History Literature / ThePostman

* DeconstructorFleet: Openly admitted by the author as the massive take down on [[AfterTheEnd the entire post-apocalypse genre]], which was at its peak of popularity back then. Most of it is achieved by simple PerspectiveFlip and telling the story from the perspective of people that are usually saved by some cliché, OneManArmy-style AntiHero and making it a point to show just how horrible life without modern civilization can get. And that usual hero archetype is most represented by the ''bad guys'' here, with a lot of the ideas underlying it deconstructed. The protagonist himself isn't some badass loner who is strengthened by living in the wild, but a milquetoast man who ''hates'' struggling in the wild and wishes to join a community that has rebuilt itself. His heroism does ''not'' come from winning battles, but by (inadvertently) inspiring others to think beyond merely survival and rebuild society.

* DeconstructorFleet: Openly admitted by the author as the massive take down on [[AfterTheEnd the entire post-apocalypse genre]], which was at its peak of popularity back then. Most of it is achieved by simple PerspectiveFlip and telling the story from the perspective of people that are usually saved by some cliché, OneManArmy-style AntiHero and making it a point to show just how horrible life without modern civilization can get. And that usual hero archetype is most represented by the ''bad guys'' here, with a lot of the ideas underlying it deconstructed. The protagonist himself isn't some badass loner who is strengthened by living in the wild, but a milquetoast man who ''hates'' struggling in the wild and wishes to join a community that has rebuilt itself. His heroism does ''not'' come from winning battles, but by (inadvertantly) inspiring others to think beyond merely survival and rebuild civilization.

** A heroic example is used by Gordon with great effect. Each time he finds people distrusting his story about RUSA or the Postal Service, he makes sure to appoint them as local Post Masters, making them personally part of the system and thus unable to go against it.

* SnowballLie: In the process of covering his ass, the Postman accidentally invents a "Restored United States." The myth becomes so widespread that even the Holnists can't stomp it out.

* TheDreaded: Subverted with the Holnists -- they are generally feared, but hated even more. Large bands of Holnists can force people into submission, but if any of them are caught alone, the common people will show no mercy.

* KeystoneArmy: Given how Holnists' ranks work, [[spoiler:[[DecapitatedArmy killing all their high command in the last chapter]]]] inevitably leads to their demise as an organized force. Without that unity they not only become easier targets, but it's also heavily implied [[EnemyCivilWar they start fighting each other for command]], every geurilla for himself.

* KeystoneArmy: Given how Holnists' ranks work, [[spoiler:[[DecapitatedArmy killing all their high command in the last chapter]]]] inevitably leads to their demise as an organized force. Without that unity they not only become easier targets, but it's also heavily implied [[EnemyCivilWar they start fighting each other for command]], every gorilla for himself.

[[FallenStatesOfAmerica America has been left in ruins]] in the wake of the [[DoomyDoomsOfDoom Doomwar]], a conflagration of various doomsday scenarios. Seventeen years later, Gordon Krantz, who was a college sophomore before it all came down, struggles to survive in a harsh environment where scavenging and violence is the norm and the [[RightWingMilitiaFanatic vicious, fanatical Holnists]] reign supreme. He has been searching and searching for a place, anywhere, where "someone is taking responsibility." When he is robbed of most of his possessions, Gordon takes the uniform of a long-dead postman for warmth. The simple act of taking up this symbol soon {{snowball|Lie}}s into an elaborate tale casting Gordon as an agent of the fictional Restored United States. At first, he maintains this lie only to survive, but as hope springs up in his path, the lie becomes something more.

* AsskickingEqualsAuthority: The followers of Nathan Holn's philosophy will ''only'' accept orders from someone they know can kill them. They generally don't murder their superiors by treachery or stealth, since that wouldn't prove who was 'better'.

* ConspiracyTheorist: Nathan Holn, a batshit insane nutcase. Everyone, including people born after the Doomwar (and thus lacking any serious education), wonder how he could get any support for his ideas. Except, of course, the Holnists who have taken his MightMakesRight philosophy UpToEleven.

** Holnists' ideology runs on this trope taken UpToEleven.

* ObligatoryWarCrimeScene: The Willamette Army on ''their own fallen'', [[FalseFlagOperation to convince the general public how horrible the Holnists are]]. The Holnists, of course, are no saints -- collecting genitals and ears of killed enemies is a standard procedure for them, just as rounding up the survivors for slavery and [[TheSocialDarwinist castrating males they perceive as weak]].

* TheGreatPoliticsMessUp: It's hinted that the Soviet Union survived until the Doomwar, or was toppled by violent revolution right before it. The war took place in the mid-1990s.

* UnspecifiedApocalypse: The details are intentionally kept vague, but it's relatively easy to figure out that whatever the Doomwar was about, it ended up with limited nuclear exchange, combined with high-altitude detonations (thus EMP) and biological agents were also used. However, ''neither'' of those knocked the government or civilisation as such down. Instead it was result of the various mobs that formed in the aftermath of war, some of which actively and deliberately gunned down and destroyed any sign of reconstruction they've came across, further combined with indifference of people not affected directly. The letters Gordon finds in the van clearly indicate that things were struggling, but somewhat still normal ''three years'' after the Doomwar and he was himself a guardsman in the National Guard some two years after the war. All this uncertainity is used as a plot-point, since in the end, it doesn't really matter and people have to come to terms with it if they didn't already.

* VictoryByEndurance: Discussed and invoked. General Macklin explains to Gordon how his minor setbacks are meaningless in the long run, simply because he has ideological superiority over "cowards" -- the Holnists can simply wait out for [[WeAreStrugglingTogether the local alliances to collapse over time]] when they will no longer be under pressure of direct threat, only for the Holnists to return then to mop up the survivors one by one. All while the teachings of Nathan Holn are ''very'' tempting to ambitious, strong and brave individuals, further eroding ranks of the "sheep". [[spoiler:But it's the Willamette Valley that comes out victorious this way, simply by resisting the Holnists for long enough to finally convince [[SummonBiggerFish George Powhatan to join their fight.]] Few weeks later Holnists are a DecapitatedArmy on retreat and busy fighting each other for the leadership, while the Oregon region emerges as unified territory with a strong government.]]

** To his own surprise, Gordon is praised for killing of two Holnists who he encountered in the library. Despite Holnist ideology being sexist, Macklin also even praises the female Army Scouts for their plot against the Holnists too.

** The original postman. While going through his mail, Gordon realises he died ''three years'' after the war, courageously going behind lines for the sake of the mail, and only part of it being vital messages.

* NostalgiaFilter: Often invoked by different characters toward the pre-war world. People tend to sing commercial jingles just to recall good old times. Also part of what makes Gordon's {{masquerade}} so effective: of all the hallmarks of civilization before the collapse, the accessibility of the postal service and the positive connotations it held make it a symbol that survivors latched onto immediately. One survivor fondly reminisces on how their father would leave out a glass of whiskey for the mail carrier every Christmas.

* NormalFishInATinyPond: After spending the last fifteen years on wandering through the wasteland, Gordon is ''still'' an easy target for bandits roaming around, but when compared to inhabitants of the Willamette Valley he is an extremely experienced scavenger and scout, able to find holes in local defenses on the fly or picking off small squads of Holnists one by one.

* InstantAIJustAddWater: Averted. The pre-war [=AI=] computers were a step between real [=AI=] and standard mega-computer, build on specially designed processors and components. Only if running sufficiently long could they reach true sentience going beyond the ability to answer questions and solving equations on their own. [[spoiler:Which makes Cyclops' death even more shattering.]]

** Subverted later on, when [[spoiler:the Holnists capture him for the second time. He manages to climb on [[UnwillingSuspension a beam his hands were tied to]]]], but the first thing Colonel Bezoar does is look in that direction the moment he realizes Gordon is missing. Gordon expects this, however, dropping onto him at once.

** The seasons in which the action takes place [[RuleOfSymbolism are related with this trope]]. In the first section, it's autumn, where everything is dying. Then the action fast-forwards toward early spring, when Gordon starts setting his Postal Service and things are going smooth. Then the Holnists show up -- right when autumn is about to start. The war against them takes place mostly in the winter, when nature is dead and animals struggle to survive. In the end, when [[spoiler:the Holnists are defeated and Gordon heads toward California]], it's the beautiful spring of 2012.
** Gordon's dream in the postal car, about a [[{{Eagleland}} giant]] [[ThePhoenix bird]] building itself a pyre and burning on it, after which the surrounding plants starts to sprout new leaves.

* IgnorantOfTheCall: Played with. Throughout the book Gordon is desperately looking for some strong figure to follow and help make things better, but when he starts his little postal scam, he's completely ignorant of the impact he has as exactly the type of person he was searching for. It completely freaks him out when things go way over any direct control and just keep snowballing further, forcing him to play the role of heroic figure and then slowly becoming one for real.

* FalloutShelterFail: The protagonist mentions finding fallout shelters whose owners didn't make it every so often, and hoping that the prior occupants stocked up on more non-perishable food than useless stuff like gold. There are also mentions of all sort of survivalist outposts, that became endless battlefields between current owners and people who wanted to take it for themselves, only to be soon attacked by new invaders, until there was nothing worth fighting for left.

->''Who is going to take responsibility?''

* FalloutShelterFail: The protagonist mentions finding fallout shelters whose owners didn't make it every so often, and hoping that the prior occupants stocked up on more non-perishable food than useless stuff like gold.

* OneHitKill: {{Justified|Trope}}, since [[spoiler:Gordon punches Bezoar's jaw]] into his brain. And [[RealityEnsues almost breaks his hand by doing it improperly]].

* TapOnTheHead: [[spoiler:One of the augments knocks Gordon out after finally finding out who is commanding the defenses.]] [[RealityEnsues He only fully recovers from it a few days later, being barely conscious for that time.]]

* EqualOpportunityEvil: Holnists, but only if you are male, although one of the augments clearly does not like the idea that black soldiers might serve with them. General Macklin chides him for this, however, saying Nathan Hold wasn't a racist and expresses admiration for a black man who's fighting them (a former Marine) while saying his own sons would be required to earn their place in the Holnist army, or else be serfs. The fact that all Holnists seem to be white is explained by Macklin saying most of the racial minorities didn't survive after the apocalypse as the result of being disadvantaged. It seems probable people of color would be less attracted to such a philosophy given its [[UsefulNotes/NaziGermany historical associations though]] too.

* ForWantOfANail: [[spoiler:Holnists under General Macklin would probably have a field day in the Willamette Valley, if not for the fact Gordon organised communication and cooperation of local settlements under the ''de facto'' leadership of Servants of the Cyclops and convincing George Powhatan along with his hardened community to join the fight.]] Should they have gone in just a few months earlier, they would have easily won.

* InverseLawOfUtilityAndLethality: Gordon is a former sophomore of some sociology-themed major who was attending acting group in spare time back then ... which helps him all the time in the postwar world.

* DeconstructorFleet: Openly admitted by the author as the massive take down on [[AfterTheEnd the entire post-apocalypse genre]], which was at its peak of popularity back then. Most of it is achieved by simple PerspectiveFlip and telling the story from the perspective of people that are usually saved by some cliché, OneManArmy-style AntiHero and making it a point to show just how horrible life without modern civilization can get. And that usual hero archetype is most represented by the ''bad guys'' here, with a lot of the ideas underlying it deconstructed. The protagonist himself isn't some badass loner to is strengthened by living in the wild, but a milquetoast man who ''hates'' struggling in the wild and wishes to join a community that has rebuilt itself. His heroism does ''not'' come from winning battles, but by (inadvertantly) inspiring others to think beyond merely survival and rebuild civilization.

* DeconstructorFleet: Openly admitted by the author as the massive take down on [[AfterTheEnd the entire post-apocalypse genre]], which was at its peak of popularity back then. Most of it is achieved by simple PerspectiveFlip and telling the story from the perspective of people that are usually saved by some cliché, OneManArmy-style AntiHero and making it a point to show just how horrible life without modern civilization can get. And that usual hero archetype is most represented by the ''bad guys'' here, with a lot of the ideas underlying it deconstructed. The protagonist himself is a man who ''hates'' his transient lifestyle and wishes to join a community that has rebuilt itself, and his heroism comes ''not'' from winning battles, but from simply bringing hope for a return to normalcy.

* DividedWeFall: The only reason why Holnists or just regular thugs and bandits can thrive is lack of cooperation and unity on the side of the communities they oppress. The book as a whole makes it a point to explain that civilization and society as we know it can exist when and only when people work together for shared goals, putting the group ahead of their own ambitions. This was written at a time when {{Greed}} was seen as a virtue.