The title comes from this:
Ecclesiastes 1:4King James Version (KJV)
4 One generation passeth away, and another generation cometh: but the earth abideth for ever.
george_a._stewart_-_earth_abides
Escapes Radio Program (Earth Abides radio drama)
Chapter One
1) Isherwood “Ish” the protagonist is where at the beginning of the novel?
2) What has happened to him?
3) Why won’t the men help him?
4) When Ish goes to get gas what does he find?
5) What has he missed while he was gone?
6) What does he find at home?
7) Why are the lights still on?
8) What did he parents do for a living?
Chapter Two
1) What sign was on the man hanging from the cross-arm of the pole?
2) What did Ish find in the business district of downtown Oakland?
3) What did the two people look like that Ish found?
4) Why did the man in the loud sport coat look dangerous?
5) Ish found an old man. What was the old man doing?
6) Who else did he see? Why did Ish not try to chase them down?
7) Why didn’t Ish go to San Francisco?
8) What happened to Mr. Barlow?
9) What is a secondary kill?
10) What is his list of five things that help him survive?
Chapter Three
1) What did he do to his ankle?
2) What kind of car did Ish get?
3) What kind of weapons did he get?
4) What living thing did he take with him? What does he name it?
5) Why does he keep his wallet?
6) What did road did Ish follow and where was that road?
7) What did Ish pick up on the road that made him feel better?
8) Why did the object he picked make him feel nervous?
9) Where does Ish stop at to spend the night before crossing the desert?
10) Whom does Ish meet an hour out of Little Rock Arkansas?
11) What does he do that kind of made him sick?
12) What other kinds of people did he meet in chapter three?
Chapter Four
1) What does New York look like now?
2) What does the phrase, “There are no atheists in foxholes,” mean? Is Ish religious?
3) Who were the two people that Ish met in Manhattan?
4) As Ish leaves what does he say about the people he leaves? Why does he say that? How are they different?
5) What possessions did they have that Ish thought was stupid? What did they not have that Ish thought he should give them, even though he did not give it to them?
Chapter Five
1) As Ish drives what does he say about people he might have found? Why doesn’t he stay with them?
2) What does he do with grains and vegetables he comes by?
3) What is he eating as he drives across the plains?
4) What does he see when he comes into California?
5) What was the difference of lights on the east coast compared to the west coast?
6) Where does Ish return too?
7) What is the importance of the place he returned to?
8) On page 82 he takes home what two books? Why these books? What do they have to do with Ish’s situation?
9) What happened with the pack of dogs?
10) What happens to the lights?
11) Does Ish go to see what he can do about the lights?
Chapter Six
1) What has changed since the lights went out? What types of food in now out of his diet?
2) Whom does Ish meet?
3) What is one of their worries?
4) What happens at the end of chapter six?
Chapter Seven
1) Who does Ish say is like Ashtoreth and Aphrodite?
2) What does that name imply?
3) What happened to the car? What is Em’s reaction?
4) Who says it is not the end of the world?
5) What do they do about the car? How do they get it running?
6) What do they get when they go to town?
7) What does Ish say will cause the cars to be useless?
8) Em is an African-American woman or at least partly. Ish is a Caucasian man that is younger than Em. What message is the author George R. Stewart trying to make here?
9) Em tells Ish to go and get what kind of books?
10) Ish had to deal with ants before and they died out because of over-population. Now the rats have come. What will happen now?
11) What could the rats bring with them that scared Ish?
12) Ish explains the population issue with the rats. What does this mean in the big balance of life for everything else? What is George R. Stewart trying to say about humans in 1949?
13) What happened to all the rat bodies?
14) What do they think of mixed marriages? Why is this important in 1947-1949? He says, “the Jew-baiters and Negro-baiters are all dead an rotten now,” and then he laughs. Why is this important?
Chapter Eight
1) Why does Ish feel momentarily superior to Em concerning time? What is the difference between man and woman?
2) How does he tell the time of year? What day does he use to set the calendar back in order?
3) What is the indication of the solstice?
4) Where does the sun set during the solstice? Where does it go next?
5) How did they decide to keep the year? How did they mark it down to keep track?
Quick Years
1) What did they put on the rocks?
2) What was year one called?
3) What happened to his garden?
4) How many children did they have when they met Ezra?
5) What happens to Ezra? Why?
6) What did they call year two?
7) What did they call year 3?
8) What happened in year 4? What was it named?
9) How many people are there with Ish and Em now? Give their names and who they are with?
10) What is bigamy?
11) Ezra takes the station wagon and does what?
12) Who is there with them now on San Lupo Drive?
13) Who did Em give birth too at the end of the fourth year?
14) What did they name year 5? What happened that year?
15) What did they call the group now?
16) What happened year 6? How many children now?
17) What did they end up calling year 6? Why? Why not the year of the babies?
18) What happened to Ish in year 7 and why? What was this year named?
19) What did they call year 8? What happened with religion?
20) How did Ish put an end to the church thing?
21) How many people at the beginning of year 9?
22) What happened after the visitor came and left?
23) What did George and Maurine feel about the great disaster that killed the population?
24) What did they call year 9 and why? How many children were born that year?
25) What did they call year 10?
26) What did they call year 11? Who died that year?
27) What happened year 12? Who was born that year? What was the name of the year?
28) What happened year 13? What was that year called?
29) What about year 14, what was it called?
30) What about year 15, what was it called?
31) What happened year 16? What was it called and why? How old was mary? How old was Ralph?
32) What is year 17 called and why?
33) Year 18 is called year what? Why?
34) Who had the last child of the old generation?
35) Year 19 is called what?
36) What was year 20 called?
37) What was year 21 called? How many of them were there now?
38) What could Joey do? Why is that so important?
Part 2 The Year 22
Chapter one
1) What was the deal with ice? How were they planning to make it? Why didn’t the kids care about it?
2) Ish want’s them to stop doing what? What does he want them to start doing?
3) How is their society different from before?
4) Who is the leader so far?
5) What is the deal with laws now?
6) Do you think that could work for any length of time?
7) How does Em see scavenging? What does Ish say about it?
8) What is about to happen to them all that Ish warned them about?
Chapter two
1) What is important about Ish not being a ruler? What is said about being a man of ideas?
2) What happened to the water?
3) Could this have been prevented?
4) Isn’t Ish to blame? He has ideas but never acts on them. Is this why he says he is not a ruler?
5) What did they find at the reservoir?
6) What do they about toilets and about water?
7) Could any of this have been prevented? How?
8) What has happened with the speeches about education and the refrigerator?
9) What do you think will happen later on?
10) What are they planning to do with the boys?
Chapter 3
1) What are they digging?
2) Where are the boys going to go?
3) What does Ish tell Bob to go in the house and get? What does Ish say about the way it makes him feel with it in his hands?
4) Who goes into town?
5) What do they go into town to get?
6) What do they have to change before they can go back home?
7) What did Joey point out that made everyone feel stupid?
8) What were the kids doing when Ish and the boys got back from town?
9) What did the well look like?
Chapter 4
1) Who is leaving to go on a journey?
2) Where are they going to go?
3) Can the boys read? Do they know their numbers?
4) Why don’t they know the states?
5) Who was supposed to be their teacher? Why haven’t they been taught anything?
6) What did the children do about music? Why didn’t they like records?
Chapter 5
1) Who is gone?
2) Where did they go?
3) What is Ish trying to teach the kids? How did he try to teach them?
4) Why didn’t Chris want to get the hammer? Who did get the hammer and why?
5) What were the kids doing with books that horrified Ish?
6) What does “I am American” become? Ish is of the old people an American what does that mean now?
Chapter 6 Chapter 7
- Who do the boys bring back with them?
- Where did the boys go?
- Where did they find Charley?
- What is embarrassing to Ish about what his son does not know about?
- What do they think Charley has in his vest?
- What does Ish not like Charley? Why is this important? Is it just jealousy?
- Who does Charley want to date? What does Ish say about it? What does Charley say about it?
- What did they have to do to Evie? Is this a right thing to do?
- What happens to Charley? What was the reason for this?
Chapter 8
- What happens to the water?
- Who gets sick first?
- Who takes care of everyone?
- What happens to everyone else?
- What do they say about what happens to them all?
- What child dies? Why is that important?
- How many died?
- What is inhumation?
Chapter 9
- What was Ish going to do with the hammer?
- What has the hammer become symbolically?
- Where did Ish walk to?
- What does Ish think will happen with “his tribe”?
- Will civilization be restored like it was?
- Will people be reading? Why or why not?
- What does Ish decide to do about all of it?
Chapter 10
- What does Ish do about school now?
- What does Ish make?
- What kind of game does Ish make?
- How do the children accept the new game?
Chapter 11
- What does Ish show the children that can replace matches?
- Why does he show them the methods to hunt and create fire with a bow?
- What do they name the year?
Quick Years #2
- What are the names of the years?
- What happened to George in year 26?
- What five original ones were left?
- What happened in year 34?
- In year 42 who had the child and with whom?
- Who thinks they are a god or might be a god? What is the thing that god holds?
- Who is the last American?
Part Three
Chapter One
- What do they hunt with now? Why?
- Who is Jack and what does he look like?
- What do they use for arrow heads? What are the red ones made of and what are the white ones made of? What clue did you use to figure this out?
- What do they not use the metal with the buffalo picture?
- Why did they use different arrow heads for lions? Why did this make Ish angry?
Chapter Two
- What happened to the house?
- What was in the house?
- Who went to get it?
- Ish says, “From the cave we came and to a cave we return.” What does this mean? How could Ish have changed that? What is the importance of this statement?
- Have we gone through this cycle of cave to cave before?
Chapter Three
- What kind of bird did they bring Ish to eat.
- What road are they on? Where does it lead? What bridge?
- What did they do about the mountain lion they encounter?
- Whom did Ish give the hammer?
- What is the very last thought of Ish? What does that mean?
