Shonny represents the decent, religious man who cleaves to his principles even in the midst of dangerous social breakdown all around him. Sadly, his faith in the goodness of humankind proves to be naïve, as his children are taken from him, apparently to be killed and cannibalized. He learns from this terrible experience that he cannot trust in God or in the social order to ensure that people conduct themselves with decency and honor. By the end of the novel, the bravado he had exhibited in insisting that the family shelter the pregnant Beatrice-Joanna despite the risks to their own safety has disappeared. In its stead are embitterment and devastation. Shonny is a good man, broken by bad times.
