Re-Configuring the Self and Environmental Influence in Annihilation (novel) and Stalker

Our environments dictate how we live and interact as individuals living within larger communities. Living within these communities helps form our identities, but they can also keep us numb due to pack mentality or other societal pressures. Separating ourselves from societal constraints can then enable us to confront our vulnerabilities fully. During these moments of escape, we may become more aware that we are not invincible, and the natural world can easily strip and consume us. Terrifying? Yes! But there is a kind of freedom granted in accepting the heavier aspects of life, including uncertainty, failure, pain, death, i.e., all matters we try to fight against or manage while living within a community. What these moments can help us realize is that as our environments change, we must let go of our past selves or identities to adapt and form new ones fully. In the film Stalker and novel Annihilation, protagonists try to escape societal living constraints in what is essentially the pursuance of their actual realities.