09/28/2026
George R. Stewart’s 1949 science fiction novel, “Earth Abides,” is, at best, a deeply blemished product. The basic plot follows a man, Ish, waking up from a snakebite to a collapsed society and world rocked by a global pandemic. Ish is left to explore man’s place in the world and the value of knowledge in the wake of a disaster. However, a fundamental flaw of this novel is that it explores “man’s” place exclusively and is dripping with sexism and misogyny throughout the novel. The sexism poisons the fundamental message about knowledge and humanity by subverting it with a sort of “alpha” leadership.
Stewart has Ish demean the women he sees immediately after waking up, and gives the “broken” women little of the sympathy that he gives to the first “broken” man he encounters. After his wanderings through a wrecked America, Ish settles down in his hometown and forms a community of survivors called, “the Tribe.” From there, he becomes a de facto leader, and the rest of the novel involves him solving the issues of his new people and worrying about the future of the human race.
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📝Brennan Dillenbeck ’28
🎨Stephanie Latham ’27
