Did Loomis take his gun when he met Ann? No.
Posted December 2, 2010 at Teachnology
No, Loomis did NOT take his gun when he went to meet Ann after reading her note asking to talk. To her amazement, he trusted her and left his gun. After going unarmed to that meeting place and finding her
not there, he returned to the house to find that she had stolen the suit. He THEN took his gun and drove to Burden Hill to look for her, probably enraged that she had tricked him and exploited his trust just to steal the safe-suit. Yet, despite his understandable anger and the fact that either wounding or killing her would be the only way to keep the invaluable suit, he decides to let her go. Ann is surprised by this, showing AGAIN that she misjudged him.
Ann's letter:
I AM TIRED OF HIDING. IF YOU WILL COME TO THE
SOUTH END OF THE VALLEY, I WILL MEET YOU AT THE FLAT ROCK WHERE THE ROAD
CURVES. WE WILL TALK. COME ON FOOT. LEAVE YOUR GUN.... (240)
Loomis reads the letter and decides to trust her:
"He laid the gun on the porch hesitantly, as if he thought he were making a mistake....He walked to the road and turned left, headed for the south end of the valley. I was stunned" (241).
One irony here is, of course, that he is RIGHT to suspect he is making a mistake. Yet, he gives her the benefit of the doubt. When does Ann ever do as much after running away?
Ann thinks he will kill her when they meet for the last time:
"He would be mad with rage, and ready to kill. He would do anything to keep me from leaving" (243).
"I knew it was the end. I was sixteen and I had worked so hard to keep things going and now I was going to die" (246).
The irony of the second quote here is that Ann has NOT "worked so hard to keep things going"! She sabotaged their efforts at surviving by running away and childishly refusing even to talk to him--the last man she ever expected to know and probably the last on Earth.
When she walks away, she expects a bullet in her back:
"I turned my back on him. I waited for the jar and the sharp pain of a bullet, but it did not come. I went on into the deadness" (248).
Ann is wrong about Loomis. Her thoughts about her last behavior towards him perfectly sum up her behavior with Loomis most of the time and the main cause of their failure to live together:
"You have the valley." There was bitterness in my voice. And suddenly, feeling near tears myself, I added, "You didn't even thank me for taking care of you when you were sick." So my last words were childish. (248)
Another irony here is that she blames him for not thanking her for taking care of him, but she forgets that SHE was largely responsible for his getting sick in the first place. Earlier, she even admitted to Loomis her guilty feelings about choosing not to warn him (101-102).
Also, Loomis actually DOES express appreciation for her efforts at least twice. Afater she plays the piano for him the first time, he says, "Thank you....That was beautiful....This is the best evening I ever spent" (74). Later, as he starts recovering, he tells her that her piano playing and reading seemed to save his life: "I thought I was a long way from--from everything. Someplace cold. Floating away. It was hard to breathe. But I heard you talking, and then the floating stopped as long as I listened" (138). She might be right that he never thanked her explicitly (with the words "thank you") for taking care of him, but I agree with Ann that it is childish of her to blame him for this. It is also unfair--not only because she is partly responsible for his sickness, but because his explanation that she saved his life WAS an expression of gratitude! Moreover, should we really think that a person is owed thanks merely for doing what is ethical and humane? For NOT being selfish and indifferent to the suffering of someone else? It is extremely petty and selfish of her to petulantly demand such recognition. She really is behaving like a child, throwing out any parting shot she can think of to get the last word, and marching away feeling self-righteous.
not there, he returned to the house to find that she had stolen the suit. He THEN took his gun and drove to Burden Hill to look for her, probably enraged that she had tricked him and exploited his trust just to steal the safe-suit. Yet, despite his understandable anger and the fact that either wounding or killing her would be the only way to keep the invaluable suit, he decides to let her go. Ann is surprised by this, showing AGAIN that she misjudged him.
Ann's letter:
I AM TIRED OF HIDING. IF YOU WILL COME TO THE
SOUTH END OF THE VALLEY, I WILL MEET YOU AT THE FLAT ROCK WHERE THE ROAD
CURVES. WE WILL TALK. COME ON FOOT. LEAVE YOUR GUN.... (240)
Loomis reads the letter and decides to trust her:
"He laid the gun on the porch hesitantly, as if he thought he were making a mistake....He walked to the road and turned left, headed for the south end of the valley. I was stunned" (241).
One irony here is, of course, that he is RIGHT to suspect he is making a mistake. Yet, he gives her the benefit of the doubt. When does Ann ever do as much after running away?
Ann thinks he will kill her when they meet for the last time:
"He would be mad with rage, and ready to kill. He would do anything to keep me from leaving" (243).
"I knew it was the end. I was sixteen and I had worked so hard to keep things going and now I was going to die" (246).
The irony of the second quote here is that Ann has NOT "worked so hard to keep things going"! She sabotaged their efforts at surviving by running away and childishly refusing even to talk to him--the last man she ever expected to know and probably the last on Earth.
When she walks away, she expects a bullet in her back:
"I turned my back on him. I waited for the jar and the sharp pain of a bullet, but it did not come. I went on into the deadness" (248).
Ann is wrong about Loomis. Her thoughts about her last behavior towards him perfectly sum up her behavior with Loomis most of the time and the main cause of their failure to live together:
"You have the valley." There was bitterness in my voice. And suddenly, feeling near tears myself, I added, "You didn't even thank me for taking care of you when you were sick." So my last words were childish. (248)
Another irony here is that she blames him for not thanking her for taking care of him, but she forgets that SHE was largely responsible for his getting sick in the first place. Earlier, she even admitted to Loomis her guilty feelings about choosing not to warn him (101-102).
Also, Loomis actually DOES express appreciation for her efforts at least twice. Afater she plays the piano for him the first time, he says, "Thank you....That was beautiful....This is the best evening I ever spent" (74). Later, as he starts recovering, he tells her that her piano playing and reading seemed to save his life: "I thought I was a long way from--from everything. Someplace cold. Floating away. It was hard to breathe. But I heard you talking, and then the floating stopped as long as I listened" (138). She might be right that he never thanked her explicitly (with the words "thank you") for taking care of him, but I agree with Ann that it is childish of her to blame him for this. It is also unfair--not only because she is partly responsible for his sickness, but because his explanation that she saved his life WAS an expression of gratitude! Moreover, should we really think that a person is owed thanks merely for doing what is ethical and humane? For NOT being selfish and indifferent to the suffering of someone else? It is extremely petty and selfish of her to petulantly demand such recognition. She really is behaving like a child, throwing out any parting shot she can think of to get the last word, and marching away feeling self-righteous.
Ann explicitly sees herself as saving humanity
Posted July 30, 2011 at Teachnology
This is the beginning of a response to points raised by the commenter Anne (with an “e”), who has written at length about my earlier posts. I’d like to thank her for her detailed responses. However, she
is mistaken in most of her interpretation, as it goes against too much evidence and is heavily reliant on her own “common sense” speculations—ironically, despite her claim that a reader’s interpretation should NOT be based on his/her own ideas of reality at the expense of the text. As I wrote before, I think readers must resist the urge to play the role of judge and jury that we might think society would take if it were present in the story. In the story world, there is no society except Ann and Loomis; so they have to work out their problems for themselves or be doomed to loneliness, death, and the extinction of their species.
In the following posts, page references are based on the 2002 Simon Pulse edition of Z for Zachariah (with the cover image of a large breathing mask on a red background suggestive of flames).
Maybe one question in particular gets to the heart of common misinterpretation. Why does Ann explicitly identify herself with the speaker of Edna St. Vincent Millay’s poem, “Epitaph for the Race of Man”? While plowing a field, she remembers often thinking of herself “by default” as the poem’s speaker, who calls herself the “scribe and confessor” of humanity after it has finally destroyed itself through conflict caused by greed (i.e., selfishness).
Moreover, Ann says that since Loomis’s arrival, her attitude has changed so that she now sees herself as one of the two people who will “keep it [humanity] from dying” (96). Later, after she chooses to deny Loomis any companionship, 3 times she remembers sadly her hopes while plowing the field, including right before leaving the valley and ending any chance of starting a colony there with Loomis. WHY DOES THE AUTHOR MAKE ANN EXPLICITLY IDENTIFY HERSELF IN THE ROLE OF EITHER SAVING HUMANITY OR REPORTING THE REASONS FOR ITS END?
I have posted the poem online here with some commentary:
http://zforzachariahliteraryreferenc...ace-of-man.php.
is mistaken in most of her interpretation, as it goes against too much evidence and is heavily reliant on her own “common sense” speculations—ironically, despite her claim that a reader’s interpretation should NOT be based on his/her own ideas of reality at the expense of the text. As I wrote before, I think readers must resist the urge to play the role of judge and jury that we might think society would take if it were present in the story. In the story world, there is no society except Ann and Loomis; so they have to work out their problems for themselves or be doomed to loneliness, death, and the extinction of their species.
In the following posts, page references are based on the 2002 Simon Pulse edition of Z for Zachariah (with the cover image of a large breathing mask on a red background suggestive of flames).
Maybe one question in particular gets to the heart of common misinterpretation. Why does Ann explicitly identify herself with the speaker of Edna St. Vincent Millay’s poem, “Epitaph for the Race of Man”? While plowing a field, she remembers often thinking of herself “by default” as the poem’s speaker, who calls herself the “scribe and confessor” of humanity after it has finally destroyed itself through conflict caused by greed (i.e., selfishness).
Moreover, Ann says that since Loomis’s arrival, her attitude has changed so that she now sees herself as one of the two people who will “keep it [humanity] from dying” (96). Later, after she chooses to deny Loomis any companionship, 3 times she remembers sadly her hopes while plowing the field, including right before leaving the valley and ending any chance of starting a colony there with Loomis. WHY DOES THE AUTHOR MAKE ANN EXPLICITLY IDENTIFY HERSELF IN THE ROLE OF EITHER SAVING HUMANITY OR REPORTING THE REASONS FOR ITS END?
I have posted the poem online here with some commentary:
http://zforzachariahliteraryreferenc...ace-of-man.php.
THE ISSUE OF SAVING HUMANITY: 3 Basic Facts
Posted July 30, 2011 at Teachnology
The situation in the story presents 3 basic incontrovertible facts:
(1) Burden Valley is probably the last habitable place;
(2) Ann and Loomis are probably the last two people; and
(3) they bear the responsibility of continuing the human race.
These points are obviously connected and are of great importance in making judgments about the characters and events in the story. Moreover, they are NOT a matter of opinion or debate. They are facts which should be obvious to anyone capable of reading critically and examining the judgments of a first-person narrator with some objectivity.
Before responding to Anne’s posts in order, it will improve clarity and save time to address these 3 facts first, since misunderstanding about them lies behind misinterpretation of many details. Below is a list of what seems the main evidence of these basic facts.
(1) Burden Valley is probably the last habitable place;
(2) Ann and Loomis are probably the last two people; and
(3) they bear the responsibility of continuing the human race.
These points are obviously connected and are of great importance in making judgments about the characters and events in the story. Moreover, they are NOT a matter of opinion or debate. They are facts which should be obvious to anyone capable of reading critically and examining the judgments of a first-person narrator with some objectivity.
Before responding to Anne’s posts in order, it will improve clarity and save time to address these 3 facts first, since misunderstanding about them lies behind misinterpretation of many details. Below is a list of what seems the main evidence of these basic facts.
1. The Significance of the Title and Setting
1. The Title:
The title, Z for Zachariah, refers to “the last man” (75). Ann mentions thinking this because the name Zachariah appeared last in The Bible Alphabet Book that she had in kindergarten. Why would the author choose this title if he did NOT intend readers to think of Loomis as the last man?
2. The Setting:
The setting of the story is a valley that is the last KNOWN place supporting life after a war involving nuclear and biological weapons has killed almost all life on the planet. The setting alone suggests that the survival of humanity is at risk because of human conflict and that the two characters Ann and Loomis might provide the last hope for our species to continue.
The title, Z for Zachariah, refers to “the last man” (75). Ann mentions thinking this because the name Zachariah appeared last in The Bible Alphabet Book that she had in kindergarten. Why would the author choose this title if he did NOT intend readers to think of Loomis as the last man?
2. The Setting:
The setting of the story is a valley that is the last KNOWN place supporting life after a war involving nuclear and biological weapons has killed almost all life on the planet. The setting alone suggests that the survival of humanity is at risk because of human conflict and that the two characters Ann and Loomis might provide the last hope for our species to continue.
2. Evidence Ann cares about the human race & thinks only she can save it
1. Millay's "Epitaph for the Race of Man":
Ann’s favorite poem, which she recites while plowing a field, is Edna St. Vincent Millay’s “Epitaph for the Race of Man,” in which the narrator acts as self-appointed scribe and confessor of Earth, explaining some of the history of humanity’s struggle for survival and its final demise as a result of conflict caused by greed (i.e., selfishness). Though the speaker addresses the Earth, she asks of the fate of humans and is actually their scribe and confessor specifically.
2. Ann at first sees herself as "scribe and confessor" of humanity:
Ann states, “I had thought of that poem many times since the war, and of myself, by default, as ‘scribe and confessor’ ” (96). This means Ann has often thought of herself as being, like the speaker in the poem, the last surviving human and the one who must report and confess the story of humanity’s end. Also, Ann’s identifying herself with the speaker in the poem clearly implies that readers should think of her diary as a similar report—her personal “Epitaph for the Race of Man.” Further, identifying herself as a “confessor” has two possible meanings: (1) she takes confession from people who have helped to cause humanity’s end (e.g., Loomis); and (2) she is confessing her own share of responsibility for causing it (e.g., by rejecting the last man as a companion due to an excessive fear he’ll enslave her).
3. After Loomis comes, Ann thinks they can save humanity:
Ann also states that, after Loomis’s arrival, she now thinks of herself as one of the two people who can keep the human race from dying: “But now I was neither of those [scribe and confessor]. I was the one, or one of the two, who might keep it from dying, for a while at least” (96). Here, Ann states clearly her hope that she and Loomis can save humanity from extinction. There is no uncertainty about this. She believes the continuation of the human species depends on HER. Furthermore, when she denies Loomis her companionship, she becomes again, “by default,” humanity’s “scribe and confessor.”
Ann’s favorite poem, which she recites while plowing a field, is Edna St. Vincent Millay’s “Epitaph for the Race of Man,” in which the narrator acts as self-appointed scribe and confessor of Earth, explaining some of the history of humanity’s struggle for survival and its final demise as a result of conflict caused by greed (i.e., selfishness). Though the speaker addresses the Earth, she asks of the fate of humans and is actually their scribe and confessor specifically.
2. Ann at first sees herself as "scribe and confessor" of humanity:
Ann states, “I had thought of that poem many times since the war, and of myself, by default, as ‘scribe and confessor’ ” (96). This means Ann has often thought of herself as being, like the speaker in the poem, the last surviving human and the one who must report and confess the story of humanity’s end. Also, Ann’s identifying herself with the speaker in the poem clearly implies that readers should think of her diary as a similar report—her personal “Epitaph for the Race of Man.” Further, identifying herself as a “confessor” has two possible meanings: (1) she takes confession from people who have helped to cause humanity’s end (e.g., Loomis); and (2) she is confessing her own share of responsibility for causing it (e.g., by rejecting the last man as a companion due to an excessive fear he’ll enslave her).
3. After Loomis comes, Ann thinks they can save humanity:
Ann also states that, after Loomis’s arrival, she now thinks of herself as one of the two people who can keep the human race from dying: “But now I was neither of those [scribe and confessor]. I was the one, or one of the two, who might keep it from dying, for a while at least” (96). Here, Ann states clearly her hope that she and Loomis can save humanity from extinction. There is no uncertainty about this. She believes the continuation of the human species depends on HER. Furthermore, when she denies Loomis her companionship, she becomes again, “by default,” humanity’s “scribe and confessor.”
3. The Apparent Symbolism of Plowing and Crows
In addition, Ann thinks about Millay’s poem and her own role of continuing the human species while she is plowing a field where crows are circling overhead. Both the plowing of the field and the circling crows seem symbolic of procreation, or the natural processes necessary for creating new life.
Preparing the field to be fertilized with seeds is, of course, the first step in the growing of crops which will then produce new seeds and allow their species to continue.
The crows are described by Ann as the only birds who “have had the sense to stay around,” as distinct from the foolish migratory birds that “flew out into the deadness and died” (29). Ann notices one pair have built a nest in the church steeple, where they raise a few chicks. When Ann rescues the first chick after it falls from its nest, she literally holds for a few moments the future of a species in her hands. If Ann stays in the valley with Loomis, she can continue her species like the crows do; if she leaves, she will be like the foolish migratory birds. The last time Ann sees the crows is on the evening of the night Loomis tries to sleep with her, and she guesses from the sounds of chirping that the birds then have two or three babies (173). The crows, it should be noted, do not seem to have trouble getting along or deciding whether they like each other, and they don’t need to wait a year to “get married.”
Preparing the field to be fertilized with seeds is, of course, the first step in the growing of crops which will then produce new seeds and allow their species to continue.
The crows are described by Ann as the only birds who “have had the sense to stay around,” as distinct from the foolish migratory birds that “flew out into the deadness and died” (29). Ann notices one pair have built a nest in the church steeple, where they raise a few chicks. When Ann rescues the first chick after it falls from its nest, she literally holds for a few moments the future of a species in her hands. If Ann stays in the valley with Loomis, she can continue her species like the crows do; if she leaves, she will be like the foolish migratory birds. The last time Ann sees the crows is on the evening of the night Loomis tries to sleep with her, and she guesses from the sounds of chirping that the birds then have two or three babies (173). The crows, it should be noted, do not seem to have trouble getting along or deciding whether they like each other, and they don’t need to wait a year to “get married.”
The significance of Ann's name and allusions to Adam and Eve
1. Ann Burden of Burden Valley
Ann’s surname “Burden” can be viewed as representing the responsibility she bears for continuing the human race. It is her burden. It is also appropriate that the valley has the same name because, as the last place supporting life, it carries the same burden. The meaning of the name “Burden” of course depends on interpretation, but these interpretations perfectly fit the situation in the story. Moreover, one further clue to the author’s intentions could be the use of the word “burden” in the tenth sonnet of
Millay’s poem, where the word refers to humanity’s struggle for survival:
“...was this the day / Man dropped upon his shadow without a sound / And
died, having laboured well and having found / His burden heavier than a
quilt of clay? / No, no...”
2.Ann and Loomis are likened to Adam and Eve:
Many readers notice that the story also suggests a similarity between the story’s characters and the mythical Adam and Eve. In remembering The Bible Alphabet Book, Ann remembers, “there was a picture of Adam standing near an apple tree” (75). Shortly after, while Ann is picking greens in a field near an apple tree, she thinks hopefully of marrying Loomis in a year’s time and having children who can pick greens with her there within ten years (80-81). She also wishes to have apple blossoms at her wedding, and she puts a bouquet of them in Loomis’s sick room.
The apple tree in the field is clearly juxtaposed with references to both the Tree of Knowledge and Ann’s hopes of marriage and children, suggesting that it represents the act of procreation necessary to start (or now restart) human history. In the biblical story, of course, human history begins with Adam and Eve eating from the Tree of Knowledge, as a result of which they are punished by having to bear children and work hard: “To the woman he said: I shall give you intense pain in childbearing...To the man he said,...’Accursed be the soil because of you! Painfully will you get your food from it as long as
you live” (Gen 3:16-17).
In her article, “Survivor’s Tale,” Sarah Hall views Ann as “an Eve who refuses to begin the whole story over again.” But this suggests that Ann’s choice to leave the valley is a moral and feminist one because staying with her “Adam” would result in breeding a new race of sinners and perhaps also subjecting women to the domination of men (since God also says to Eve, “Your yearning will be for your husband, and he will dominate you”) (Gen 3:16). Though Ms. Hall is correct to identify Ann with Eve, it is absurd to think that ending the human race is a moral choice or that the story suggests this.
The biblical story is an etiological myth which in Z for Zachariah particularly represents the biological reality that sex is necessary to continue the species (however much centuries of repressive religious authorities have regretted this fact). In Z for Zachariah, crows are the main example of a successful species that get on with the business of procreation. Moreover, Ann is not entirely like a sinless “Eve” who refuses to eat the apple. Her selfishness contributes at least equally to the end of the human species that it is her burden to continue.
Ann’s surname “Burden” can be viewed as representing the responsibility she bears for continuing the human race. It is her burden. It is also appropriate that the valley has the same name because, as the last place supporting life, it carries the same burden. The meaning of the name “Burden” of course depends on interpretation, but these interpretations perfectly fit the situation in the story. Moreover, one further clue to the author’s intentions could be the use of the word “burden” in the tenth sonnet of
Millay’s poem, where the word refers to humanity’s struggle for survival:
“...was this the day / Man dropped upon his shadow without a sound / And
died, having laboured well and having found / His burden heavier than a
quilt of clay? / No, no...”
2.Ann and Loomis are likened to Adam and Eve:
Many readers notice that the story also suggests a similarity between the story’s characters and the mythical Adam and Eve. In remembering The Bible Alphabet Book, Ann remembers, “there was a picture of Adam standing near an apple tree” (75). Shortly after, while Ann is picking greens in a field near an apple tree, she thinks hopefully of marrying Loomis in a year’s time and having children who can pick greens with her there within ten years (80-81). She also wishes to have apple blossoms at her wedding, and she puts a bouquet of them in Loomis’s sick room.
The apple tree in the field is clearly juxtaposed with references to both the Tree of Knowledge and Ann’s hopes of marriage and children, suggesting that it represents the act of procreation necessary to start (or now restart) human history. In the biblical story, of course, human history begins with Adam and Eve eating from the Tree of Knowledge, as a result of which they are punished by having to bear children and work hard: “To the woman he said: I shall give you intense pain in childbearing...To the man he said,...’Accursed be the soil because of you! Painfully will you get your food from it as long as
you live” (Gen 3:16-17).
In her article, “Survivor’s Tale,” Sarah Hall views Ann as “an Eve who refuses to begin the whole story over again.” But this suggests that Ann’s choice to leave the valley is a moral and feminist one because staying with her “Adam” would result in breeding a new race of sinners and perhaps also subjecting women to the domination of men (since God also says to Eve, “Your yearning will be for your husband, and he will dominate you”) (Gen 3:16). Though Ms. Hall is correct to identify Ann with Eve, it is absurd to think that ending the human race is a moral choice or that the story suggests this.
The biblical story is an etiological myth which in Z for Zachariah particularly represents the biological reality that sex is necessary to continue the species (however much centuries of repressive religious authorities have regretted this fact). In Z for Zachariah, crows are the main example of a successful species that get on with the business of procreation. Moreover, Ann is not entirely like a sinless “Eve” who refuses to eat the apple. Her selfishness contributes at least equally to the end of the human species that it is her burden to continue.
5. Evidence that Ann's hope for children is linked to a hope to save humanity
1. After the war, Ann hopes a man will come and they can have children:
Speaking of her assumptions before seeing Loomis’s approach, Ann says, “I was pretty sure I was the only person left in the world” (5). So, when she started her diary in February, presumably thinking of herself as humanity’s “scribe and confessor” (as she later explains) (96), Ann thought, “what’s the use of writing anyway, when nobody is ever going to read it?” (5). After Loomis enters the valley, Ann reflects, “This man may be the only man left on earth” (36), and she remembers that during the year after the war she often hoped a man would come so that she could have a companion and children: “I have hoped and prayed for someone to come, someone to talk to, to work with and plan for the future of
the valley. I dreamed that it would be a man, for then...there might be children in the valley” (36). Though Ann does not explicitly state here that having children would enable the human race to continue, this possibility is at least suggested by her assumption until then that she was probably “the
only person left in the world” (5).
2. Ann explicitly associates her hope to marry Loomis (while near the apple tree) with her hope to save humanity (while plowing):
Ann again thinks of having children when she picks greens near the apple tree and hopes to marry Loomis in a year (81). The commenter Anne claims this is just “a daydream” of no importance, but this
interpretation is absurd. It is clear that Ann has hoped for a companion and children ever since the war, and now she thinks this hope can be fulfilled.
Moreover, her hope of marrying Loomis and having children is EXPLICITLY connected in Ann’s thoughts with her view that she is no longer the “scribe and confessor” of humanity because she and Loomis can “keep it [humanity] from dying, for a while at least” (96). The hopes Ann has when she is near the apple
tree and while plowing a field are linked together in her thoughts. This is not only a logical deduction but is indicated explicitly in the text when Ann remembers these hopes together: “How could I tell him about the apple tree, about what I had thought that morning while I picked the flowers and the poke greens? How I felt when I plowed the field?” (101). Later, Ann writes at least twice of her hopes while plowing the field. When Loomis says, “we’ve got to plan as if this valley is the whole world, and we are starting a colony,” Ann recognizes, “It was the same thought, or nearly the same, as the one I had had when I was plowing” (152). Finally, after deciding to leave the valley, she reflects, “It is sad when I think how happy I felt when I was plowing the field” (235). When she thinks right afterwards of talking with Loomis a last time before walking away “from all that I had hoped for” (236), she is implicitly referring to these hopes of companionship, children, and saving the human race, which she had near the apple tree and while plowing the field.
Speaking of her assumptions before seeing Loomis’s approach, Ann says, “I was pretty sure I was the only person left in the world” (5). So, when she started her diary in February, presumably thinking of herself as humanity’s “scribe and confessor” (as she later explains) (96), Ann thought, “what’s the use of writing anyway, when nobody is ever going to read it?” (5). After Loomis enters the valley, Ann reflects, “This man may be the only man left on earth” (36), and she remembers that during the year after the war she often hoped a man would come so that she could have a companion and children: “I have hoped and prayed for someone to come, someone to talk to, to work with and plan for the future of
the valley. I dreamed that it would be a man, for then...there might be children in the valley” (36). Though Ann does not explicitly state here that having children would enable the human race to continue, this possibility is at least suggested by her assumption until then that she was probably “the
only person left in the world” (5).
2. Ann explicitly associates her hope to marry Loomis (while near the apple tree) with her hope to save humanity (while plowing):
Ann again thinks of having children when she picks greens near the apple tree and hopes to marry Loomis in a year (81). The commenter Anne claims this is just “a daydream” of no importance, but this
interpretation is absurd. It is clear that Ann has hoped for a companion and children ever since the war, and now she thinks this hope can be fulfilled.
Moreover, her hope of marrying Loomis and having children is EXPLICITLY connected in Ann’s thoughts with her view that she is no longer the “scribe and confessor” of humanity because she and Loomis can “keep it [humanity] from dying, for a while at least” (96). The hopes Ann has when she is near the apple
tree and while plowing a field are linked together in her thoughts. This is not only a logical deduction but is indicated explicitly in the text when Ann remembers these hopes together: “How could I tell him about the apple tree, about what I had thought that morning while I picked the flowers and the poke greens? How I felt when I plowed the field?” (101). Later, Ann writes at least twice of her hopes while plowing the field. When Loomis says, “we’ve got to plan as if this valley is the whole world, and we are starting a colony,” Ann recognizes, “It was the same thought, or nearly the same, as the one I had had when I was plowing” (152). Finally, after deciding to leave the valley, she reflects, “It is sad when I think how happy I felt when I was plowing the field” (235). When she thinks right afterwards of talking with Loomis a last time before walking away “from all that I had hoped for” (236), she is implicitly referring to these hopes of companionship, children, and saving the human race, which she had near the apple tree and while plowing the field.
6. Evidence Loomis cares about human survival & Ann thinks this fact is important
1. Ann thinks Loomis may have wanted to use the safe-suit to help the human race survive:
When Ann first thinks about whether it was wrong for Loomis to kill Edward, she considers that he may have thought of using the suit to save others: “He may have been thinking not just of himself, but of human survival. At that time he surely still believed that there might be groups of people alive in shelters...and the suit, the only one of its kind, might be the only way to contact them” (127). Ann’s phrase “human survival” means the survival of humanity, not just helping some people survive. Ann is clearly aware that humanity’s survival is at risk, and she believes that a concern for human survival would justify Loomis in killing Edward to prevent him from taking the safe-suit, the only means of traveling outside and helping other survivors.
The commenter Anne claims that the safe-suit should only be viewed as a “save-myself” suit, not a “save-the-world” suit; but this is a limited negative interpretation of the suit’s significance and ignores the facts of the story, including the fact that Ann and Loomis are presented as the last two people in the world. Ann clearly recognizes that the safe-suit is an important tool for helping the human race survive. Given that Ann and Loomis are the last two people, the suit obviously also serves this function in enabling Loomis to travel 10 weeks through a radioactive wasteland and reach Ann (the new “Eve”) in the last habitable valley.
Of course, Ann’s opinion of Loomis’s motives is no evidence in itself that Loomis was actually concerned about human survival. However, Ann’s mention of this idea introduces it as a POSSIBLE motive, and it is a fact he spent half a year looking for other survivors.
2. Loomis actually did use the safe-suit to try to find survivors in other shelters:
When Ann considers the possibility that Loomis may have been concerned about “human survival,” she thinks he might have wanted to use the suit to contact survivors in other shelters. Isn’t it significant then that this is precisely what he says he did?! After 3 months, he started making expeditions that continued for about 8 months until March, after which he began the journey west that would bring him to Burden Valley. During his 8 months of expeditions, the first place he went to was an underground Air Force command post near Chicago (64). Though he does not give details of other expeditions, it is reasonable to assume he tried to find survivors in other shelters also. This may also be suggested by the fact that he only “struck out on his own” when it was almost a year after the war, by which time he probably assumed that all people in shelters either had died or were out of his reach. By Ann’s own reasoning then, Loomis’s use of the safe-suit suggests that he DID care about the survival of humanity.
However, it seems that when Ann considers Loomis’s possible concern for human survival, she just thinks abstractly of hypothetical possibilities and doesn’t remember what he actually told her. Thus, she also goes on to suppose that maybe “Loomis was trying to keep the suit for himself,” and he intended “to take it...and strike out on his own, hoping to find civilization surviving somewhere” (127); and then she concludes, “That is what he finally did” (127-28).
Ann’s conclusion here is illogical and unfair. At first, she reasons that using the suit to contact people in other shelters would have been evidence of a moral concern for human survival. Then she overlooks the fact that Loomis actually did this, ignores the 8 months he probably spent searching for other people, and just blames him for finally heading west and wanting to settle in Burden Valley! What does she expect him to do, devote his life to using the safe-suit to find other survivors? Is Ann any better? The first time she thinks of using the suit, she wants to use it to get books for pleasure reading from a town library. The second time, she steals it to strike out on her own to find a better life for herself and pursue her dream of being a teacher. Obviously, she is much more selfish than Loomis in the ways she thinks of using the suit!
3. Loomis worries about species’ extinction and plans a human colony:
It’s true Ann does not mention any explicit statements by Loomis about the importance of their saving humanity. However, Loomis evinces a concern for the preservation of species (155), he recognizes the importance that he and Ann have as a couple (150), and he speaks of the need for them to start a colony (152). Taken together, these statements indicate quite clearly that Loomis DOES think he and Ann should assume they are responsible for continuing the human race.
When Loomis urges Ann to plant wheat, saying, “The important thing is not to let the species die out” (155), he is clearly concerned about the possibility that wheat might die out as a species if they do not plan carefully. If he is so concerned about the possible extinction of wheat, readers can rasonably assume that he must be similarly concerned about his own species!
Loomis explains his and Ann’s importance when he speaks of the importance of the safe-suit, saying,
“You must understand...that except for ourselves, that suit is the most important thing in the world” (150). Obviously, he assumes he and Anne are the most important things in the world because they are the last survivors of their species.
During the same conversation, Loomis further states, “we’ve got to plan as if this valley is the whole world, and we are starting a colony, one that will last permanently” (152). In using the word "colony,” he is probably thinking of the zoological definition: “a group of the same type of animal or plant living or growing together.” In other words, he is thinking of them as representatives of their species. They CANNOT be a colony in the sense of a settlement maintaining ties to a homeland, or a territory under the control of a ruling state, or a community of people who form a national, racial, or cultural minority (e.g., an artists’ colony).
Finally, if there is any doubt about Loomis’s meaning, Ann apparently understands he is thinking of their need to continue the human race: “It was the same thought, or nearly the same, as the one I had had when I was plowing” (152). That is, Loomis’s plan to start a colony is almost exactly the same as Ann’s thought that she and Loomis could “keep [the human race] from dying” (96), the idea she had while thinking of herself as the speaker in Millay’s poem “Epitaph for the Race of Man.”
It’s an open question exactly why Ann thinks Loomis’s expression of the same thought is only “nearly the same,” or slightly different. One reason might be that he expresses the idea in cold scientific terms (i.e., in terms of an animal colony), whereas she thinks of the matter poetically (in relation to a tragic poem about the long history of human struggles and their final end).
When Ann first thinks about whether it was wrong for Loomis to kill Edward, she considers that he may have thought of using the suit to save others: “He may have been thinking not just of himself, but of human survival. At that time he surely still believed that there might be groups of people alive in shelters...and the suit, the only one of its kind, might be the only way to contact them” (127). Ann’s phrase “human survival” means the survival of humanity, not just helping some people survive. Ann is clearly aware that humanity’s survival is at risk, and she believes that a concern for human survival would justify Loomis in killing Edward to prevent him from taking the safe-suit, the only means of traveling outside and helping other survivors.
The commenter Anne claims that the safe-suit should only be viewed as a “save-myself” suit, not a “save-the-world” suit; but this is a limited negative interpretation of the suit’s significance and ignores the facts of the story, including the fact that Ann and Loomis are presented as the last two people in the world. Ann clearly recognizes that the safe-suit is an important tool for helping the human race survive. Given that Ann and Loomis are the last two people, the suit obviously also serves this function in enabling Loomis to travel 10 weeks through a radioactive wasteland and reach Ann (the new “Eve”) in the last habitable valley.
Of course, Ann’s opinion of Loomis’s motives is no evidence in itself that Loomis was actually concerned about human survival. However, Ann’s mention of this idea introduces it as a POSSIBLE motive, and it is a fact he spent half a year looking for other survivors.
2. Loomis actually did use the safe-suit to try to find survivors in other shelters:
When Ann considers the possibility that Loomis may have been concerned about “human survival,” she thinks he might have wanted to use the suit to contact survivors in other shelters. Isn’t it significant then that this is precisely what he says he did?! After 3 months, he started making expeditions that continued for about 8 months until March, after which he began the journey west that would bring him to Burden Valley. During his 8 months of expeditions, the first place he went to was an underground Air Force command post near Chicago (64). Though he does not give details of other expeditions, it is reasonable to assume he tried to find survivors in other shelters also. This may also be suggested by the fact that he only “struck out on his own” when it was almost a year after the war, by which time he probably assumed that all people in shelters either had died or were out of his reach. By Ann’s own reasoning then, Loomis’s use of the safe-suit suggests that he DID care about the survival of humanity.
However, it seems that when Ann considers Loomis’s possible concern for human survival, she just thinks abstractly of hypothetical possibilities and doesn’t remember what he actually told her. Thus, she also goes on to suppose that maybe “Loomis was trying to keep the suit for himself,” and he intended “to take it...and strike out on his own, hoping to find civilization surviving somewhere” (127); and then she concludes, “That is what he finally did” (127-28).
Ann’s conclusion here is illogical and unfair. At first, she reasons that using the suit to contact people in other shelters would have been evidence of a moral concern for human survival. Then she overlooks the fact that Loomis actually did this, ignores the 8 months he probably spent searching for other people, and just blames him for finally heading west and wanting to settle in Burden Valley! What does she expect him to do, devote his life to using the safe-suit to find other survivors? Is Ann any better? The first time she thinks of using the suit, she wants to use it to get books for pleasure reading from a town library. The second time, she steals it to strike out on her own to find a better life for herself and pursue her dream of being a teacher. Obviously, she is much more selfish than Loomis in the ways she thinks of using the suit!
3. Loomis worries about species’ extinction and plans a human colony:
It’s true Ann does not mention any explicit statements by Loomis about the importance of their saving humanity. However, Loomis evinces a concern for the preservation of species (155), he recognizes the importance that he and Ann have as a couple (150), and he speaks of the need for them to start a colony (152). Taken together, these statements indicate quite clearly that Loomis DOES think he and Ann should assume they are responsible for continuing the human race.
When Loomis urges Ann to plant wheat, saying, “The important thing is not to let the species die out” (155), he is clearly concerned about the possibility that wheat might die out as a species if they do not plan carefully. If he is so concerned about the possible extinction of wheat, readers can rasonably assume that he must be similarly concerned about his own species!
Loomis explains his and Ann’s importance when he speaks of the importance of the safe-suit, saying,
“You must understand...that except for ourselves, that suit is the most important thing in the world” (150). Obviously, he assumes he and Anne are the most important things in the world because they are the last survivors of their species.
During the same conversation, Loomis further states, “we’ve got to plan as if this valley is the whole world, and we are starting a colony, one that will last permanently” (152). In using the word "colony,” he is probably thinking of the zoological definition: “a group of the same type of animal or plant living or growing together.” In other words, he is thinking of them as representatives of their species. They CANNOT be a colony in the sense of a settlement maintaining ties to a homeland, or a territory under the control of a ruling state, or a community of people who form a national, racial, or cultural minority (e.g., an artists’ colony).
Finally, if there is any doubt about Loomis’s meaning, Ann apparently understands he is thinking of their need to continue the human race: “It was the same thought, or nearly the same, as the one I had had when I was plowing” (152). That is, Loomis’s plan to start a colony is almost exactly the same as Ann’s thought that she and Loomis could “keep [the human race] from dying” (96), the idea she had while thinking of herself as the speaker in Millay’s poem “Epitaph for the Race of Man.”
It’s an open question exactly why Ann thinks Loomis’s expression of the same thought is only “nearly the same,” or slightly different. One reason might be that he expresses the idea in cold scientific terms (i.e., in terms of an animal colony), whereas she thinks of the matter poetically (in relation to a tragic poem about the long history of human struggles and their final end).