ESSAY
...r acts of bravery and living under difficult circumstances. In ZFZ, Ann has to deal with the death of her family after they drove off in search of other survivors. The phone “never rang” and her “family never came back”, leaving the poor 15-year-old girl alone in the valley to care for herself. Jamie, from EOTS, is separated from his parents as well, and is left to look after himself, which at first he found hard, but found it more easier as he matured. The audience is encouraged to admire both Ann and Jamie for their act of bravery to overcome such a loss, and for them to be able to survive shows the audience how they mature from being cared for by their parents, to living by themselves. In the beginning of the novel, Ann cares for Mr Loomis when he is ill after having radiation poisoning. She is very friendly and does the best she can to help him recover, and “even though he may be a murderer, [she does] not want him to die”. Similarly, Jamie is seen being very kind and helping others when he gets food for other people in the POW camp, and helps out the doctor whenever he can. The audience is encouraged to like Ann and Jamie for this, as they see that they are very kindhearted people who are maturing. To prevent Mr Loomis from finding and killing her, Ann has to kill Faro (her cousin’s dog), so that he does not pick up her scent and lead her to Mr Loomis. She finds it very hard to do, as she likes Faro, and does not like the idea of killing. So she led him to Burden Creek, which has radiation poisoning, and he swam in it. He died soon after, causing her grief, as it made her “feel as much a murderer as Mr Loomis”. Jamie has to do difficult things lo live as well, like when he takes the dead man’s dinner pan to get more food, and when he risks his life to lay the traps to catch food for Basie for Thanks Giving. These are examples of the harsh things that people are forced to do at war times to survive, and the reader is encouraged to pity Ann and Jamie for the hard time they had as they matured from experiences...