Hopelessness and Despair

The world of J. B. is a frightening world. In the beginning of the play, J. B. and his family are healthy and wealthy, happy and loving. J. B.'s children have never known suffering or deprivation; as J. B. tells Sarah, the world seems to them "New and born and fresh and wonderful." J. B. himself trusts his "luck" because it comes from God. He is safe in his knowledge that God is "just. He'll never change."

But without warning—and without cause—J. B.'s luck does change. His children are killed in particularly senseless ways: David by accident, by his own men when the war is over; Mary and Jonathan by a drunken teenaged driver; Rebecca by a teenager on drugs; Ruth in a bombing. J. B. himself is injured in an atomic blast, and his body is covered with radiation...