Nordenholt’s Million · Theme
Survival and Catastrophe
How Nordenholt’s Million develops Survival and Catastrophe.
The book explores humanity's struggle for survival following a global ecological disaster caused by a blight that destroys plant life, forcing a small group to create a fortified Nitrogen Area to sustain civilization.
Where it surfaces
- Nordenholt's Million
The blight threatens global civilization, forcing extreme measures for survival.
- I: Genesis
Wotherspoon warns that a change in bacterial balance could lead to food shortages, and the fireball incident directly triggers the coming disaster.
- II: The Coming of "The Blight"
The blight represents an unexplained natural catastrophe that threatens vegetation and crops, foreshadowing a larger crisis.
- III: B. Diazotans
The Blight threatens total crop failure, leading to potential famine and societal collapse.
- IV: Panic
The chapter details the onset of a global food catastrophe, with the Blight destroying crops and the public slowly awakening to the threat of famine.
- X: The Death of the Leviathan
The chapter details the catastrophic collapse of Southern England through famine, disease rumours, and isolation, contrasting with the survival efforts in the Nitrogen Area.
- XII: Nuit Blanche
The narrator's journey through London illustrates the extreme measures people take to survive, including cannibalism and the formation of armed patrols.
- XIV: Winter in the Outer World
The chapter details the global catastrophe of B. diazotans and the desperate struggle for food, exemplified by Hinkinson's diary of brutal survival in the American civil war.
- XVIII: The Eleventh Hour
The pit sabotage threatens the Area's survival, forcing Nordenholt to contemplate extreme measures to endure.
- Asgard
The chapter details the aftermath of global famine and fire, the survival of a few colonies, and the struggle to rebuild society.