A Canticle for Leibowitz

Day 11: Chapter 24

• I. Setting
  • A. Time: 3781
  • B. Place: the abbey now surrounded by the small city of Sanly Bowitts (a corruption of the saint’s name)
  • C. Atmosphere/Milieu
    • 1. The opening paragraph establishes a civilization that has achieved space travel and connects it to the level of development of the world at the time of the Flame Deluge
    • 2. The world seems to have two superpowers: the Asian Coalition and the Atlantic Confederacy
    • 3. The world has possessed nuclear weapons again for two hundred years but has not destroyed itself. (It took less than twenty-five years between the development of such weapons and the Flame Deluge 1800 years ago.)
    • 4. North America is a place of many languages: Alleghenian, Southwest, Vulgate Latin, Modern Latin, and Anglo-Latin to name but a few.
• II. About the characters
  • A. Dom Jethrah Zerchi
    • 1. Abbot
    • 2. Not by nature contemplative but responsible for fostering such a view and practice among the monks, including himself
    • 3. Inclines toward taking action, especially hasty or impulsive action
    • 4. Restless and consequently bold
    • 5. Suspects the autoscribe may be malevolent just as Francis thought the pilgrim and the shelter were demonic
  • B. Br. Patrick: Dom Zerchi’s secretary
  • C. Br. Joshua
    • 1. Used to be some kind of engineer
    • 2. Spent time in space
    • 3. Reluctant to touch the autoscribe
    • 4. Has a short red beard
    • 5. "[N]o longer a youth but not yet middle-aged”
    • 6. Embarrasses Sister Helene who catches him bathing in the lab
    • 7. Had a sixth finger removed during his infancy
  • D. Isaac Edward Leibowitz
    • 1. Now the patron saint of electricians
    • 2. Not widely known as the founder of an order of preservationist monks
  • E. Lazar(us)
    • 1. An old beggar in the suburb between Sanly Bowitts proper and the abbey
    • 2. Mutters “omens, omens” in response to the roar of rocketry
    • 3. Referred to by the children as the one “the Lor’ Hesus raise up!”
    • 4. Regards the children grumpily
    • 5. “Wandered on along the road”
    • 6. Object of tossed rocks
  • F. Mrs. Grales
    • 1. Bicephalous
    • 2. A tomato seller
• III. Beast imagery:
  • A. The muscular twitching in Dom Zerchi’s arm reminds him of the galvanic responses of a severed frog’s legs.
  • B. Sister Helene “clucked … [and] squeaked.”
• IV. About style:
  • A. Allusion:
    • 1. Dom Zerchi dismisses Br. Patrick when he attempts to warn the abbot against violating the warning “FACTORY ADJUSTMENTS ONLY” by saying “before the cock crows thrice,” an allusion to Christ’s warning that Peter would deny him before dawn.
    • 2. While spinning a globe backwards, Br. Joshua alludes to the biblical Joshua (his namesake’s namesake) for whom God caused the sun and moon to stand still so that he could accomplish his task.
  • B. Ambiguity:
    • 1. Dom Zerchi is uncertain whether he was shocked because of a law of nature operating in capacitors or because of a booby-trap designed to prevent customers tampering with delicate machinery.
    • 2. Is the nuclear crisis an accident, a test, or a prelude to war?
  • C. Symbolism:
    • 1. Lucifer = nuclear weapons
      • a. Like Lucifer/Satan they are destructive
      • b. Like Lucifer they appear full of the promise of peace but can only be used to defy ultimate justice
    • 2. The stones of the ancient abbey and the aluminum of the new additions symbolize the dual nature of man. The old stone abbey is the center of contemplation and spirituality. The new aluminum additions serve as the center of scientific research now conducted by the monks. The highway that separates the two centers represents the rift between the two sides. The newer is a place for merely asking “How?” while the older is a place for asking “Why?”
    • 3. Christ figure: Br. Joshua
      • a. Jesus is the Greek form of Joshua, which means “the Lord saves”
      • b. Spent time in space (as Christ pre-existed in Heaven)
      • c. Has a short red beard (as extra-biblical tradition attributes to Christ)
      • d. "[N]o longer a youth but not yet middle-aged” (Could he be 33?)
      • e. His wading experience recalls Christ’s walking on water
      • f. Born one of the misborn; he was born to the lowliest status
      • g. A technician, he works with his hands as did Christ the carpenter
    • 4. The tomato (Mrs. Grales) is frequently linked to the apple (Eve)
• V. About the plot
  • A. In light of world tensions and nuclear crisis, Dom Zerchi writes to Cardinal Hoffstraff, a Vatican official, inquiring into a plan to send missionaries into space. At the same time, he must deal with an uncooperative computer translator.
  • B. Br. Joshua will play a significant role in the project.
• VI. About continuity:
  • 1. The Second Reporter risks speaking wryly.
  • 2. Dom Zerchi refers to the Venerable Francis Gerard of Utah, implying that he might be the patron saint of electronics or machine repair.
  • 3. The narrator uses the words “squiggles, quiggles, quids, thingumbobs, and doohickii” to describe the circuitry of the autoscribe – the same words used to describe the elements of the Leibowitzian blueprint copied and illuminated by Br. Francis.
  • 4. Dom Zerchi does not see the autoscribe as an improvement over the quill pens and mulberry ink used by the copyists 1700 years and more ago.
  • 5. As Benjamin Eleazar once threw stones at the novices, now the children throw pebbles at him (Lazar).
• VII. About the themes
  • A. Responsibility:
    • 1. The Defense Minister deliberately avoids clarifying his government’s role in the current nuclear crisis.
    • 2. Br. Joshua bathes irresponsibly.
  • B. Cycles
    • 1. “It was inevitable, it was manifest destiny, they felt (not for the first time) that such a race go forth to conquer stars.” (199)
    • 2. “To conquer them several times if need be . . .” (199)
    • 3. “But, too, it was inevitable that the race succumb again to the old maladies on new worlds, even as on Earth before…” (199)
  • C. Dual Nature of Humanity
    • 1. In the opening paragraph, Miller suggests that humans see themselves as “a race of divinely inspired toolmakers,” very proud of their accomplishments and progress, but he also asserts that humans are, in fact, narcissistic (“admiring its own image in a mirror”) braggarts (“impassioned after-dinner speech-makers”) who are quite capable of self-destruction (“capable of cutting its own throat").
    • 2. Symbolically suggested by the stones of the ancient abbey and the aluminum of the new additions. The old stone abbey is the center of contemplation and spirituality. The new aluminum additions serve as the center of scientific research now conducted by the monks.
  • D. Natural Law: Dom Zerchi is uncertain whether he was shocked because of a law of nature operating in capacitors or because of a booby-trap designed to prevent customers tampering with delicate machinery.
• VIII. Points of interest
  • A. The special Litany of Man: Versicles by Adam, Rejoinders by the Crucified

    • 1. Line 1 establishes the speaker as time: “We are the centuries.” (199)

    • 2. Lines 2 & 3 connect to the violent and destructive side of man’s nature: chin-choppers (either refers to shaving or throat-cutting), golly-woppers (indicates offending God with violence), “amputation of your head” (self-evident violence, even self-destruction)

    • 3. Line 4 creates an absurd image: "singing garbage men,” an ambiguous mix of culture and refuse

    • 4. Lines 5–15 consist of military imagery

      • a. “we march in cadence . . . chanting rhymes . . .”
      • b. Lines 7–15 are a common cadence call of drilling soldiers.

    • 5. Lines 16–17 translate from the German:

      “We will continue to march
      When everything falls to pieces.”

    • 6. Lines 18–21 link to the theme of history and its cycles as it lists cultural artifacts, suggesting that no matter how advanced the technology, its creators remain the same.

    • 7. Lines 22–23 return to the military tone, emphasizing the sheer cruelty of war (the bestial side of human nature) and adding a note of human defiance (“We march in spite of Hell…”)

    • 8. Line 24 speaks of decline from disuse (“Atrophy”), from energy loss (“Entropy”), and from disease (“Proteus vulgaris”: “the bacterium known for its motility and ability to change form”).

    • 9. Lines 25–26 allude to the Fall of Man episode in Genesis 3, reducing it to the tone of a dirty joke

    • 10. Lines 27–28 link to the conclusions of the first two sections of the novel by referring to the transforming effect of death. [Consider that the uncertain Br. Francis is now regarded as the Venerable Francis of Utah.]

    • 11. Lines 29–31 repeat the theme of cycles in the cycle of human life.

    • 12. Lines 32–33 may suggest the idea that the past slips away unnoticed and unremembered.

    • 13. Lines 34–40 juxtapose the dual nature of humanity expounded by Dom Paulo in “Fiat Lux.”

      • a. “Ancestral glory”/humane side: “children of Merlin chasing a gleam” alludes to a poem by Tennyson that celebrates the human quest for knowledge and goodness
      • b. “Original sin”/bestial side: “Children, too, of Eve, forever building Edens – and kicking them apart in berserk fury because somehow it isn’t the same” alludes to the theme of refusal to accept responsibility told in Genesis 3
      • c. The “rubble” and the “alleluias at ninety decibels” again suggest refusal to accept responsibility, to distract attention from evil/ignorance instead.
      • d. Inundated recalls both Noah’s Flood and the Flame Deluge.
  • B. Parallelism
    • 1. Abbot: Dom Zerchi
    • 2. Central monk: Br. Joshua
    • 3. Wandering Jew: Lazar(us)

Day 12: Chapters 25–26

• I. Setting
  • A. Time:
    • 1. 70 generations after the time of Leibowitz
    • 2. Texarkana is destroyed at the end of Ch. 25.
  • B. Place: the Atlantic Confederacy
  • C. Atmosphere/Milieu
    • 1. The fact that two nuclear explosions have occurred is no longer secret.
    • 2. Even the abbot’s office needs a silencer to ensure secrecy.
    • 3. The Order conforms to the ways of the new civilization – at least in superficial ways.
    • 4. Rocket fire from the military practice field nearby.
• II. About the characters
  • A. Dom Zerchi
    • 1. Feels a growing sense of helplessness and desperation as he witnesses the world’s superpowers replay the mistakes of politicians eighteen centuries earlier
    • 2. Finds Mrs. Grales’ problem annoying and theologically confounding
    • 3. Finds Lazarus’s smile vaguely familiar
    • 4. His face is like a “steel-gray mask” as he deals with the reality of the bombing of Texarkana.
  • B. Br. Joshua
    • 1. A widower (his wife’s name was Nancy)
    • 2. Following his wife’s death, he went to the Cistercians
    • 3. Desires to spend the rest of his life in the Order
    • 4. Has not decided about his vocation to the priesthood
    • 5. Faced with three decisions
      • a. “‘First, are you willing to go [into space as a part of Quo peregrinatur grex (Where the flock wanders)]?’”
      • b. “‘Second, do you have a vocation to the priesthood?’”
      • c. “‘Third, are you willing to lead the group?’”
  • C. Mrs. Grales
    • 1. Beats her dog (Priscilla)
    • 2. Married to a man who irritates her
    • 3. Smiles toothlessly and irresistibly
    • 4. “‘…I be not so poor’s ye might think on me.’”
    • 5. Urgently desires baptism for Rachel (her vestigial head).
  • D. Rachel
    • 1. “‘The old-timers say Rachel wasn’t there when Mrs. Grales was born.’” (224)
    • 2. She smiles at Br. Joshua.
    • 3. Her name means “lamb.”
    • 4. In Br. Joshua’s dream she says, “‘I am the Immaculate Conception.’” [the doctrine that the Virgin Mary possessed Eve’s original sinlessness from her own conception in her mother’s womb.]
  • E. Fr. Lehy – the prior
  • F. Lazarus
    • 1. He smiles wryly.
    • 2. Sits at the “beggars’ table.”
    • 3. An old fellow; looks “as old as a rain-worn crag”
    • 4. Wears a brushy beard, stained yellow about the chin
    • 5. Wears a burlap bag with armholes
    • 6. In response to Dom Zerchi’s inquiry into his identity, he says “Latzar shemi” (“My name is Lazar.”)
    • 7. He chuckles.
    • 8. Has a sort of basket hat
• III. Beast imagery:
  • A. The Phoenix: ever-recurring renewal (cycles)
  • B. Alpha Centauri
    • 1. The centaur is half man and half beast, recalling Dom Paulo’s views on the dual heritage of man
    • 2. The centaur is an ancient symbol of the body/mind double nature of humans.
    • 3. In medieval art the centaur armed with bow and arrow became a symbol of vice, sin, and the Devil.
    • 4. When fleeing and shooting the arrows behind himself, the centaur becomes an image of the human conflict with evil.
  • C. The narrator calls the roboticized trucks behemoths.
    • 1. Behemoth, a Hebrew word, means in that language “beast par excellence”; it refers to a large land animal.
    • 2. In the Book of Job, the ten verses that describe it carry an image of an animal to which no man can stand up.
  • D. Mrs. Grales’ dog (Priscilla)
    • 1. In many cultures the dog is associated with the dead (as guide or guardian: cf. Cerberus). Her barking at Br. Joshua at the gateway (222) connects well here. Perhaps Br. Joshua is denying the guardian of the dead.
    • 2. It is a nearly universal symbol of faithfulness.
    • 3. In the Old Testament, dogs are predominantly associated with impurity, depravity, and baseness.
    • 4. In medieval art the dog has contradictory dual meanings.
      • a. Envy, anger, and temptation by evil
      • b. Faith and fidelity
    • 5. An ugly dog may symbolize disbelief or heathenism.
    • 6. The fact that Mrs. Grales’ dog has six legs is also significant: it has contradictory dual meanings as well.
      • a. It is sacred in that it recalls the six days of creation and the six works of charity.
      • b. It is also the number of evil and the apocalyptic Beast (666).
  • E. Cockatrice
    • 1. Br. Joshua looks at Mrs. Grales “as if she were a cockatrice” when he believes that he has seen her vestigial head move.
    • 2. It is a composite beast: wings of a fowl, tail of a dragon, and head of a cock.
    • 3. It typically refers to an insidious, treacherous person bent on mischief.
  • F. Lazarus’ smile stands out among the monks’ faces “like a dead fly in a bowl of cream.”
  • G. During his meditation in the garden Br. Joshua identifies two other human colonies among the stars.
    • 1. Beta Hydri: the hydra was the nine-headed snaky monster of Greek mythology which – when one of its heads was cut off – grew two new ones.
    • 2. Scorpius: evokes an image of the poisonous scorpion – biblically, a punishment sent by God; symbolically, heresy and death
  • H. Br. Joshua refers to himself as a viper, thereby taking upon himself responsibility for the vile and poisonous side of human nature.
  • I. The slithering Br. Joshua hears suggests a serpent. The character most connected with such imagery throughout the novel has been the Wandering Jew. Because Br. Joshua sees nothing after he feels a tug at his sleeve, we may deduce that Lazarus has found the one he sought and is released from his curse.
• IV. About style:
  • A. Allusion:

    • 1. Behemoth – Job 40:15–24

    • 2. Cockatrice – Isaiah 11:8

    • 3. Rachel – Jeremiah 31:15 and Matthew 2:18 (the slaughter of the Holy Innocents)

    • 4. Maundy laving refers to the Thursday evening on which Christ shared his last supper with his disciples before he went to take the sins of the world upon Himself in the ultimate act of justice and responsibility.

    • 5. The blowing of the ram’s horn recalls the sounding of the seven rams’ horns ordered by Joshua to bring about the fall of the city of Jericho.

    • 6. The ass he rode into Jerusalem alludes to Christ’s entry into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday. Here Br. Joshua is not compared to Christ directly but his bearing of the sins of the world still points to his role as a Christ figure.

    • 7. “Shake the dust off your sandals…” (Matthew 10:14, Mark 6:11, Luke 9:5)

      “And whoever will not receive you nor hear your words, when you depart from that house or city, shake off the dust from your feet.

      “And whoever will not receive you nor hear you, when you depart from there, shake off the dust under your feet as a testimony against them. Assuredly, I say to you, it will be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment than for that city!”

      “And whoever will not receive you, when you go out of that city, shake off the very dust from your feet as a testimony against them.”

    • 8. Dom Zerchi’s warning that if the space-going brothers ever attempted to return to Earth they might encounter an Archangel with a fiery sword is an allusion to the angel with the fiery sword sent to prevent Adam and Eve from ever returning to Eden.

    • 9. The “new Exodus” refers to Moses’ leading the Children of Israel out of captivity in Egypt and away on a long, dangerous journey to a new Promised Land, a land none but a handful of the original pilgrims ever saw.

  • B. Symbolism:
    • 1. The fact that the monks now eat in the new part of the abbey suggests a connection to the mind/body duality in addition to the “heritage” duality first posited by Dom Paulo.
    • 2. The abbey was built at a crossroads.
      • a. Crossroads are regarded as transcendent places of meeting with significant spiritual powers.
      • b. Crossroads can symbolize the necessary transition to the new.
      • c. One of the myths about Heracles tells that he chose virtue over pleasure at a crossroads.
    • 3. The robot traffic suggests that technology has had a dehumanizing effect; at the very least, it is blind to human frailties and needs.
    • 4. The veil that conceals Mrs. Grales’ vestigial head may symbolize the secrecy of some spiritual truth.
    • 5. The garden to which Br. Joshua goes to pray recalls both the Garden of Eden and the Garden of Gethsemane where Christ went to pray and asked God to allow him to avoid the acceptance of the world’s sins if it were possible. He ended his prayer with the words, “Thy will be done.”
    • 6. The rose is a symbol of the cross (because of its thorns) and of rebirth.
  • C. Foreshadowing

    • 1. Mrs. Grales’ urgent desire for Rachel’s baptism suggests that there may be little time left to perform the ceremony.

    • 2. The allusion evoked by Rachel’s name foreshadows widespread destruction of the innocent. (Her name is an allusion to Matthew 2:18, which is itself a quotation of Jeremiah 31:15.)

      “A voice was heard in Ramah,
      Lamentation, weeping, and great mourning,
      Rachel weeping for her children,
      Refusing to be comforted,
      Because they are no more.”

    • 3. The narrator describes the faces of the monks assembled in the refectory as grave.

    • 4. When Dom Zerchi refers to his personality as having been composed of quicksilver, he speaks as though he feels a final spattering coming on. It is a clear reference to the manner of his own death.

  • D. Parallelism
    • 1. Br. Joshua’s losing his wife and becoming a monk parallels the experience of Leibowitz.
    • 2. Br. Joshua’s indecision (regarding his vocation to the priesthood) recalls Br. Francis’s indecision
    • 3. The robot traffic that cannot “see” a human pedestrian provides an interesting reversal on Br. Francis’s inability to comprehend technology.
    • 4. Br. Joshua’s seeing Rachel smile and Dom Zerchi’s incredulity recall Br. Francis’s seeing the old pilgrim and Dom Arkos’s incredulity that the pilgrim was Leibowitz.
• V. About the plot
  • 1. Dom Zerchi and Br. Joshua watch and respond to the news of the deteriorating political situation.
  • 2. They discuss quo peregrinatur grex, especially Br. Joshua’s role in it.
  • 3. They deal with Mrs. Grales
  • 4. Dom Zerchi announces the emergency procedures and encounters Lazarus.
  • 5. Br. Joshua dreams of Rachel and Mrs. Grales.
  • 6. Texarkana falls and quo peregrinatur grex goes into effect.
  • 7. The Wandering Jew finds the one for whom he sought while Br. Joshua prays about his decision.
  • 8. Br. Joshua and his companions set out for New Rome while the others remain behind, waiting for the end but praying it does not come to pass.
• VI. About continuity:
  • 1. Dom Zerchi’s agonizing over the idea of political responsibility for the use of nuclear bombs and conclusion that it makes no difference who made the first move or why recalls the history of the beginning of the Flame Deluge read at Thon Taddeo’s first dinner in the monastic refectory in Ch. 18.
  • 2. Dom Zerchi’s reference to “our fine opinionated patriotic rabble” recalls the Simpletons.
  • 3. Dom Zerchi has Br. Fingo’s statue of St. Leibowitz in his study, rescued from banishment to the basement at the command of some former abbot.
• VII. About the themes
  • A. Responsibility:
    • 1. “‘His Supremacy is an eleven-year-old boy, and to call it his government is not only archaic, but a highly dishonorable – even cheap! – attempt to shift the responsibility for a full denial from your own—’” (216)
    • 2. Mrs. Grales wishes to take responsibility for the baptism of Rachel.
    • 3. Because the world knows the history of the Flame Deluge and the Simplification and can see the evidence of the former in every misborn child, the current rulers have a greater responsibility to avoid that path a second time.
    • 4. “‘Only a race of madmen could do it again—’” (227)
    • 5. The World Court of Nations pronounces—then suspends—a death sentence on the respective heads of government in the Asian Coalition and the Atlantic Confederacy.
    • 6. “‘That’s where all of us are standing now, he thought. On the fat kindling of past sins. And some of them are mine. Mine, Adam’s, Herod’s, Judas’s, Hannegan’s, mine. Everybody’s. Always culminates in the colossus of the State, somehow, drawing about itself the mantle of godhood, being struck down by wrath of Heaven.’” (231)
    • 7. “‘Non habemus regem nisi caesarem.’” (231) [We have no king but Caesar.]
    • 8. The act of hope represented by the Church sending the starship with the Memorabilia.
  • B. Cycles
    • 1. “‘Listen, are we helpless? Are we doomed to do it again and again and again? Have we no choice but to play the Phoenix in an unending sequence of rise and fall? Assyria, Babylon, Egypt, Greece, Carthage, Rome, the Empires of Charlemagne and the Turk. Ground to dust and plowed with salt. Spain, France, Britain, America—burned into the oblivion of the centuries. And again and again and again.’” (217)
    • 2. “‘Are we doomed to it, Lord, chained to the pendulum of our own mad clockwork, helpless to halt its swing?’” (217)
    • 3. Mrs. Grales’ ritual of overcharging the nuns for her tomatoes then giving her surplus profit to Dom Zerchi for the poor. In a sense she robs the poor to give to the poor.
    • 4. “‘Why do they do it all again?’”
    • 5. “‘Mine, Adam’s, Herod’s, Judas’s, Hannegan’s, mine.’”
    • 6. “The closer men came to perfecting for themselves a paradise, the more impatient they seemed to become with it, and with themselves as well. They made a garden of pleasure, and became progressively more miserable with it as it grew in richness and power and beauty; for then, perhaps, it was easier for them to see that something was missing in the garden, some tree or shrub that would not grow. When the world was in darkness and wretchedness, it could believe in perfection and yearn for it. But when the world became bright with reason and riches, it began to sense the narrowness of the needle’s eye, and that rankled for a world no longer willing to believe or yearn.” (235)
  • C. Duality
    • 1. Centauri takes its name from the mythological centaur: half man and half beast.
    • 2. Mrs. Grales
      • a. The duality of vice (cheating the nuns to whom she sells her tomatoes) and virtue (giving the profit to the poor box).
      • b. Her very bicephalousness recalls Dom Paulo’s small sermon on the “dual heritage of man.”
      • c. Her active, conscious head is old while her vestigial head is young (“cherubic” and “features of infancy”).
    • 3. Fire is both knowledge (illumination) and destruction.
    • 4. Br. Joshua also sees a duality in the sending of the starship, the preservation of the Memorabilia, and the sign he requests.
    • 5. Responsible leadership is both an honor and a burden.
  • D. Foolishness
    • 1. “‘It’s a priest you’re talking of, Mrs. Grales, and no fool, for I know him well.’” (223) The quote recalls that Leibowitz, the name of a priest and saint, means “beloved fool.”
    • 2. “‘What an Infinite Sense of Humor—for Him to become one of us!—King of the Universe, nailed on a cross as a Yiddish Schlemiel by the likes of us. They say Lucifer was cast down for refusing to adore the Incarnate Word; the Foul One must totally lack a sense of humor! God of Jacob, God even of Cain! Why do they do it all again?’”
    • 3. Br. Joshua throws a stone at the sign he requested.
  • E. Natural Law
    • 1. “‘Whoever exalts a race or a State or a particular form of State or the depositories of power…whoever raises these notions above their standard value and divinizes them to an idolatrous level, distorts and perverts an order of the world planned and created by God…’” (231)
    • 2. “‘Non habemus regem nisi caesarem.’” (231) [We have no king but Caesar.]
    • 3. Knowledge is of itself good; only man can pervert it.
• VIII. Points of interest
  • A. Quo peregrinatur grex
    • 1. Began as a plan to send missionary priests with a colony headed for Alpha Centauri
    • 2. After the previous world crisis, it became a plan for “‘perpetuating the Church on the colony planets if the worst came to pass on Earth.’”
    • 3. The AOL and the Memorabilia will go on the starship as a part of the plan.
  • B. Homo loquax nonnumquam sapiens = man the talker, sometimes wise

Day 13: Chapters 27–28

• I. Setting
  • A. Time:
    • 1. Ch. 27 – nine days after the bombing
    • 2. Ch. 28 – ten days after the bombing
  • B. Place: The abbey of St. Leibowitz, Sanly Bowitts, and the near environs
  • C. Atmosphere/Milieu
    • 1. Aftermath of nuclear bombing: the dead (2.8 million) and those critically dosed with radiation
    • 2. Carnival atmosphere of eucrem camp (euthanasia/cremation blend, it recalls the Nazi crematories in concentration camps fresh in Miller’s and his readers’ minds)
• II. About the characters
  • A. Dom Zerchi
    • 1. Passionate
    • 2. Does not abandon hope
    • 3. Feels pity for Cors as one might feel for the lost
    • 4. Fears what he might do to Cors
    • 5. Sees Rachel smile
    • 6. His treatment of the radiation victim demonstrates his passion
    • 7. His hitting Cors demonstrates his impulsiveness
  • B. Dr. Cors
    • 1. Calls himself a pacifist
    • 2. Is an atheist
    • 3. Laughs politely; tries to be friendly [recalling Thon Taddeo’s politeness]
    • 4. Short, muscular, pleasantly round faced, balding, sunburned and freckled [recalling the bandit who robbed Br. Francis]
    • 5. Wears a green serge uniform [recalling the forester’s costume of the robber]
    • 6. Works on the Exposure Survey Team
    • 7. Acts in good faith
    • 8. Neither demanding nor officious
    • 9. Motivated by a sense of mercy [yet a rather hopeless one]
    • 10. Sincere and dedicated
    • 11. Has two mobile units
    • 12. Name means “heart”
    • 13. Voluntarily confesses his breach of promise to Dom Zerchi
    • 14. Looks haggard and unnerved
    • 15. Uses a challenging tone of voice
    • 16. Has a grave, but not guilty, expression
    • 17. Does not press charges against Dom Zerchi
  • C. The sick woman
    • 1. Catholic (she accepts and thanks Dom Zerchi for the rosary)
    • 2. She hisses, “Shut up!”
  • D. First Minister Rekol: His name sounds like “recall,” something he apparently cannot do insofar as the Flame Deluge is concerned.
  • E. Fr. Selo: may parallel Br. Jeris and Br. Armbruster
  • F. Pope Gregory
    • 1. His name means “watchful”
    • 2. He ceases praying for world peace.
    • 3. He says the Mass against the Heathen and the Mass in Time of War
    • 4. Prays for justice
  • G. Mrs. Grales:
    • 1. Gives the abbot her tomatoes for free
    • 2. Wants to confess her sins to him.
• III. Imagery:
  • A. Green Star Relief
    • 1. An analog to our Red Cross
    • 2. Green
      • a. In medieval iconography green suggested humanity’s hope of return to paradise: artists frequently painted Christ’s cross green
      • b. In the same iconography, green suggested poison and a threatening glance.
    • 3. Star
      • a. Associated with Mary granting comfort to the faithful
      • b. Linked to the spirits of the dead
      • c. The Virgin of the Immaculate Conception wears a crown of stars.
  • B. Red ticket for those sent to emergency camps
    • 1. In its positive sense it is the color of life, love, warmth, inspired passion, and fertility
    • 2. In its negative sense it is the color of war, the destructive power of fire, loss of blood, and hatred.
    • 3. In the Middle Ages executioners wore red.
    • 4. In the Christian Church, red is the color of the blood of the martyrs.
    • 5. It is the color of the garments of Satan and the Whore of Babylon, in which contexts it suggests the devouring power of Hellfire or of untamed desires or passions.
  • C. Green ticket for those sent to the euthanasia camps [See Green Star above.]
  • D. Yellow ticket for those sent to the rest camps
    • 1. It is symbolic of eternity (eternal rest?) and transfiguration.
    • 2. Sulphur yellow symbolizes evil or devilishness
    • 3. Pale yellow indicates betrayal and deception
  • E. The carnival imagery of the eucrem (euthanasia/crematory) camps is an ironic facade of celebration and light-heartedness in stark contrast to the reality of suffering and death. Ultimately it is an image of denial.
  • F. A bluish light comes from the mobile emergency unit
    • 1. Blue is a symbol of purity (as associated with the Virgin Mary)
    • 2. It is also the color of the unreal and the fantastic. [Cf. the blue-headed goats.]
  • G. The official wears a brown tunic.
    • 1. Brown symbolizes mourning
    • 2. The brown shirt recalls the fascist uniform in Nazi Germany.
• IV. About style:
  • A. Allusion:
    • 1. “‘Render unto Caesar…’” (244) refers to Christ’s injunction that the laws of the state must be obeyed in temporal matters exclusive of moral issues.
    • 2. The conflict of Mary and Martha (Luke 10:38–42)
      • a. Mary and Martha were the sisters of Lazarus who entertained Jesus in their home.
      • b. Mary anointed Christ’s feet with precious oil and wiped the feet with her own hair. In this regard she has come to be a symbol of the contemplative aspect of Christian living. [spiritual ministries]
      • c. Martha prepared the food for the holy visitor and becomes a symbol of the active aspect of Christian living. [social ministries]
    • 3. St. Stephen (252) was the first Christian martyr.
    • 4. Abandon Every Hope Ye Who Enter Here: the last line inscribed on the Gate of Hell as witnessed by Dante and Virgil in The Divine Comedy.
    • 5. “God’s priest summarily overruled by ‘Caesar’s traffic cop.’" – Dom Zerchi (265)
  • B. Symbolism:
    • 1. The statue of Comfort
      • a. The red tag on its toe seems to indicate that comfort itself is headed for death/destruction.
      • b. Wears a composite face of psychologically tested sympathy
      • c. An effeminate, mediocre christus
      • d. A sweet-sick face
      • e. Blank eyes [blind]
      • f. Simpering lips
      • g. Arms spread wide
      • h. Hips broad as a woman’s
      • i. A hint of breasts
      • j. A parody of the martyrs
  • C. Parallelism
    • 1. Dom Zerchi’s and Dr. Cors’ discussion and their looking out the window recalls a similar exchange between Marcus Apollo and Thon Taddeo.
  • D. Irony
    • 1. The carnival atmosphere of the eucrem camp.
    • 2. The green color of the Green Star Relief emblem.
    • 3. “‘…the racists had made cross-breeding necessary to survival [on the colony worlds]’” (247)
  • E. Ambiguity: The Pope says the Mass against the Heathen and the Mass in Time of War
• V. About the plot
  • A. Dom Zerchi deals with Dr. Cors and the requests of the Green Star Relief Camps.
  • B. Dom Zerchi tries to persuade a young mother and her child not to report to a euthanasia camp.
  • C. Dom Zerchi is arrested following the picketing incident and his punching Dr. Cors.
• VI. About continuity:
  • 1. The Mesa of Last Resort is now a radar installation.
  • 2. “‘A few million corpses lying around might start a rebellion against those responsible.’” – Dom Zerchi (241) [recalls the Simplification]
  • 3. “‘We’re stuck with the world as it is.’” – Dr. Cors (241) [Compare to Thon Taddeo’s theory of the inevitability of violent change.]
  • 4. “‘What is so magic about putting it in writing?’” – Dr. Cors (245) [The Simpletons asked the same question.]
  • 5. The reference to St. Poet of the Miraculous Eyeball (folk canonizations were common in the Middle Ages)
  • 6. Is the Venerable Abbot Jerome in fact Dom Paulo?
  • 7. Hecklers throw pebbles at novices.
• VII. About the themes
  • A. Responsibility:
    • 1. “‘A few million corpses lying around might start a rebellion against those responsible.’” – Dom Zerchi (241)
    • 2. “‘. . . governments were fully aware of the consequences of another war, but instead of trying to make the crime impossible, they tried to provide in advance for the consequences of the crime.’” – Dom Zerchi (241)
    • 3. “‘We’re stuck with the world as it is.’” – Dr. Cors (241) [Compare to Thon Taddeo’s theory of the inevitability of violent change.]
    • 4. “‘. . . it is better to have some provisions for coping with the consequences than to have no provisions.’” “‘Yes and no. Yes, if it’s in anticipation of someone else’s crime. No, if it’s in anticipation of one’s own. And especially no if the provisions to soften the consequences are criminal too.’” – Dom Zerchi (241–242)
    • 5. “‘I feel that the laws of society are what makes something a crime.’” – Dr. Cors (242) [This view dodges responsibility.]
    • 6. “‘He has to be told his rights. What he does about it is his own affair.’” – Dr. Cors (243)
    • 7. “‘Can you not, then, understand that I am subject to another law, and that it forbids me to allow you or anyone else on this property, under my rule, to counsel anyone to do what the Church calls evil?’” – Dom Zerchi (244)
    • 8. “‘…if a man is ignorant of the fact that something is wrong, and acts in ignorance, he incurs no guilt, provided natural reason was not enough to show him that it was wrong. But while ignorance may excuse the man, it does not excuse the act, which is wrong in itself. If I permitted the act simply because the man is ignorant that it is wrong, then I would incur guilt, because I do know it to be wrong. It is really that painfully simple.’” – Dom Zerchi (244)
    • 9. “‘…pain is the only evil I know about. It’s the only one I can fight.’” (244) – Dr. Cors [This view dodges the responsibility to resist the evil sources of pain.]
    • 10. “‘…society is the only thing which determines whether an act is wrong or not . . .’” – Dr. Cors (245)
    • 11. “‘I have nothing to do with that end of it, nothing at all.’” – Dr. Cors (251)
  • B. Cycles
    • 1. “‘A few million corpses lying around might start a rebellion against those responsible.’” – Dom Zerchi (241) [The government has learned from history not to act responsibly but to avoid reprisals from the populace.]
    • 2. “‘. . . governments were fully aware of the consequences of another war, but instead of trying to make the crime impossible, they tried to provide in advance for the consequences of the crime.’” – Dom Zerchi (241)
    • 3. The space race begotten of racism made racism impossible.
  • C. Pain
    • 1. “‘It is not the pain that is pleasing to God. It is the soul’s endurance in faith and hope and love in spite of bodily afflictions that pleases Heaven. Pain is like negative temptation. God is not pleased by temptations that afflict the flesh. He is pleased when the soul rises above the temptation . . . . It’s the same with pain, which is often a temptation to despair, anger, loss of faith—’” – Dom Zerchi (260)
  • D. Natural Law
    • 1. In contradiction of natural law, the narrator informs us that euthanasia is legal only if administered by the state and only after due process – as though a legal process could legitimize it.
    • 2. “‘Due process they call it,’ he growled. ‘Due process of mass state-sponsored suicide. With all of society’s blessings.’” – Dom Zerchi (241)
    • 3. “‘I feel that the laws of society are what makes something a crime.’” – Dr. Cors (242)
    • 4. “‘You don’t have a soul, Doctor. You are a soul. You have a body, temporarily.’” – Dom Zerchi (242)
    • 5. “‘He has to be told his rights. What he does about it is his own affair.’” – Dr. Cors (243) [Again, in contrast to natural law.]
    • 6. “‘Can you not, then, understand that I am subject to another law, and that it forbids me to allow you or anyone else on this property, under my rule, to counsel anyone to do what the Church calls evil?’” – Dom Zerchi (244)
    • 7. “‘. . . if a man is ignorant of the fact that something is wrong, and acts in ignorance, he incurs no guilt, provided natural reason was not enough to show him that it was wrong. But while ignorance may excuse the man, it does not excuse the act, which is wrong in itself. If I permitted the act simply because the man is ignorant that it is wrong, then I would incur guilt, because I do know it to be wrong. It is really that painfully simple.’” – Dom Zerchi (244)
    • 8. “‘…pain is the only evil I know about. It’s the only one I can fight.’” (244) – Dr. Cors [This view dodges the responsibility to resist the evil sources of pain.]
    • 9. “‘…society is the only thing which determines whether an act is wrong or not…’” – Dr. Cors (245)
    • 10. “‘Abroad the conscience was alone, torn between Lord and Foe.’” – Dom Zerchi (254)
    • 11. The story of Dom Zerchi’s cat, Zeke, illustrates natural law as it applies to death—death with dignity.
    • 12. “‘. . . Nature imposes nothing on you that Nature doesn’t prepare you to bear. If that is true even of a cat, then is it not more perfectly true of a creature with rational intellect and will – whatever you may believe of Heaven?’” – Dom Zerchi (261)

Day 14: Chapters 29–30

• I. Setting
  • A. Time: about two hours after Ch. 28; the moment the saturation bombs begin to fall
  • B. Place: the confessional of the Church; in the ruins; the starship launch site
  • C. Atmosphere/Milieu
    • 1. The introspection and acceptance of the confessional
    • 2. The finality of the bombing and the ruins
    • 3. A vision of the apocalypse
    • 4. The cool, cruel brutality of the sea, the origin point of life
• II. About the characters
  • A. Dom Zerchi
    • 1. Takes responsibility for his violent action
    • 2. Connects intentions to action
    • 3. Is crushed by the collapsing church as he tries to save the Hosts
    • 4. Tries to gather scattered wafers
    • 5. Concerned that others around him might need the last rites
    • 6. Recalls his advice to the sick woman
    • 7. Laughs at his situation
    • 8. Screams in agony
    • 9. Fears the blackness because he feels he has something yet to do
    • 10. Philosophizes on the nature of death
    • 11. Afraid to die before he has suffered as much as the child
    • 12. Picks up Br. Francis’ skull
    • 13. Tries to baptize Rachel
  • B. Mrs. Grales
    • 1. Senses “the Dread One” as she approaches the confessional
    • 2. Feels “need of shriv’ness” (a blend of shrive and forgiveness)
    • 3. Needs to give “shriv’ness – to Him who made me as I am”
    • 4. Slowly smiles
    • 5. Guilty of either abortion or infanticide
  • C. Rachel
    • 1. Merely repeats what she hears [like the Voice Ivan Ilych hears]
    • 2. Has green eyes
    • 3. Smiles innocently: a young shy smile that hopes for friendship
    • 4. Eyes alert with wonder, curiosity
    • 5. Arthritis gone, skin less wrinkled, even seems to glow a little
    • 6. Feels no pain
    • 7. Refuses baptism, but offers Dom Zerchi communion
    • 8. “[B]orn free” – sinless [cf. the Immaculate Conception]
    • 9. Last word: “Live”
    • 10. Possesses preternatural gifts of Eden
• III. Imagery:
  • A. Dom Zerchi sees “blue lights winking through the dust”; later Rachel has blue marks on her arm where Dom Zerchi removes the shards of glass.
    • 1. The color of the unreal and the fantastic [Who can comprehend and accept the reality of the annihilation of the world by man himself?]
    • 2. The color of the divine, of truth, and of fidelity
    • 3. The color of the Virgin Mary’s robe
  • B. Dom Zerchi is knocked out of the church and next to a “salmon Armenian rose with singed petals.”
    • 1. The rose is a symbol of the mystery of the Cross and of divine love.
    • 2. As an attribute of virgins, it symbolizes Mary.
  • C. The sky howls like a wounded animal.
  • D. The buzzards are themselves dying this time, suggesting an end to the cycle on Earth.
  • E. The hungry shark is the last image in the book.
    • 1. A voracious carnivore in many of its varieties
    • 2. Called the wolf of the sea
    • 3. Unparalleled ferocity
• IV. About style:
  • A. Allusion:

    • 1. Quid sum miser tunc dicturus?
      Quem patronum rogaturus,
      Cum vix justus sit securus?

      “‘What am I, who am wretched, then to say? Whom shall I ask to be my protector, since even the just man is scarcely safe?’” (271)

      The quotation alludes to I Peter 4:17–18. “The season of judgment has begun, and begun with God’s own household. If it begins this way with us, what must be the end for those who refuse obedience to the gospel of God? And if the just man is saved only with difficulty, what is to become of the godless and the sinner?”

    • 2. Br. Joshua beats the dirt off his sandals as he climbs aboard the starship, recalling Christ’s injunction to his disciples just before he sent them on their first missionary trip (Matthew 10:14). “If anyone does not receive you or listen to what you say, leave that house or town, and once outside it shake its dust from your feet. I assure you, it will go easier for the region of Sodom and Gomorrah on the day of judgment than it will for that town.”

    • 3. When he sees, “The glow was engulfing a third of the heavens,” Miller alludes to Revelation 8:12 where a third of the heavens’ light is lost.

  • B. Ambiguity
    • 1. The validity of Mrs. Grales forgiving God
    • 2. The final line of the novel does not specify whether the shark died of hunger (suggesting the end of all life on Earth) or merely went hungry that season (suggesting the rebeginning of the cycle).
  • C. Symbolism:
    • 1. The presence of the rose bush indicates that Dom Zerchi is thrown by the shock wave into the rose garden where Br. Joshua prayed. If that garden is Gethsemane, then Br. Joshua’s meditation on responsibility recalls both his own and Christ’s reflections on the same decision. If the garden is Eden, then the imagery reminds us of cycles, this one taking us back to the beginning of humanity.
    • 2. Br. Francis’ skull recalls that monk’s wondering whether his fifteen years spent illuminating Leibowitz’s blueprint represented wasted time. Dom Zerchi could conclude that the monastery’s eighteen centuries resulted in waste, yet, instead, he holds on to hope.
  • D. Parallelism
    • 1. The bomb creates a “light as bright as noon,” recalling the hour at which the novel started.
    • 2. Dom Zerchi is killed trying to save something of value greater than himself – as Francis is killed trying to ransom the blueprint.
    • 3. The weight of the church crushes Dom Zerchi’s spine, recalling Dom Paulo’s meditation on the spine-crushing weight of responsibility.
    • 4. Dom Zerchi finds a skull just as Br. Francis did.
  • E. Cycles
    • 1. Br. Francis’ skull returns us to the first protagonist in the novel.
• V. About the plot
  • A. Dom Zerchi says his penance and begins to hear Mrs. Grales’ confession.
  • B. The bomb falls and Dom Zerchi is crushed by the collapsing church. He meditates on the themes of responsibility, cycles, and natural law as well as the nature of death.
  • C. Br. Joshua and his crew rise “heavenward” (completing his development as a Christ figure).
• VI. About the themes
  • A. Responsibility:
    • 1. “The rhythm of the words came dull and muffled through the grille, like the rhythm of distant hammering. Spikes driven through palms, piercing timber. As alter Christus he sensed the weight of each burden for a moment before it passed on to the One who bore them.” (268)
    • 2. “The trouble with the world is me.”
    • 3. “No ‘worldly evil’ except that which is introduced into the world by Man—me thee Adam us—with a little help from the father of lies.” – Dom Zerchi (271)
    • 4. “Blame anything, blame God even, but oh don’t blame me.” — Dom Zerchi (271)
    • 5. “What I impose, I must accept. Fas est.” (It is right) —Dom Zerchi (272)
    • 6. “The bitterness was essentially against God. Listen, Man, you have to give up the bitterness – ‘be granting shriv’ness to God,’ as she’d say—before anything; before love.” —Dom Zerchi (273)
  • B. Cycles
    • 1. “The SAME, THE SAME, EVERLASTINGLY THE SAME, AND EVEN A WOMAN WITH TWO HEADS COULD NOT CONTRIVE NEW WAYS OF COURTING EVIL, BUT COULD ONLY PURSUE A MINDLESS MIMICRY OF THE ORIGINAL.” —Dom Zerchi (268)
    • 2. “…he tried to pray, but the prayers seemed somehow unprayerful—like apologies, but not petitions—as if the last prayer had already been said, the last canticle already sung.” (271) [a cycle ends]
    • 3. “The visage of Lucifer mushroomed into hideousness above the cloudbank, rising slowly like some titan climbing to its feet after ages of imprisonment in the Earth.” (277)
  • C. Natural Law
    • 1. “Well, Doctor Cors, how do you know that the itch is not the more basic evil than the pain?” —Dom Zerchi (270)
    • 2. “To minimize suffering and to maximize security were natural and proper ends of society and Caesar. But then they became the only ends, somehow, and the only basis of law—a perversion. Inevitably, then, in seeking only them, we found only their opposites: maximum suffering and minimum security.” —Dom Zerchi (271)
    • 3. “If He didn’t allow it, human courage, bravery, nobility, and self-sacrifice would all be meaningless things.” —Dom Zerchi (273)
• VII. Points of interest
  • A. Dom Zerchi refers to man as homo inspiratus, “inspired man” in contrast to the homo loquax nonnumquam sapiens he used during the pre-bomb tension.