For this blog post I want to focus on the italicized portion at the beginning of part six. At this point the novel has just caught up with the beginning of the novel, with Boone’s murder. The people have just learned of this news and Robinson includes a lot of imagery to paint the picture of what is going on during Boone’s murder. Robinson writes, “And the sky went dark and a sudden wind whipped over the lake and blew every walktube in that town away, and then we heard” (384). It is almost as if the imagery in this scene parallels what is going on with the chaos of everyone learning about what has happened with Boone and the riots and stuff that break out before it. Robinson continues this imagery in stating, “Lightening started hammering us, giant bolts of lightning were shooting right down into the mohole, no one could believe it, and it was so loud you couldn’t hear. And there was a picture of him down in the workers’ quarters, up on the wall of one suite, and a lightning bolt hit the concourse window and everyone was blinded for a second, and when our sight returned the frame of that picture was busted and the glass cracked and it was smoking. And then we heard the news” (Robinson 284). When I read this I think of the lightening and all the chaos symbolizing Boone and the community as a whole.

For example, the lightening striking, that is causing all of the damage is Franks’ plan and the actual murder of Boone. Then, the chaos, damage, and debris from the lightening, is the aftermath of the community after Boone’s murder, just like no order and in disarray. And finally when Robinson says, “And then we heard the news,” it symbolizes not only the reaction of the community from the lightening but also the shock and state that they are in from hearing about Boone’s death. This quote, “And then we heard the news,” I think is the most important of this whole segment because in both quotes that I used which were within two paragraphs, Robinson repeats those words twice. Robinson’s repetition of the quotes to me again symbolizes exactly the scene of the situation when they found out. I think it their shock symbolizes not only everything that has happened, and I mean everything, from the voyage out and to the colonization and how Boone was their leader, and now he is gone, and what happens now? So, it also symbolizes what is to come. For that split second they are just stuck in this limbo between what has happened and what will happen.