Overcoming the Ego
Posted October 19, 2007 at Teachnology
The whole story deals with the need for people to get past their self-centered views (irrational fears, especially) in order to understand others.
Ann is paranoid from the start and only concerned about protecting her own safety at any cost, and that is certainly the main cause of misunderstanding and conflict between her and Loomis. It amazes me that others fail to see how irrational she is. Does she think she can CHOOSE to be friends or not with this stranger who wanders into the last habitable valley on Earth? If she decides she doesn't "like" him for some reason, what will she do? Hide from him all her life despite having to share the same small valley, and despite the probability he is the only other human she will ever meet? It's absurd.
The ONLY reasonable thing for her to do is TRY to make a good life together and hope for the best--NOT let groundless fears guide all her decisions! She should let herself be motivated mainly by compassion and the desire for companionship, not self-interested fear for her own safety and comfort.
Besides, what ultimate safety can there be for her in staying alone in her valley or wandering off alone into a radioactive desert? The kind of perfect safety she craves can only be found in complete isolation from others; but what good is that? It's a sad comment on the human race if that is the only way we can feel safe from one another.
Burden Valley is the last chance for humanity's survival, and the last two humans have to find a way to live together. If they don't "like" each other for any reason, there's nowhere else to go and no one else to turn to for companionship. It's the world in small. We're used to thinking that we can just ignore people we don't like or kill enemies to get our way. But with modern weapons and population pressures (and now the problems of climate change as well reducing available resources), we need to find a way to share this planet amicably before we destroy it and/or ourselves completely. I suspect that Ann's family name, "Burden," suggests the characteristics that interfere with human compassion and threaten our survival as a species: the burden of egotism, perhaps. Or maybe the name suggests that she and the valley with her family's name carry the burden of humanity's survival. (Most likely, the name stands for both of these things: egotism and the drive to procreate. These dualistic aspects of human nature are described in Edna St. Vincent Millay's "Epitaph for the Race of Man," Ann Burden's favorite poem.)
Two recent stories for young readers which have similar humane themes are Jeanne DuPrau's The City of Ember and The People of Sparks.
Ann is paranoid from the start and only concerned about protecting her own safety at any cost, and that is certainly the main cause of misunderstanding and conflict between her and Loomis. It amazes me that others fail to see how irrational she is. Does she think she can CHOOSE to be friends or not with this stranger who wanders into the last habitable valley on Earth? If she decides she doesn't "like" him for some reason, what will she do? Hide from him all her life despite having to share the same small valley, and despite the probability he is the only other human she will ever meet? It's absurd.
The ONLY reasonable thing for her to do is TRY to make a good life together and hope for the best--NOT let groundless fears guide all her decisions! She should let herself be motivated mainly by compassion and the desire for companionship, not self-interested fear for her own safety and comfort.
Besides, what ultimate safety can there be for her in staying alone in her valley or wandering off alone into a radioactive desert? The kind of perfect safety she craves can only be found in complete isolation from others; but what good is that? It's a sad comment on the human race if that is the only way we can feel safe from one another.
Burden Valley is the last chance for humanity's survival, and the last two humans have to find a way to live together. If they don't "like" each other for any reason, there's nowhere else to go and no one else to turn to for companionship. It's the world in small. We're used to thinking that we can just ignore people we don't like or kill enemies to get our way. But with modern weapons and population pressures (and now the problems of climate change as well reducing available resources), we need to find a way to share this planet amicably before we destroy it and/or ourselves completely. I suspect that Ann's family name, "Burden," suggests the characteristics that interfere with human compassion and threaten our survival as a species: the burden of egotism, perhaps. Or maybe the name suggests that she and the valley with her family's name carry the burden of humanity's survival. (Most likely, the name stands for both of these things: egotism and the drive to procreate. These dualistic aspects of human nature are described in Edna St. Vincent Millay's "Epitaph for the Race of Man," Ann Burden's favorite poem.)
Two recent stories for young readers which have similar humane themes are Jeanne DuPrau's The City of Ember and The People of Sparks.
The Ending of the Story is not Flawed
Posted June 29, 2008 at Teachnology
Some people have observed that the writer unfortunately died before finishing the story, and they seem to think this results in a flawed ending. However, this view ignores the fact that the writer explained his intentions to his family so that they could finish the story as he'd planned. At most, then, the change of author resulted in a slight change in the writing style but NOT in the content. It seems pretty presumptuous of people to assume they know better than the writer's family how the story "should" have ended.
The ending of the story is important to its meaning. It is not in any way faulty. What's faulty is the judgment of the main character, Ann. Those who find the ending unsatisfying probably assume incorrectly that Ann is "good" and Loomis is "wicked," and they look for a more satisfying end in which she either kills him or gets to keep the nice green valley for herself--instead of heading out into a dead wasteland to an uncertain end. They would like to think that a sequel could show Ann finding another habitable valley.
But the only realistic view of the story's ending is that Ann is going to die because of her foolishness, leaving Loomis the last human on Earth. If there were any sequel, it would have to be about him. I think one idea for a sequel would be to tell the story from Loomis's perspective, from the time of the war until after Ann leaves the valley. It would probably end with Loomis either going mad and killing himself or else slowly growing old full of tormenting regrets about his failure to understand Ann and deal with her reasonably.
The ending of the story is important to its meaning. It is not in any way faulty. What's faulty is the judgment of the main character, Ann. Those who find the ending unsatisfying probably assume incorrectly that Ann is "good" and Loomis is "wicked," and they look for a more satisfying end in which she either kills him or gets to keep the nice green valley for herself--instead of heading out into a dead wasteland to an uncertain end. They would like to think that a sequel could show Ann finding another habitable valley.
But the only realistic view of the story's ending is that Ann is going to die because of her foolishness, leaving Loomis the last human on Earth. If there were any sequel, it would have to be about him. I think one idea for a sequel would be to tell the story from Loomis's perspective, from the time of the war until after Ann leaves the valley. It would probably end with Loomis either going mad and killing himself or else slowly growing old full of tormenting regrets about his failure to understand Ann and deal with her reasonably.
More Thoughts about the Ending--Ann's Suicidal Egoism
Posted April 12, 2009 at Teachnology
It doesn't matter much that Ann takes the cart with her at the end. If she had neglected it, it would have been one more sign of her foolish recklessness.
But having the cart makes little difference because she cannot know how to use all the equipment properly. The fact that she doesn't even bother to put up the tent on the first night doesn't bode well. She is reckless, and it is her character to act more on feelings than careful reasoning.
In contrast, when Loomis first approaches and enters the valley, we see him moving slowly, making careful tests, and even sleeping in the tent on his first night in the valley. He explains to Ann later, "The tent is radiation-proof" (58). When she says, "But there's no radiation in the valley....You've learned that," he replies, "But at first I didn't trust it" (58). This kind of caution is probably what has kept him alive so long while travelling in the suit.
Loomis went on various successful expeditions from the lab near Ithaca (63), and then he travelled for 10 weeks through dead wasteland before finding the valley (57). During all of those trips, he must have been as careful as we see him being when he first arrives in the valley. Yet then even he makes a mistake when he assumes Burden Creek is the same river that his earlier tests showed was uncontaminated.
So, of course he would not trust a teenager with no scientific training to use the suit correctly, and it surely doesn't inspire confidence in her careful reasoning when she suggests borrowing the suit to get some novels from the Ogdentown library. He explains, "The idea of taking it to get some novels--it's too
foolish to consider. If you took it out and something went wrong, I could never get it back" (150). He is correct in saying, "except for ourselves, that suit is the most important thing in the world," since it is the only way they can ever travel outside the valley.
When Ann foolishly ventures out of the valley in search of a place she saw in her dreams, she's had no instruction about how to use the equipment and there is no way she can figure it all out by herself. She walks until she's too exhausted to go on and then doesn't bother to put up the tent. Her trip has only just begun, and she is already being careless.
Though she is hopeful when she continues the next morning, her emotions are hardly a good measure of her reasoning or her chances of success. Barring some sort of miraculous good fortune, I think it is clear she will certainly die unless she returns to the valley and makes peace with Loomis.
But having the cart makes little difference because she cannot know how to use all the equipment properly. The fact that she doesn't even bother to put up the tent on the first night doesn't bode well. She is reckless, and it is her character to act more on feelings than careful reasoning.
In contrast, when Loomis first approaches and enters the valley, we see him moving slowly, making careful tests, and even sleeping in the tent on his first night in the valley. He explains to Ann later, "The tent is radiation-proof" (58). When she says, "But there's no radiation in the valley....You've learned that," he replies, "But at first I didn't trust it" (58). This kind of caution is probably what has kept him alive so long while travelling in the suit.
Loomis went on various successful expeditions from the lab near Ithaca (63), and then he travelled for 10 weeks through dead wasteland before finding the valley (57). During all of those trips, he must have been as careful as we see him being when he first arrives in the valley. Yet then even he makes a mistake when he assumes Burden Creek is the same river that his earlier tests showed was uncontaminated.
So, of course he would not trust a teenager with no scientific training to use the suit correctly, and it surely doesn't inspire confidence in her careful reasoning when she suggests borrowing the suit to get some novels from the Ogdentown library. He explains, "The idea of taking it to get some novels--it's too
foolish to consider. If you took it out and something went wrong, I could never get it back" (150). He is correct in saying, "except for ourselves, that suit is the most important thing in the world," since it is the only way they can ever travel outside the valley.
When Ann foolishly ventures out of the valley in search of a place she saw in her dreams, she's had no instruction about how to use the equipment and there is no way she can figure it all out by herself. She walks until she's too exhausted to go on and then doesn't bother to put up the tent. Her trip has only just begun, and she is already being careless.
Though she is hopeful when she continues the next morning, her emotions are hardly a good measure of her reasoning or her chances of success. Barring some sort of miraculous good fortune, I think it is clear she will certainly die unless she returns to the valley and makes peace with Loomis.