Wandering Through Cannibal Land
Source/Author: Natalie Updike, Upper School English Teacher
October 07, 2021
Shorecrest Upper School's English 12 Honors: Dystopian Literature course taught by Ms. Updike encourages seniors to dissect lines between Apocalyptic, Post-Apocalyptic, Dystopian, and Utopian genres, often resulting in a blurring between these bleak realities and the search for hope.
During the end of the Apocalyptic and Post-Apocalyptic unit, seniors competed for candy prizes in a test review for Cormac McCarthy's "The Road" called "Cannibal Land," based off a genre-appropriate, warped Candy Land mixed with Trivial Pursuit.
In teams, students spun a wheel and then advanced as human game pieces along a room-sized game board -- aka "the Road" of "Cannibal Land." They answered review questions along the way to collect tokens, which reflected major symbols, themes, and plot-details from the novel, such as the cart, obsidian, cans of food, ash, trees, and the all-important fire.
At the game's conclusion, all students arrived at the end of the road safely. No humans were harmed in the playing of "Cannibal Land"; only candy met its maker.
In teams, students spun a wheel and then advanced as human game pieces along a room-sized game board -- aka "the Road" of "Cannibal Land." They answered review questions along the way to collect tokens, which reflected major symbols, themes, and plot-details from the novel, such as the cart, obsidian, cans of food, ash, trees, and the all-important fire.
At the game's conclusion, all students arrived at the end of the road safely. No humans were harmed in the playing of "Cannibal Land"; only candy met its maker.
