Z For Zachariah

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of sexual violence.

Ann has begun to grow even more uncomfortable with Loomis. He begins to sit on the back porch, watching her as she plants beats and wheat at his suggestion. However, one afternoon, he asks to sit on the front porch. Ann realizes that she knows nothing about him other than where he used to work and how he came to the valley, plus what she overheard when he was dreaming. She attempts to question him about his life before the war, but he answers curtly. She learns that he was in the Navy for four years and worked as a chemist on a ship, but he provides her with little other information. She then asks him if he was once married. In response, Loomis aggressively grabs her hand. He pulls it into his lap so that she is off-balance and tells her that he was never married. He then asks why she wanted to know. Uncomfortable and embarrassed, Ann tries to get him to let go, realizing that she is “really frightened” (160). Instead, he pulls harder on her hand, causing her to fall onto him. To stop herself, she inadvertently hits him in the head.