Z For Zachariah Character Analysis

In the novel Z for Zachariah there are two main characters Ann Burden who is sixteen and John Loomis who is in his mid-thirties. A nuclear war broke out, and killed all of humanity except for the two survivors Ann and Loomis. Loomis worked in a secret laboratory with Professor Kylmer on an important discover called polapoly. Since he had the safe suit he was able to find the valley that Ann Lived in. The only reason the valley was not poisoned by the radiation was because it was a meteorological enclave. Once Ann and Loomis met each other Ann had to take care of him while he was sick with the radiation poisoning. Once Loomis was better he became delirious, and wanted control over the whole valley, including Ann. At the end of the book Loomis

made Ann leave the valley because of the way he was acting, and he ended up alone once again. You may get the impression that Loomis is evil and there’s nothing good about him, but I have to disagree with that because there are some good qualities about him. Ann can find the good in everything, and she’s kind, but she is not perfect; she has her flaws. I disagree that Ann embodies everything that is good about humanity and Loomis embodies all of mankind's worst qualities. I believe this because no one’s perfect, everyone has their flaw, and there is always something good about a person no matter what.

Ann Burden is a kind, caring, intelligent, sixteen year old, who survived the radiation poisoning that killed her family and the rest of humanity.

One of Ann’s qualities that stand out about her is that she can find the good in everything. In the book Ann found a baby crow behind the pew. The baby crow had fallen from the nest that was located between the two-by-fours that were criss crossed, and used as a frame to hold the bell. Ann had not seen birds since before the war, but she was a little disappointed that the birds were crows. The reason being was that crows were a sign of death, and they were also pests around the farm. Even though the birds were crows she still found the good in them. Ann wrote in her

diary,
….. “As I walked back to the house, I decided it might be a good omen. I am a little superstitious, and have always thought that birds bring good luck; when I wake up in the morning, look out the window, and see a bird the first thing- especially if it is close up, and looking toward me- I feel as if it is a symbol, and that something good will happen.”...

Well Mr. Loomis was at his sickest; Ann still prayed that he would get better. Ann says, “...Even though he may be a murderer, I do not want him to die...” .Another good quality that Ann has is that she is intelligent. An example from in the novel is when, Ann hides her fire by building a wall of mud and rocks, so the flame cannot be seen; it is also dark out so the smoke is not visible. Ann also built the wall where she could see Loomis, but he couldn’t see her. That was just one of the clever things she did throughout the book. A third quality that I would like to describe to you is how affectionate and caring she was. When Ann and Loomis first met he fell sick from the radiation poisoning in the stream. Ann took care of Loomis, while he was sick; she was always there and prayed for him when he was at his sickest. Ann changed the bedding, fed him, got him a new change of clothes and monitored his respiratory. She also read, and played the piano while he was unconscious; she hoped that it would penetrate to wherever he was. Once Loomis was recovered from the radiation poisoning he became very controlling of Ann; because of that he forced her out of the house and into hiding. Everyday Ann would come back to the farm to weed the garden, milk the cow, see how the crop was growing, feed the chickens, and get food and water for both Loomis and herself. Ann said,
…. Should I continue to bring him supplies from the store? I did not think he could walk far enough to get his own, not yet. I could not let him starve, no matter what he had done….

There are many more great qualities that Ann embodied, but the three that I described to you were some of the ones that stood out to me most.

Ann doesn't have many flaws, but they are there. Even though she seemed like a sweet girl, she did do some bad things. One bad thing that Ann did was lying to get the safe suit, so she could survive outside the valley in the deadness, in hopes of finding more survivors, and a school full of children that she could teach. A couple nights before she wrote this letter she said, “...I will steal the safe suit and leave the valley.….” This is the letter that Ann wrote to Loomis to get him away from the house.
…. 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 on the front porch. I will be watching you--I will not harm an unarmed man...

Once Loomis could not have any chance of catching or seeing her, she went to the house and stole the safe suit, and the cart that had food, a water purifier, a Geiger counter, and a tent. She also brought her gun, her journal, and some extra clothes, so that she could survive in the deadness of the world. Another bad quality that Ann embodied was that she was scared of meeting new people like Loomis. While Ann was hiding in the cave she could see smoke coming from a campfire; this was frightening to her because she had been alone for a year, she thought she was the only one left alive. When the suspicious man found the valley, he used his tools to see if the valley was poisoned by the radiation. Once he discovered that the valley was radiation free he was ecstatic; the suspicious man’s name is Loomis. Ann watched his every move for the next couple days. She was happy, and scared because there was someone else alive she wasn’t alone, and she was scared because she hasn’t seen a human in almost a year. Loomis found the streams that ran through the valley. Ann knew that the stream was poisoned by the radiation in one spot. Loomis was so happy to see water that he took a bath in the radioactive stream. Ann could have saved him, but she was too scared to meet him. Because Ann didn’t go and stop him from bathing in the stream, Loomis became sick and just about died. Once he recovered from the radiation poisoning something went wrong with his brain which made him want control, and become a violent person. Which in the end, Ann had decided that Loomis and herself could not live together, so she left the valley. In conclusion, Ann had her flaws like everyone else in the world, but that doesn't make her a bad person.

Loomis was a man who had many bad qualities; he was a survivor after the war, and he also survived the radiation poisoning that he got when he bathed in the stream. After Loomis recovered from the sickness he became very controlling. He attempted to rape Ann, but Faro woke her before he was able to get to her. While she was in hiding he tried to shoot her in the leg, so that she was injured, and she would then have to come back to the house. This is what exactly went down.
….I stood there in front of the house as I had before, watching the front door, thinking I would go and knock if he did not appear. There was a sharp snapping noise. I was wondering what and where it could be when I felt a hard tug on the leg of my blue jeans, and a sting of pain in my right ankle. The noise came again. Not until then did I look up and see the shiny blue rifle barrel, very thin, the upstairs window six inches open and his face behind it, partially hidden by the curtain....

After she realized what was happening she ran as fast as she could, to get away from him.

Being self-centred is another bad quality that Loomis has. When Loomis and Edward were in the underground laboratory with the only safe suit in the world, Edward wanted to borrow it, so he could go out and look for his family. Edward promised Loomis that he would return with the safe suit, but Loomis wanted it for himself, so he shot Edward in the chest three times. Ann stole the safe suit at the end of the book because Loomis could not reason with her; they couldn’t live in the valley together, so someone had to leave, and it was Ann. This was Loomis’s and Ann’s words, “...It’s mine. You know it’s mine. Take it off!” “No,” I said. “I won’t...” Loomis then aimed the gun at her; she stood there with her gun knowing she couldn’t shoot. In the end they didn't end up killing each other, but he was determined to shoot her because she was stealing his safe suit. Loomis was very rude to Ann throughout the novel. Ann took care of him, fed him changed his clothes, and prayed for him well he was sick. Once he was better he definitely did not return the favour. Instead he scared her out of the valley; Ann tried to reason with him, but Loomis did not cooperate. Resorting to violence was also one of the quality’s Loomis embodied, most people have violence as their second nature, but Loomis didn’t just do it once, he did it many times. Loomis tried to shoot Ann two times once at the house, and once

near the store. He also burned the cave where Ann was living, and her books that were very valuable to her. This is an example from the book.
…..Something moved in the window of the store and a shot rang out. I turned and ran. He fired again, but the shot missed widely, and I thought I heard him curse. Faro barked. I made it up the hill into the trees and hid. I had walked into a trap. I was too shaken to consider my own foolishness; it was only the rabbit, and Mr. Loomis’s impatience, that had saved me....

All in all, Loomis did have plenty of bad qualities, but in the next paragraph you will hear some good about him.

Many people get the impression that Mr. Loomis is evil, and that there’s nothing good about him, but you're wrong this paragraph will prove to you that there is some good in him. For starters he is a very intelligent man. When Ann needed help figuring out how to get the gasoline from the gas pumps, he explained to her exactly what she needed to do in order to make it work.
… “Look at this,” Mr. Loomis said pointing to one of the drawings. It showed the wheel of a small electric motor connected by a belt to a larger wheel. “That wheel runs the actual pump,” he said, “and look at this.” A diagram had an arrow pointing to a small circular hole near the rim of the larger wheel. “Now look at number seven in the table.” The instructions said, “In case of power failure attach handle ‘H’ here for manual operation, and remove ‘V’ belt…

In the end, Ann got the gas pump to work manually, and they now had gas to run the tractor thanks to Loomis. Loomis is very good at making plans and executing them. I say this because he could easily lure Ann into traps. For example, when he left the store doors open, so that she thought he was letting her get supplies, but when she showed up he popped out of nowhere and tried to catch her. When Ann was just about to leave she spoke to Loomis one more time and this is what he said, “Don’t go, and don’t leave me. Don’t leave me here alone.” Ann then tightened the mask over her face and started walking in the direction of the deadness. Behind her she could hear Loomis calling her name, she stopped and turned around to face him. He said,
... Birds, I saw birds….. West of here circling. They went away, and I couldn’t find the place. I saw them …

I thought this was very nice of Loomis to tell her about the birds because it gave her hope that there was life beyond the valley. There aren’t many good qualities that Loomis embodied, but there were some, and I think that everyone has a little good deep down inside.

These points that I stated up above are the reason why I think that Ann doesn’t embody all of humanity’s best qualities, and Loomis doesn’t embody all of mankind’s worst qualities. Ann did some bad things throughout the book. One was when she lied to Loomis, so she could steal the safe suit. Another one being, that she was scared to tell Loomis that the stream was poisoned by the radiation. If Ann would have told Loomis the stream was poisoned, the story would have gone in a totally different direction. Ann also had many good qualities. She was kind, caring, intelligent, hopeful, and she could find the good in everything. Loomis on the other hand didn’t have as many good qualities as Ann, but they were there. He was smart, very good at creating and executing plans, and he also gave Ann hope at the end of the novel, when she was leaving the valley. These are Loomis’s bad qualities; rude, self-centered, wanting control over everything, and resorting to violence. Even though Loomis and Ann both had bad qualities it doesn’t make them evil. I believe that no one is perfect, and that everyone has their flaws. Loomis and Ann make that statement true, because even though Loomis did plenty of bad things, he proved that he did actually have some good in him by giving Ann hope.