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Z for Zachariah, written by Robert O’Brien, is a novel that follows the diary written by the protagonist, Ann Burden. The Setting is a very important aspect of this novel and in this essay I shall discuss why. The ‘elements’ of the setting that I shall be writing on are: character, symbolism, theme and conflict. Character Ann Burden has lived in the valley all her life and ‘has climbed all the hills on all the sides’. Ann and her brother Joseph discovered a cave high in the hillside whilst playing, and that cave, though she did not know it at the time, would be her one place of safety right throughout her adventure. From the cave Ann ‘can see most of the valley, my house and barn, the roof of the store, the little steeple of the old church, and part of the brook that runs about fifty feet away’. Ann quotes ‘Beyond the valley I see that all the trees are dead, and there is never a sign of anything moving. I don’t go out there’. However by the end of the story the valley becomes a place of doom for Ann, as she is continuously being hunted and shut off from life’s essentials by Mr. Loomis. Ann states ‘The valley which had been my home and shelter for my whole life, seemed now to threaten me wherever I went, whatever I did’.