Student Essay on Z for Zachariah

Z for Zachariah

Summary:   In Z for Zachariah there has been a nuclear explosion which Burdon valley survived, as the valley is a nuclear enclave which means a place has its own climate, and Anne a girl who was left at home when her family went out in search of survivors, is convinced she is the only person left on earth.

Z for Zachariah

In Z for Zachariah there has been a nuclear explosion which

Burdon valley survived, as the valley is a nuclear enclave which means a place has its own climate, and Anne a girl who was left at home when her family went out in search of survivors, is convinced she is the only person left on earth. Anne is faced with a number of tough decisions as she strives to survive in a post-nuclear holocaust world. Then she sees a man coming! The smoke from a distance shatters Anne's solitude. She was so excited and wanted to go down and greet him, but then she thinks better of it and decides to camp out in the woods in a cave watching him.

Anne is a very cautious and intelligent girl which is shown by her knowledge or lack there of Mr Loomis. When he arrived Anne wanted to go down and see him but was forced to change her mind by the thought of him being some kind of a mad man. Also when Anne first caught sight of him she knew that if he was a lunatic he would know if anyone was in the valley so she covered up anything growing in the fields and any fresh eggs which were in the house, A quote I have taken from the book which also shows her intelligence 'dig up the garden, everything that was coming up, flatten it, and cover it with dead leaves. I hated that the worst because everything was growing so well.' This shows her intelligence because she has removed any sign of life that she can think of from the valley.

Anne is also very mature which is shown by her caring for Mr Loomis when he falls sick with radiation poisoning after he takes a bath in a radiation exposed pond, her maturity is shown here by her going down to take care of him and she feeds him and gives him water, and also from the fact she stays calm about him telling her that his sickness will get worse. She also doesn't have any self pity on herself this is shown here 'Another lucky thing was that the war ended in the spring (it began in the spring, too, of course - it only lasted for a week), so that I had all summer to understand how things were, to get over being afraid, and to think about how I was going to live through the winter.'

Anne is also very well organised she always seems to know what to do and when to do it. This is shown by her setting out the cave with all the resources she will need to survive she cooks her meals in the cave as she got food from the shop and collected water from the pond running through Burdon valley, and also the way she looks after Mr Loomis.

Another of Anne's qualities is she is without a doubt a very caring person which is shown in this quote 'even though he may be a murderer, I do not want him to die' her caring for Loomis is shown throughout the book until he turns nasty, here are a few more quotes from the book 'I kept the fire going and changed the hot water bottle every hour, putting it next to his feet. They are so cold I am sure they are not getting any circulation'

'I played the piano for half an hour, hoping it would penetrate to wherever he was.' And again near the end of the story 'Mr Loomis stops to listen and I have a stationary target. I draw the bead, the gun is steady and I cannot miss. But at that moment Faro gives a small bark which comes clearly up the hill to my ears. It is his bark of greeting, a soft pleasure bark for me - he knows the cave is just ahead. And at the sound, so gentle and familiar, my finger goes limp on the trigger, and I cannot do it. In the end I lower the gun barrel and they move on out of sight' this quote suggest also how caring she is and she couldn't shoot Faro the dog but doesn't have to as he runs through the same pond that Mr Loomis did and caught radiation poisoning and is dead by the next day.

Also towards the end of the story Mr Loomis shoots Anne in her foot she is still able to walk but he is onto her, he makes his way to the village shop in search of Anne with his gun but fails, she's not there but is in fact hiding out in the woods. Mr Loomis uses Faro to hunt down Anne 'Mr Loomis has Faro, he will find me. Therefore I must shoot Faro.' She said and it almost works and Anne feels Faro is betraying her 'And suddenly this small friendly dog, David's dog, is an enemy, as dangerous as a tiger' she wrote and comes to the conclusion that she has to kill him.

Another quote I have from the book 'I began to realize the mistake I had made.' Which suggest that she is regretting helping Mr Loomis in the first place, helping this man get better after falling sick who has now turned against her showing his true side.' that I was in a game of move-counter-move, like a chess game, a game I did not want to be in at all. Only Mr Loomis wanted to be in it, and only he could win it.' This quote shows how she feels about the situation she has come face to face with, that Mr Loomis is trying to track her down. In this quote 'I wish now Mr Loomis had never come to the valley at all. It was lonely with no one here, but it was better than this. I do not wish him dead, but wish that by luck, by chance, he might have taken some other road and found some other valley than this.' Here is the seed of the idea of Anne leaving the valley which she later decides to do.

Finally in the last chapter of the book, chapter 26, Anne decides to leave Mr Loomis and the valley in search of her dream, as she feels she has no other choice but to leave. Mr Loomis pleads with Anne to stay with him but she doesn't want to. '"Don't go," he said. "Don't leave me. Don't leave me here alone." ' he says to Anne but she tells him she has no other choice and she doesn't want to die 'I have no choice. I didn't want to die, and you wouldn't give me anything. During the winter I would have starved on the hillside. I don't want to live with you hunting me as if I were an animal, and I will never agree to be your prisoner.' She turns around after one last look at Mr Loomis, and heads out into the wilderness not looking back only holding her hand up to say she heard him shout he saw birds 'I raised my hand to let him know that I had understood. Then I forced myself to turn and walk away.' In the very last section of the story she has another dream but then it ends 'The dream was gone, yet I knew which way to go. As I walk I search the horizon for a trace of green. I am hopeful.' And ends there on a note of optimism.