Ann initially thinks the animals in the Valley are probably the last of their species; however, at the end of the book Loomis reveals he has seen birds flying in the distance west of the valley, which implies other life as well. O'Brien (1918-1973) was, in private life, Robert Leslie Conly, senior assistant editor of National Geographic Magazine where he worked for over twenty years.

Ann remembers that he acted the same after he had grabbed her hand, "as if nothing had happened, or as if he had forgotten it," [6] She refuses to justify her choice to him, to tell him where she is living, or to come back to live with him. Afraid he might be dangerous, Ann hides in a cave and does not warn the man when he mistakenly bathes in a radioactive stream.Left to her own devices for survival in the lonely post-apocalyptic world of Amish country somewhere along the northern Atlantic coast, Ann manages to find not just the means to survive but the will. Loomis uses her dog, Faro, to track her to the cave, where he burns her belongings, though Ann escapes. Set in the continental territory of the United States, it is written from the first-person perspective as the diary of sixteen-year-old Ann Burden.

The nightmares still came, but when I woke shivering in the dark, I reminded myself of Ann’s bravery and competency and told myself that I was also capable of being such a person. Scholars believe Ezekiel, with his blending of ceremony and vision, heavily influenced the visionary works of Zechariah 1–8. He professes surprise when she tells him she won't live with him anymore and asks why, as if he has no idea.By the end of the book, Ann has made impossibly difficult decisions, shown courage and integrity, overpowered her aggressor and survived. When my parents refused to do this, saying the safest place to be if a nuclear bomb fell was right underneath it, I knew I was doomed.

The symbolic action, the crowning of Joshua, [14] describes how the kingdoms of the world become the kingdom of God's Messiah. Eventually freedom did come to many Israelites, when Cyrus the Great overtook the Babylonians in 539BC. There are also some crows, which Ann believes survived because only they had the "sense" to stay in the valley, while other birds migrated.Unlike the Babylonians, the Persian Empire went to great lengths to keep “cordial relations” between vassal and lord. Photograph: Z4Z Film/Roadside Attractions/Lionsgate via AP From left, Chris Pine as Caleb, Margot Robbie as Ann Burden, and Chiwetel Ejiofor as Loomis, in the film Z for Zachariah. The final word in Zechariah proclaims that on the Day of the Lord "in that day there shall be no more the Canaanite in the house of the LORD of hosts," [21] proclaiming the need for purity in the Temple, which would come when God judges at the end of time. The main emphasis is that God is at work and all His good deeds, including the construction of the Second Temple, are accomplished "not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit.