Simulacrum And Hyperreality in Cargill’s Day Zero

Abstract

This study examines the simulacrum and simulation representation of postmodern society in Cargill's Day Zero in the postmodern theoretical paradigm of Baudrillard. The postmodern concept of hyperreality is concerned with concealing the truth behind reproductions that is twice removed from reality. The thorough study of the text shows how simulacra and simulation can produce highly real environments that seem to exist entirely outside of human reality. This writing is dystopian in nature because the hyperbolic representation of consumer society leads towards magic world which seems real due to its continuous practice. The protagonist of the story is a little boy named Ezra who uses a robot named Pounce to help him to navigate the post-apocalyptic world. Pounce, a fictitious nannybot, is the representation of consumer society due to its robotic implications. Pounce wonders over the elements of robot revolution that will exterminate humanity. This paper has analyzed the rebellious attitude of machinery such as by robots and other artificially intelligent computers against humans. Therefore, the ordinary and uninteresting state of the modern world eventually gives rise to the world of hyperreality, where everything appears to be more fascinating and less dry than the alleged desert of the real outside. In the context of this study, it is asserted that the postmodern person gets tired of the apparent artificiality of hyperreality and either strives to re-discover the real or confronts the meaningless wasteland left in the wake of the real’s absence. Through this analysis, the researcher has drawn the conclusion that reality has completely changed and that hyperreality is now the predominate reality. Therefore, the application of this study is valuable in demonstrating an understanding of the scope and impact of hyperreality, simulation, and simulacra on the postmodern individuals.