his deep concern about the current state of human existence and ecological problems but also highlights the practical significance of literary works inquiring into the way of human survival.