Material Things Become Important After The Day Essay Example for Free

Material Things Become Important After The Day Essay During a nuclear war between Russia and the United States, the town of Fort Repose, Florida, is in the danger zone of radiation poisoning and contaminated items. Randy and the townspeople of Fort Repose must remain calm and ration their supplies. However, when the material things run low, everything becomes important. People must be creative and composed during this time of chaos. Therefore, the importance of material things after The Day leads to death, theft, and murder, but when people add to the chaos by trading the expensive for the inexpensive, people will do anything for the necessities, and that just adds to chaos causing the society of Fort Repose, Florida to be completely disrupted. In the town of Fort Repose, the people of the town are very confused and terrified about what is going to occur in the following months. In addition to this turmoil, people need to increase their supply of food, water, and anything else that they think could help them in this time of bedlam. The use and need of salt becomes very important in Alas, Babylon. In fact, salt is the main preservative of most foods, especially steak and meat. In detail, the salt preserves the meat by drawing out the moisture and creates an environment inhospitable to bacteria. If they were to put the meat in salt in cold weather, the salted meat could last for years. Not only does salt last long, but its trade in value is amongst the highest. Salt could be traded for really anything their mind could think of. Anyone would do anything to get his or her hands on salt if that meant food for a longer period of time. Equally important, is gasoline, the main element for the transportation of cars after The Day. Gasoline could only be obtained if one has had the money, has something worth the exchange, or they were a friend of the retailer. Gasoline becomes very valuable and expensive after The Day that Randy had to have special connections to get the gasoline from the vendors. Specifically, one had to know one for a long time and have a family connection to get enough gasoline to actually be useful. In fact, the gasoline was so important that the whole town decided to convene one day to combine all of the gasoline that the townspeople had just so they could make long distance visits and make sure their family members were alright after The Day. More importantly, the main value after The Day s batteries. Batteries in particular are the main source of wealth after The Day. Batteries are the life of the main source of all information that goes into Fort Repose, and when these batteries become low or die, the only source of information would be from HAM radios, which is used by Admiral Hazzard, which use batteries in a more energy efficient way. HAM radios are the source of where most of the information was broadcasted to the townspeople. In other words, everything that is usually in the common household is now needed to survive this terrible time. In this time of terror, people of Fort Repose are so desperate to get food or anything else that could be a great help to them; they would do anything to get these items, even a couple would kill innocent townspeople. When the highwaymen killed the citizens of Fort Repose, these rebels go to stores and kill the owner of the store, just to get his food. As a punishment, they one is killed in front of the town. Equally as bad, they would go into peoples homes and do the same thing. However, some people who were nicer or more religious and wouldnt dare to kill an innocent citizen would be nice and not kill the house owners. However, most families that are prepared would always have a gun in their hands that they could fire if anything bad is to happen, just like the firearm that Randy and Helen always have on their wall, just in case of emergency. Equally important, they stole the food instead of killing to get the food. Most of the time, they would just steal food from peoples self-owned stores. Money isnt important to the owners because you couldnt buy anything with money. The owners didnt even attempt to stop the criminals because they say that money wasnt worth anything after The Day. In fact, money couldnt be used to get anything. Money is worthless. In addition, people would steal the food because they were scared. They are afraid of what is going to happen in this terrible time after the bombing. Not only did they steal, but they also find people in the town and loot off of them. The rebels use the townspeople just to get items such as medicine, ammo, etc. like when the store is robbed and the owner didnt chase after the thieves. In addition, many of the people die because they do not have the essential materials to survive in this time of crisis. To be specific, penicillin is one main necessity for a few of the townspeople of Fort Repose, Florida. Actually, one of the townspeople, Livinia McGovern, dies from diabetes due to the lack of penicillin. In fact, in the town, they ran low on food, ammo, penicillin, etc. really quickly because they are isolated from every other town, state, etc. Last but not least, the trading of the expensive items for the inexpensive items leaves a lasting mark on The Day. In detail, the real full potential values of most items go substantially down after The Day like anything that can be run on electricity, due to the lack of electricity. Specifically the value of coffee and whiskey are changed after The Day. Coffee becomes more expensive than whiskey. However, whiskey could be used to treat wounds because of its alcohol contents. Coffee is one of the things that Randy and his family really love. Randy even thinks that whiskey is less important than coffee and that coffee is more essential than anything else. In addition, salt is another necessity that everyone in the town wants to have. The main value at that time is to have salt. Salt becomes very expensive costing almost $200 for two packs. Salt can be used in numerous ways and anyone would trade practically anything to get his or her hands on this magnificent item. However, not everything goes up in value. Many of the guns and ammunition that people had are just for emergencies, clothing is something that they would never run out of, and people have no use for anything electronic, so electronics lose value greatly. Besides, with the war going on, people are too concerned about what they are going to eat and how they are going to survive than electronics. After The Day the people of Fort Repose fight to find all necessities that they need to survive the war. The people of Fort Repose, including Randy Bragg, are all scared but are ready to withstand this terrible tragedy. However, the necessities deplete very quickly, putting many people in jeopardy of losing their lives. The lives of these people are forever changed by the loss of electricity, communication, and the necessities of life. When the necessities are completely gone, the citizens of Fort Repose all get together to solve their problems and what they are going to do to cope with the loss of things. Nevertheless, they all stay strong, are able to make a lasting impression on the town of Fort Repose during the nuclear war, and yet, they are willing to help stay and rebuild the town in Alas, Babylon.