My Thoughts – Madison Nef
When first reading the book, I really didn’t understand the whole “cycles” theme and didn’t pick up on much symbolism other than the buzzards representing death. After Dad explained it to me, it fell into place though. While I am still a bit blurry on the whole “different time periods” idea, I do understand the alphabetical coincidence and the time theory. The book started and ended in a way that I wanted to take note of:
Beginning:
Coming out of a war period, where most literature and history was destroyed. Now, monks (who can read the texts unlike other people being they are schooled) want to preserve the knowledge for when the world is ready for it again.
End:
A church is destroyed and (as was seen earlier in the book, churches/monks stand for literature and knowledge) therefore so is the logic which had been so carefully preserved. Naturally the texts that had been saved themselves had probably been gone a looooong time before being the book seemed to jump all over the timeline, but like I mentioned above, symbolism is great in this book.
One of the author’s inspirations for the book was because he had served in the war and was involved in the bombing of an ancient monastery where he pretty much did destroy a lot of history and knowledge passed on from those who came before us.
Death was a recurring theme in this book. I didn’t realize it while reading, but I think that this was the fears of the author coming out in his writing. This book WAS written in the 1960’s when there was a big fear of a nuclear war, and the book was set in the post-apocalyptic future where mankind had seemingly fallen back to the early 1000’s and 900’s. Not many people knew how to read or write apart from monks and religious people, and the only REAL teaching came from the church. Also, another recurring theme was cycles- a lot of them. So the aftermaths of the war were just more war… and more war… and repeat.
Saint Leibowitz, a saint patronized by many-a-monk in the book, is the saint of literature (fitting, eh?) and is looked upon greatly. In the beginning of the book, artifacts tying to Saint Leibowitz are found by a humble monk looking to become a priest. The artifacts (blueprints with the name ‘Leibowitz’ on them) are found after he is lead to a fallout shelter by a strange man who is neither monk nor commoner, but can read and write in Hebrew and Latin.
Now I’d like to reflect on one of the most important characters in the book, in my opinion. This character is Brother Francis, who appears in the first section of the book, “Fiat Homo”. He is a humble monk doing a fast in a desert for Lent, trying to become a priest when he gets back to his abbey. He is also the one who discovers the Leibowitz artifacts and recognizes them, as Leibowitz is the founder of his abbey. The artifacts are blueprints for nuclear weapons, as Leibowitz was likely a mechanic in the “Flame Deluge” war that brought the world to its current state.
But it’s how Brother Francis DISCOVERS the artifacts that interest me. He sees an old “wanderer” man who can read and write in Latin and Hebrew who is supposedly looking for his abbey. He leaves a Hebrew marking on a rock, and when Francis goes to examine it, he finds the fallout shelter (which contains the artifacts). Now, a logical explanation for this would be hallucinations: it is never told how long Brother Francis was out in the desert before we catch up to him in the book. Lack of food, water, and a good night’s sleep combined with sheer human instinct (because when we DO catch up to him, he is looking for a stone to complete a shelter for the night) could have led him to the fallout shelter for a safe place for the night. The Leibowitz documents being in there could have been just pure coincidence.
On the other hand, if you want to go the spiritual way, maybe God DID have a hand in leading him to the artifacts. However, reflecting on the book again, it couldn’t have been Leibowitz himself as suggested by the other monks at the abbey; Leibowitz hadn’t even been canonized as a saint yet! That happens years after the fact, and is partly due to the finding of the blueprints. Speaking of the blueprints: the church initially wanted to hide the blueprints from everyone, but Francis found a way to preserve them and keep them from being destroyed.
Francis decided that he wanted to follow in the steps of his saint and decided to start copying the old texts to keep them for a time when humanity was ready for the knowledge and wouldn’t abuse it (as was seen in the “Flame Deluge”. After the war, there were great uprisings against people who knew how to read, write, or were intelligent in any way and many books were burned out of fear. These times were called “Simplification” and the book burners called themselves the “simpletons”. Leibowitz was a “booklegger” who protected books and reserved the knowledge. Eventually, he was betrayed and killed, but not before founding the abbey where he kept the texts.)
Unfortunately, Francis dies on his way back from showing the Pope the blueprints. A thief’s followers end up shooting him in the forehead with an arrow. He is picked apart by the buzzards, and is eventually found by an old man who buries him and then tells the monks at the abbey where his body is.
Speaking of the buzzards! More symbolism of death… but at the same time, life. Without men killing each other haplessly, the buzzards would not be able to eat. The buzzards, unlike men, work together to hunt, lay eggs, and raise their young. Their life is a gigantic repetitive cycle, much like the world and its wars. I love how the author used animals to represent the cycles. Not only did he use buzzards, but he also used a shark at the VERY end of the book to show how the world had fallen apart again, and how much had died, but the shark had survived by living in deep water.
I’d also like to note the chapter titles and how they relate to the stories within them:
The first, “Fiat Homo”, means “Let There Be Man”. This is fitting as man is just coming back from the nuclear war and re-learning, and this is also the time when Brother Francis discovers the artifacts and tries to preserve knowledge. This could also be pertaining to the bible, where the first parts are God creating the world and man as we know it. However, if this was the theme, it doesn’t go entirely in order with timeline, because the next chapter is:
“Fiat Lux”, or “Let There Be Light”. Now, in the bible, God creates light before he creates man, so it doesn’t follow the STRUCTURE of the bible. However this does pertain to the chapter as electricity is slowly coming back, and this is shown with Brother Kornhoer’s treadmill powered arc lamp and generator.
The final chapter is “Let Thy Will Be Done”, or “Fiat Voluntas Tua”. This is the beginning of a new end- the world has nuclear power and weapons again, and the Leibowitzan Order has gone from just protecting the Memorabilia to ALL knowledge and texts they can find. Seeing this chapter reminds me of the Our Father Prayer, and if you think about it, the story kind of follows the prayer as well! Could it be more symbolism? You decide! I will use these remaining paragraphs for the prayer and my thoughts about it and how it relates to the story.
Our Father, Who art in heaven
Hallowed be Thy Name;
Thy kingdom come, (The beginning of the book. Humanity is coming back slowly from the nuclear war.)
Thy will be done, (The END of the book. As I said above, the similarities between the beginning and the end of the book are great. At the end of the book, nuclear war has been regained and war is raging.)
on earth as it is in heaven. (Mrs. Grales represents the Immaculate Conception, born without sin. This is why she refuses to be baptized…)
Give us this day our daily bread, (and INSTEAD gives Abbot Zerchi his last communion through the Eucharist!)
and forgive us our trespasses,
as we forgive those who trespass against us; (Another reference to war)
and lead us not into temptation, (In the beginning of the book, what is Brother Francis confessing? Temptation to break his fast. Again, another beginning at the end!)
but deliver us from evil.
AMEN!
Maddie
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