A Canticle for Leibowitz By: Justine Gandia-Jackson
Fiat Homo The book is divided into three canticles that tell three different stories and time periods after the nuclear war. This novel is dystopic because the first canticle takes place years after a nuclear war referred to as the Fire Deluge. The world is left as a vast desert showing harsh conditions instead of wealthy community. There are some survivors, but most people have become disfigured mutants known as the Pope’s children because a law was passed to recognize any person born as worth keeping alive.
Cont. This is the age after the Simplification, which eliminated all books and intelligent figures to prevent war. This caused people to become illiterate and violent towards others. Any books or papers of knowledge remaining are preserved by the churches that are no longer attacked, but these documents are rarely understood or put to use. Francis of Utah tries to prove a bookkeeper Leibowitz should be named a saint.
Simplification Bookkeepers were an order of people during the Simplification that tried to hide books to preserve knowledge for future generations. There were also people who would memorize pages in case the books were found and destroyed.
Fiat Lux In the year 3174, war becomes evident so the illiterate ruler Hannegan can unite the continent under one dynasty. His cousin Thon Thaddeo meets with the church of the Order of Leibowitz to study their archives of lost technology. He is shown a lamp that runs on electricity that was developed showing the slow revival of knowledge among people. After the war a temporary agreement was formed and broken between the states of Denver and Texarkana.
Fiat Voluntas Tua In the year 3781, spaceships were invented again, but there was the threat of nuclear war. The chapter begins with an interview discussing a bomb that fell over the Atlantic, which wasn’t authorized. People once again suffer from high radiation after the attack on the capital. The hopeless cases are sent to be cremated, which goes against the Utopian belief of life without war or disease.
The Order of Leibowitz plans to send the Memorabilia, a book that holds any original documents of information. Children and priests will be sent into space as the new hope for man in case one day it is habitable again. In the end, a nuclear bomb is dropped and the earth is set ablaze as the spaceship takes off.