SMITH, CHRISTINA JEAN. What Disappears and What Remains

us to forgive them their trespasses as they begin the process of building towards thenext nuclear holocaust - just as we are inclined to forgive Eve her bite of the temptingapple.For, with these Edenic parallels, Miller points out that Francis' innocence is no matchfor man's insatiable and innate curiosity and that these discoveries, at least that of the CircuitDesign, will eventually lead to the inescapable and onerous technological zenith point fromwhich Miller's characters cannot escape (per their place in Miller's deterministic, technoprimitivecycle which always builds towards destruction). But at the same time, Francis'adoration of the relic-blueprint and his subsequent labors to grace its reproduction with goldand floral designs do nothing to further man's movement toward a techno-zenith or tippingpoint. He does so only for the joy of artistically illuminating an object that so mystifies anddelights him. Similarly, Brother Sarls toils over the algebra text because he finds joy inproblem solving and not because he will actually ever see the book translated and certainlynot because he would ever live to see its concepts put into practice. Miller uses thesepositive, uniquely human traits to highlight the double-edged beauty of man's capacity fordiscovery. Through these innocent child-men of Fiat Homo, he shows that ultimatedestruction begins with just a few endearing, toddler steps towards understanding the worldaround us (post-catastrophe). Thus these early character studies become a wry celebration ofhumanity in what is, largely, a grim allegory of societal failings. 1111 Judith Butler also sees Rachel, the second head of Mrs. Grales who appears to Zerchi in his dying moments at the end ofFiat Voluntas Tua, as a new incarnation of the "innocent" early man, Francis. "(Rachel)," she says, " represents innocenceand the continuation of the human cycle of inncocence and free will, followed by the fall" (344). While Walker Percy saysthat the reader must ask him/herself "Who is Rachel? What is she?", and that their answer to that question will determinewhether or not the reader "got the book or missed it" (578). Perhaps Miller is using Rachel, at the end of the novel, as a signof hope that man has evolved into a new creature, one that is resistant to the effects of radiation and one that will avoid the21