Chapter 1 (February 27, 2012) /5
1. “Z for Zachariah” uses a diary or journal format. The journal is being written
by Ann Burden (first-person perspective)
2. Ann Burden is the main character of the story.
3. According to page three, Ann has been alone for six years.
4. Ann has seen the smoke a total of three times now
5. Ann starts a journal for three reasons. She starts it to remember what
has happened and when it happened. She also writes so that it seems as
if she has someone to talk to. Reading the journal back to herself, it
would seem as if she would have someone talking with her.
6. The man on the radio meant that even though things are hopeless, people
should still act like civilized human beings, not barbarians.
7. Ann realizes that being alone may not be the worst thing in the world.
8. Ann has a brother, Joseph, cousin, David, and a mother and father. Her family
went out looking for other survivors and they never returned. They are
presumed dead.
9. There was some kind of war. Nuclear bombs were used. One example
of this is how Ann’s father mentions that the radioactivity levels inside
cars would be higher because of the reflective surfaces.
Chapter 2 (February 28, 2012)
1. Five things that Ann does: /3
a. Let the chickens out
b. Let two cows and a calf out.
c. Dig up the garden.
d. Fetch water.
e. Cover the garden with dead leaves
f. Take flowers off of the counter.
g. Bring two lamps full of oil to the cave.
2. Ann does these two things so that when the man comes to her home it
will look as if no one was living there. She does this because she is not
sure yet that she can trust the man.
3. From her cave, Ann can see most of the valley, including her house and the
barn, the roof of the store, the little steeple on the old church, and part of the
brook that runs fifty feet away.
4. The problem that Ann has with time is that she is not entirely sure what
the exact time or date is. She uses the Sun to tell, but this is
approximate. She even admits that sometimes she crosses days off on
her calendar twice or forgets some days to cross anything off of her
calendar.
5. When Ann realizes she might be alone, she cuts wood, hauls it to the barn,
and closes off the parts of the house without fireplaces in order to keep the
house warm enough to survive,
6. Ann hides in a tree at the top of Burden Hill. * She brings her .22 rifle in
case she needs it for protection. She is still unsure as to whether or not
she can trust the man.
7. Ann determines that she has to be careful about her water consumption, as
there is only one source that is not contaminated. She fills her six bottles
with water.
8. The man came on May 24. He is travelling slowly because he is pulling a
wagon that seems quite heavy and is also wearing a suit that must restrict his
movement.
Chapter 3 (February 29, 2012)
1. When the man arrived, Ann observed him checking for radiation levels.
2. The man used a Geiger counter to check radiation levels.
3. The man had a beard, his hair was long and dark brown. He was extremely
pale and his face was narrow on long. He had a long nose, and looked while.
He did not look very healthy.
4. The man shot one of Ann’s chickens. This shocked Ann because
shooting was not a generally accepted method of killing a tame chicken.
As well, such a death would be more shocking for Ann because she
likely had a personal connection with these animals. The death was
unacceptable and therefore disrespectful to her.
5. The man makes the mistake of going swimming and taking a bath in a
radioactive stream. This is obviously a mistake because he was so careful
before, checking everything with a Geiger counter.
6. Ann had heard on the radio that the enemy was using nerve gas,
bacteria, and “other antipersonnel weapons.”
7. Ann hopes that the water doesn’t kill the man.
Chapter 4 (March 1, 2012)
1. David’s dog, Faro, appears in the valley.
2. To clean up his appearance, the man cut his hair and trimmed his beard.
3. The man realizes that the stream is radioactive.
4. The man got his new clothes from the store that Ann always goes to
(Klein’s store.)
5. On his way back from exploring, the man started feeling the effects of going
in the radioactive stream. He starts getting very ill.
Chapter 1-4 Vocabulary
Beacons- A signal. Usually up high so that is very visible. Often in the form of a
light or a fire. (Page 2)
Tubular- Having the form or shape of a tube (Page 13)
Gauge - A device used to measure a quantity of something. (pg 22)
Fescue- a type of grass that is used for pasture or lawns (pg 28)
Merge- to combine two or more things into one. (pg 30)
Antipersonnel- used against enemy personnel. (pg 31)
Mongrel- an animal or plant resulting from the crossing of different breeds (pg
33)
Inevitably- not able to be avoided (pg 35)
Culvert- a pipe or channel used to conduct water under a road, railway, etc.
Chapter 5 (March 5, 2012)
1. Ann dreamed her father was actually sick in the tent and that her family
was still alive,
2. Ann is debating about whether or not to help the man. She still doesn’t know
if she should trust him.
3. Ann gets the man soup and water. She also uses the Geiger counter to check
the stream for radiation.
4. The medicine is called, Cysteamine.
5. The Geiger counter goes up to 200.
6. 1- Being sick to the stomach. /3
2- Intra-cellular ionization (cells can’t grow or divide normally)
3- Compromised immune system (you can get sick easily)
7. “R” stands for roentgen, a way for a person to measure radiation.
8. At the end of chapter 5, Ann realizes that despite helping that man, she still
does not know his name.
Chapter 6 (March 6, 2012)
1. The man has now been in the valley for six days.
2. A meteotological enclave is a kind of inversion. This means that the valley
isolated and therefore is said to have its own weather. This could explain
why the valley was not impacted like the rest of the world was from the
nuclear warfare.
3. Most of the people were killed by nerve gas.
4. The magnetic plastic was used for repelling (stopping) radiation.
5. The men created an air filter as well as a water filter that would get rid of
radiation.
6. The man believed that other people were alive and living underground.
His example is the Air Force.
7. It took him ten weeks to arrive in the valley.
8. He stayed in the underground laboratory for three months.
9. The man decided to walk because the radioactivity inside the car was ten
times as high as it was in the open air (as Ann’s father had told Ann). This
was close to the suit’s radiation limit, so the man decided to be safe and walk,
10. Mr. Loomis is shocked when Ann asked who Edward is. Edward worked with
Loomis and Dr. Klymer in the lab.
Chapter 7 (March 6, 2012)
1. Getting the garden going again was Ann’s most important task.
2. Ann and Loomis discussed how to get gasoline into the tractor so that
their garden work would be easier.
3. “The real sunset is in the east” means that the family obscures the natural
light of the sun.
4. Ann decided to play the piano for Mr. Loomis in order to entertain him.
He enjoyed it very much.
5. Answers will vary.
Chapter 8 (March 13, 2012)
1. Ann used dandelion greens, poke greens, and cress for her salad.
2. Ann spots an apple tree when she is out getting ingredients (she spots other
things, but the apple tree is the only thing of significance)
3. Ann is amazed by the apple tree’s beauty. It also smells beautiful. This
contrasts greatly with what she is used to (death and ugliness)
4. Briefly summarized, Ann would like to marry Loomis once he’s better,
though she isn’t in a rush.
5. Mr. Loomis wants to build a damn at the top of the radioactive stream in
order to make use of it. They could harness the water to power a small
generator. This generator could be used to power a freezer and a fridge.
These two items would make surviving much easier than it had been.
Chapter 9 (March 20, 2012)
1. Ann got the tractor running by getting gas. In order to get gas, she had to
follow Mr. Loomis’ instructions and work pump manually.
2. Ann planned on using the tractor to plow the field corn, soy beans, and peas.
3. Ann’s future plans have changed in that she is now making long-term
plans. With Loomis there, there was hope that the human race would
be able to survive. Ann now has to think about more than just her own
future.
4. Ann had to change her plans because Loomis’ health took a turn for the
worse. His fever spiked up to 104 degrees.
Chapter 10 (March 22, 2012)
1. Mr. Loomis is going through a more serious stage. She is afraid that he may
develop pneumonia.
2. Ann notices that she has an inverse relationship with Mr. Loomis—as he
gets weaker, she gets stronger. This is because Ann has to be more
responsible and take care of him more when he isn’t feeling well.
3. Mr. Loomis went outside and shot three bullets toward the house. He
was delirious and was in some kind of dream-like state.
Chapter 11 (March 27, 2012)
1. Ann realizes that Mr. Loomis and Edward were in fact arguing over the
radiation-repelling suit. The two of them were enemies.
2. When Ann said, “The dream was contagious,” she meant that she began
to bel0.000ll.
3. In order to potentially help Mr. Loomis, Ann brings the safe suit into the
room where Mr. Loomis is so that he can see that Edward hasn’t stolen
it.
4. We learn that Edward has a wife and a son. Loomis and Edward were
fighting over the suit because Edward wanted to go and see if his family was
alive. Even if they weren’t alive, Edward argued that seeing their bodies
would give him closure. Loomis thought that this was a silly thing to do
because it was the only suit in existence
5. At night, Mr. Loomis was weak, ice-cold, and his face was almost purple, a
pale blue with translucent (see-through) eyelids.
6. Ann went to the church at night to pray for both herself and Mr. Loomis. This
shows that she is hoping that her faith will bring her and Loomis through this
difficult and trying situation.
Chapter 12 (March 28, 2012)
1. Mr. Loomis looked terrible in this chapter. He was very cold, pale, and had
puffy, gray cracked lips. He was breathing fifty times a minute. Normal, on
average, is sixteen times per minutes,
2. To appease her fears, Ann goes to the church again, hoping that she will
be able to gain strength through her faith.
3. Within the church, Ann finds a crow that had fallen out of its nest.
4. Ann believes that the crow may symbolize good luck.
5. Ann is not sure if Mr. Loomis was in the right in killing Edward. She has
never met Edward and does not know the entire situation, only what Mr.
Loomis has said about it. She does not know Mr. Loomis well enough to form
her opinion one way or the other,
Chapter 13 (April 2, 2012)
1. Anne wanted to be a nurse, and then decided that she wanted to
become a teacher. She can no longer do either of those things. She is,
however, currently nursing Loomis as best she can. There probably
isn’t much she can teach him because he their vast age difference.
2. Ann wants to travel on foot to Ogdentown in order to get some books. She
has read all of her current books about twenty times each and would
therefore like to add to her collection.
3. Ann dismantled the stove and hauled it piece by piece using the truck. She
reassembled it in the kitchen. She then made some custard and gave it to Mr.
Loomis.
Chapter 14 (April 3, 2012)
1. Today is June 15, Ann’s 16th birthday.
2. A week has passed since her last journal entry.
3. When Mr. Loomis started to feel better he was extremely frail. As the days go
by, he is getting stronger and stronger.
4. Mr. Loomis asked for some pencils, plain white paper, a ruler, a
protractor, and a drawing compass. (He is probably in the planning
stages for making the generator that he had mentioned earlier.)
Chapter 15 (April 4, 2012)
1. Another week has passed since Ann’s last journal entry.
2. Mr. Loomis had learned to walk again.
3. Mr. Loomis was designing the water-powered generator.
4. Mr. Loomis uses the term “letting it cool off.”
5. Quote: “But as long as it is, the suit is the only way to go out there and stay
alive. The idea of taking it to get some novels- it’s too foolish to consider. If you
tok it out and something went wrong, I could never get it back. I couldn’t go
out after it, couldn’t even try. It would be lost forever.”
Chapter 16 (April 5, 2012)
1. Ann is starting to feel uneasy.
2. Loomis had a cousin who visited him and an aunt who played piano. He was
part of a poor family in Nyack, New York. He spent four years in a lab
working or the Navy after he has finished college. The lab with in Bristol,
New Jersey. Loomis was a chemistry major in college, and has applied to go
to graduate school at Cornell university.
3. Ann is uneasy because Mr. Loomis is beginning to take control of
everything.
Chapter 13-15 Vocabulary (April 5, 2012)
Respiration- The act or process of breathing.
Circulation- The movement of blood through the heart and blood vessels.
Neglecting- to disregard as if something does not matter.
Impatiently- To not be accepting of a delay.
Pathetic- Miserably inadequate.
Permanently- lasting indefinitely
Astonishing- causing surprise or amazement
Momentous- important, of great significance.
Germinate- to begin or cause to grow; sprout.
Delirious- Wild with excitement, enthusiasm. May include delusions.
Harrow- implement for leveling or breaking up of plowed land.
Uninhabitable- a place that is not able to be lived in because of lack of food,
water, air quality, or various other reasons.