Theme Of Hope In Z For Zachariah

Imagine being alone in a valley that is a safe haven from a chemical war that has wiped out most of humanity. Pretty lonely right? That is how Ann Burden, the protagonist of the story felt in the novel, Z for Zachariah, by Robert C. O’Brien until a man named Mr. Loomis came and made life much harder for Ann. Overall, the story shows the main theme of hope, because, throughout the story, she stays hopeful that things will get better. Throughout the story, Ann never gave it up and stays strong. The smaller themes that support the big idea of hope are the desire to escape, passing judgment, and good vs. evil. To get further into depth, a smaller but still very important theme that reinforces the main theme of hope is the desire to escape.

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O’Brien, and another one that you can find is passing judgment. To begin with, a passage from the story that shows this theme is, “When he had first come, I had been so excited and apprehensive about the presence of any other person that I did not think too much about who Mr. Loomis was; he had seemed attractive and friendly. But since his recovery, I had felt that I did not understand him at all”(156). The example conveys that Ann has misjudged Mr.Loomis and realizes that it was better living without him. Likewise, the earlier quote regarding Mr. Loomis shooting Ann also shows the theme of passing judgment. This is because Ann wants to negotiate peace with Mr. Loomis to make life safer and less nerve-wracking, but when she was approaching the house, he shot her and that made her realize even more that she had poorly judged Mr. Loomis, and that puts her in grave danger. Unfortunately for Ann, she realizes the harsh reality of Mr. Loomis’s secret because she got the wrong idea about him in the first place and an example that shows this is, ”What I feared was true. There were three holes, spaced about two inches apart, across the middle of the chest… If Edward was inside the suit when they were fired, then he had certainly been killed.” The example demonstrates that Ann thought Mr.Loomis was a nice man when she first caught sight of him, but she soon she realizes that he was the opposite …show more content…
evil is a very common theme found in many literature pieces and it turns out that it is also found in this novel. In the first place, a piece of evidence that shows the theme of good vs. evil is, “At first I thought that, to go into the store and to use the tractor, I would have to ask permission each time. But then I had a worse thought: He was not going to give me any of the keys at all, to anything” (216). This shows that Mr. Loomis is a bad man and he is being very mean to an innocent Ann. On the contrary, a passage that shows the opposite of Mr. Loomis is, “I poured the milk into two of these, dividing it evenly, and put one of them on the back porch for Mr.Loomis. I fed the chicken, gathered the eggs, and divided them too, four apiece” (191). This passage implies that Ann was being nice even though she didn’t live with Mr. Loomis because he was frightening, she still evenly split up the food between the both of them. Ultimately, a passage that shows that Ann is good and Mr. Loomis is bad is, “‘ No,’ he said, his voice very quiet, but angry and hard. ‘You could not go. Understand that. Keep away from the suit. Never touch it”’ (149). That shows that Ann wants to get books so they could learn more and perhaps find stuff to build to make life easier, but Mr. Loomis refuses and didn’t trust her, so he didn’t want better to happen. Without a doubt, good vs. evil is a very important theme featured in Z for Zachariah, by Robert C. O’Brien and that is demonstrated by