1. A Canticle for Leibowitz By: Justine Gandia-Jackson

2. 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.

3. 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.

4. 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.

5. 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.

6. 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.

7.  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.