Z for Zacheriah
Z for ZacheriahThe book I read was called
Z for Zachariah.
This book was written by
Robert C. O’Brien.
This story took place in a valley which was most likely one of the only non-radioactive places left on Earth. The rest of the world became radioactive after a war which used nerve gasses in their bombs. This made the Earth unsupportive of life. This most likely happened in the late A.D. 2000’s.
The main character in the story was a young 16 year old girl named Ann Burden who was the only one left in the valley. She THOUGHT she was the only person left living on the face of the Earth. She had stayed there alone for almost a year, and then an intruder came, Mr. Loomis.
Mr. Loomis is a scientist who had been working on an experiment using a safe-suit which protected people from harmful radioactivity. He used this suit to travel around to find ANY OTHER people who were left living. He traveled all the way to Ann’s valley. The first proof of animal life he found was Faro, a dog.
Faro is a dog that was left alone in the valley with Ann. He was originally David’s dog. Once David did not come back, Faro became a friend of Ann’s. Once Mr. Loomis came to the valley, Faro befriended Ann and took the scientist’s side.
Ann lived in the valley all alone until Mr. Loomis came along and intruded into her space. She first spied on him because she was concerned of his mental condition. “Is he nice?” “Is he crazy” she constantly asked herself. She saw him swim in a dead river. There was no life in there, which was a sign of radioactivity. Mr. Loomis was just so eager to jump into the water that he did not even stop to look and see if the water was full of life, or dead as it was. She watched him from up in the cave, and noticed that his activity had lessened so much in the past few hours. She began to think that he was sick, so she went down to his tent to help him. She nursed him until he could talk clearly and he asked her to take the Geiger and measure the radioactivity level in the river. She did as he said and discovered that Mr. Loomis had Radiation Poisoning. She took care of him as he became well, and also learned about his past as she hoped for a future for both of them. She always dreamed of having children live in the valley. This was her chance. I came to believe that this made her gullible to his every word. Once he was better and now able to walk, he began to order her around. She did as he said. She then realized that he had been controlling her and that it was wrong for him to do so. She thought about going out into the new world, as he did. He had found her, and her valley. Maybe she could do the same. She hinted around to Mr. Loomis that she wanted to go out into places such as Odgentown, she said it was to get books. She finally got sick of his bossy attitude went back up to her cave on the top of the hill. She then decided, it was time to leave. She would take the safe-suit and go off into the new world. She notified Mr. Loomis of her choices, and began to leave. He was furious that yet another person had stolen his safe-suit and tried to use it for “selfish” reasons. He had used Faro earlier to find her, but this time, he used the tractor. He went full speed, gun in hand. He finally caught up to her, and they began to talk. This time, Ann was wearing the safe-suit. She reminded him of when he had shot the other man, because he had stolen his safe-suit. She turned away from Mr. Loomis, waiting for a bullet to shoot into her back, but it never did. She walked all afternoon until she could walk no more. She woke the next day not knowing where she was. But what kept her going was the dream she remembered from when she slept. She then knew which way to go. She arose, and searched the horizon for a trace of green. She was hopeful.
I thought that one of the main themes of this book was to never give up. You don’t know what will come next, but better or worse, you need the experience. In this book, Ann tried her best to stay alive, which allowed her to meet this new man, Mr. Loomis. This opened her to a whole new world of expectations. Mr. Loomis did not give up when the radiation took on the rest of the world. He took the safe-suit and traveled cross-country to the valley and met a golden opportunity . . . Ann.
I thought that one of the other themes in the book was respect. Mr. Loomis was not respectful to Ann for all of the help, support, and kindness she had to offer to him. He did not thank her for taking good care of him while he was sick, he ordered her around after he was well, and he did not thank her for letting him stay in her house. After all this, she ran away from him. Since he did not show respect for her, he lost a chance of friendship, trust, and possibly the continuation of the human race. I think that he learned his lesson. There are consequences for not showing respect, and good endings for when you do.
I did not actually enjoy this book. I don’t enjoy reading books that are not personally believable. I don’t personally believe that the world will ever be almost completely radioactive. I don’t enjoy this kind of book because I like to read about things that I can relate to.
I learned (1) to respect people to ensure friendships, (2) to never give up, for they may still be hope, (3) to appreciate all that is given to me, (4) to learn to trust people only after I truly know who that are, and (5) to always be open minded to new things.