I actually used to make fun of my dad for watching the show "Doomsday Preppers," but after reading Life As We Knew It, I've started to realize that you never realize what the future holds. While my parents aren't quite as extreme as some of the people on that show, my dad thinks it's important to be independent and have the means to be self-sufficient if necessary. This makes sense too.
The characters of the book were in no way prepared for the horror that followed an asteroid's collision with the moon. Even though astronomers were aware that this collision would take place, they didn't know the exact effect and people everywhere were grossly unprepared. Miranda's family was among them. They thought they would just watch the asteroid hit the moon and then go on about their lives. This event changed their lives though. Earth's climate shifted, gas prices skyrocketed, supermarkets closed, school was almost impossible, and communication was dysfunctional.
This book almost seems to make preppers look like the smart people. While other people were struggling to keep warm in the now unimaginably cold winter, starving without any food, and unable to find clean water, preppers would have been carrying out the plan that they had been devising for years. They would be the ones with plenty of resources.
While an asteroid hitting the moon and having this effect is probably never going to happen, that's not to say something else might not happen. I think it's good to plan for the future, but not to be so captivated with the unknown that a person forgets to live in the present. For now, I guess today's preppers are sitting with their stockpiles waiting for the end of the world.
"Life As We Knew It" sounds like a very interesting read. Your summary about different parts of the book reminded me of a "doomsday" movie as well. The part about the astroid reminds me of the movie Armageddon with Bruce Willis and Ben Affleck, when a giant astroid is headed towards earth, threatening the fait of humanity. Thinking about the possibility of the events in the book actually taking place is definitely an unsettling feeling. I wonder if any of the "Doomsday Preppers" have read this book, or used this book as an example of why they have a fallout shelter?
ReplyDeleteI read this book when I was in middle school and I absolutely loved it! It's so easy to get lost in this book and forget that you aren't going through the same hardships that the characters are going through. I found it very easy to connect with the characters from the story.
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