Fallout

“The cheesecake was cold and creamy and delicious, and I bit off a little of the nutty brown crust to go along with it. Like a prisoner on death row, I began to savor my last meal.”

By juxtaposing death-row references with the simple pleasure of eating cheesecake, Scott’s narrative reflects the gleeful misbehavior of childhood fun even as his wording indicates the degree to which the existential nuclear threat has tainted his perspective. Ronnie even explicitly rationalizes their theft with the idea that none of them have long to live, and Scott is pulled in multiple directions through the pre-attack chapters as his natural considerateness conflicts with the chaos that Ronnie encourages.

“Mom came out of the kitchen wearing a blue apron and a frown on her face. Then she spoke the words that struck an even greater, or at least more immediate, fear than a Russian attack: ‘Go to your room until your father gets home.’”

Despite the constant existential threat of nuclear attack, Scott is still primarily concerned with the immediate consequences of his misbehavior at home. This passage therefore shows the limits of Scott’s experience, as parental punishment still fills him with far more fear than does the threat of war.

“As if Dad could read my mind, he said, […] ‘[A] lot of people think that because we’ve reached the point of mutually assured destruction, war no longer makes sense.’ He sighed. ‘The problem is, wars almost never make sense—but that never stopped anyone before.’”

The conflicts surrounding the likelihood of war have finally penetrated Scott’s awareness. Scott understands that other children might not act rationally, but this is the first time that an adult has admitted that entire nations can act irrationally. A microcosm of this concept is also demonstrated in the shelter scenes as the adults begin to act more irrationally than any of the children.

“I don’t feel like I’m ready to have babies with anyone, but Ronnie probably can’t wait. If it was up to him, he’d probably want to start before we even get out of the shelter. There’s no doubt in my mind that when it’s time for Paula to have babies, Ronnie will be the father. He’s stronger and a better athlete and better-looking.”

Early in the post-attack chapters, Scott still demonstrates a childish perspective on adult topics, such as sex. Scott’s underlying insecurities come to the surface in this passage, for his assumption that Ronnie would be a more desirable mate than him reveals his own worries about himself.

“Sparky and I raced into the house, where we found Mom sitting at the kitchen table, smoking a cigarette. That was strange. Usually she only smoked on weekend nights when she and Dad had people over for dinner. And when she sat at the kitchen table, she always read a magazine. But it was the middle of the afternoon, there was no magazine, and her gaze slanted up and away into the smoky air.”

Scott’s mother’s descent into fear manifests in her increasing emotional distance from her children. As a result of her dissociation, Scott feels less safe in the world and begins to suspect that he cannot rely on his mother. This effect is heightened in the post-attack timeline when Scott’s mother receives a traumatic brain injury that prevents her from communicating at all.

“Mr. Shaw squeezes his arm. ‘You better go.’

‘Shut up,’ [Ronnie] grunts.

A jolt jumps through me like an electric charge. I’ve never heard a kid say that to a parent or any grown-up. I wait for Mr. or Mrs. Shaw to scold him, but there’s only silence until Ronnie lets out a low moan as if his bladder is about to explode.”

Ronnie’s main function in Fallout is to be a foil for Scott. Whereas Scott is always respectful and deferential to his parents, Ronnie often openly disagrees with them and disobeys them. This fundamental contrast in the boys’ behavior helps Scott to clarify his own values, as his instinctual disgust at Ronnie’s behavior makes him consider his own behavior more closely.

“That didn’t make sense. Why would anyone go to war if they knew ahead of time that neither side could win?”

This passage indicates Scott’s difficulty in understanding the fundamental irrationality of nuclear war. As a child, Scott has learned that the world is rational and that countries and leaders act in their own best interests. Part of his growing maturity involves his gradual realization that adults can be just as irrational and emotional as children.

“We’ve eaten and gone to the bathroom, and now there’s nothing else to do except sit. Ronnie catches my eye and I know that he wants to talk, but I still don’t know how I feel. He may be my best friend, but my scraped elbows and throbbing knee are a reminder of last night’s fight.”

Even though the world as they know it has been destroyed, the petty feuds that existed before the attack still affect the dynamics of the survivors. The antagonism between Scott and Ronnie can therefore be interpreted as a reflection of the larger societal and racial dynamics that infect the shelter later on.

“Everyone is quiet. Are they thinking what I’m thinking? That it feels hopeless? Not even a day has passed, and I’m already bored, dirty, hungry, and smelly in my pee-stinky pajamas. How are we ever going to stay down here for two weeks?”

One of the central sources of tension within the shelter stems from the dwindling resources, for Scott’s father never planned to have so many extra people in the shelter. Even though the group is supposed to stay in the shelter for two weeks, the space contains very little food and does not have enough supplies or clothing. Despite his miscalculations, however, Scott’s father becomes a successful leader, and his efforts help everyone to survive the ordeal.

“Dad stared at the empty doorway, then let out a sigh and got up. ‘Sorry, boys. This is something your mom and I disagree about.’

He left Sparky and me at the table. Our parents’ voices came down the hall from their bedroom, too faint to make out what they were saying. But we could hear the tone. Mom was upset and angry, and Dad was trying to get her to calm down.

Back in the kitchen, Sparky whispered, ‘What’s so bad about Thanksgiving?’”

This passage demonstrates the differing degrees of innocence affecting the characters. Although Scott is still relatively young, he knows that the argument is not truly about Thanksgiving; however, this level of analysis is beyond Sparky’s grasp.

“There’s down here and up there. The ones who feel like they’re buried are alive, while the ones who aren’t buried probably aren’t alive. Everything’s upside down.”

By this point in the novel, Scott’s world has been upended, and in this passage, the narrative focuses on the contrast between the pre-attack and post-attack chapters, emphasizing the existential despair that the survivors feel despite the fact that they have managed to weather the initial attack.

“Dad narrows his eyes. ‘Yes, I tried to keep people out, but only to protect my family. It was horrible and something that’s going to haunt me for a long time. But how was I supposed to know how many people were up there? What was I supposed to do? Let everyone in? How’d you like it if there were twenty people in here right now? Or thirty? You might as well be up there.’”

As the unelected leader of the shelter, Scott’s father faces many questions about his decisions. Normally, this would be a natural part of the leadership process, but in the dire straits of the shelter, the decisions take on life-and-death implications, and the defensive tone of the passage indicates that Scott’s father is dealing with his own guilt in addition to the pressures of his current responsibilities.

“Mothers had breasts. When you got hurt, they would press the side of your head against their bosoms, which were sometimes soft and comforting, and sometimes rough if under their blouse they were wearing a bra, which was the thing women wore to hold their breasts in place.”

Despite Ronnie’s best efforts, Scott sees women’s bodies in the context of his mother—associating women with comfort and warmth, rather than seeing them as sex objects, as Ronnie does. Much of the tension in the pre-attack chapters stems from Ronnie’s objectification of the women in his life, while Scott resists thinking of women in this way.

“[E]ventually we get to the point where we don’t want to play any games at all. The boredom is bad because there’s nothing to do except wonder and worry about what’s going to happen next. The hunger pangs are worse, but sometimes they take my mind off the future. The bare patch behind my ear must be the size of a tennis ball, but I can’t stop tugging.”

As Scott describes the moment-to-moment details of life in the shelter, it is clear that the game-playing represents the group’s attempt to maintain normalcy, but as the circumstances become too much to bear, the passage highlights The Disparate Reactions to Stress. Most significantly, Scott’s anxiety manifests in his compulsion to self-harm by pulling out his own hair.

“‘You know about radiation poisoning?’ asked Why Can’t You Be Like Johnny? He was in the smart class at school and never got into trouble. And he was nice. Not brownnose-teacher’s-pet-nice like Paula, but nice and polite in a sincere way that made everybody like him. And if that wasn’t bad enough, he was a good athlete who could throw and catch and run really fast. The only thing wrong with Why Can’t You Be Like Johnny? was that there was nothing wrong with him.”

The boys in Scott’s neighborhood have elaborate nicknames that demonstrate their social standing among their friends. The nickname “Why Can’t You Be Like Johnny?” demonstrates Scott’s ongoing low self-esteem, as he positions himself as less interesting, smart, or attractive than his friend. He also compares himself similarly to Ronnie.

“The talk of making people leave the shelter has stopped, but it doesn’t feel like it’s over. A little while ago, after they fed Mom, Dad put his hand on Janet’s shoulder as if to reassure her that nothing bad would happen. I guess as long as we’re hungry, what Mr. McGovern said will probably be in the backs of everyone’s minds.”

Although the racist and ableist impetus to evict Janet and Scott’s mother from the shelter are no longer being voiced, these urges continue to fester silently in the minds of certain characters. This dynamic suggests that the nuclear attack has done nothing to eliminate existing attitudes of racism and social injustice, for those same prejudices are now recontextualized as issues of survival rather than as forms of cruel discrimination.

“‘Why did he ask if everything was okay?’ Sparky said.



I expected Mom to say she didn’t know, but instead she said, ‘That’s just the way some people are, Edward.’

‘They don’t like Negroes sitting in the same car as white people?’ I asked.

Mom nodded.

‘I thought that was only in the South,’ I said.

‘I think there’s a little bit of it everywhere.’”

The Loss of Innocence faced by Scott begins to occur well before the nuclear attack. Throughout the narrative, Scott is characterized as a thoughtful and empathetic person who is morally opposed to discrimination. Scott’s disillusionment in this passage comes from realizing that bigotry is not just practiced in other places; it is also present in the world around them, and prejudicial attitudes are evinced by people whom he would otherwise trust and respect.

“While we played, I wondered how Ronnie had gotten so good at lying. When I told a lie, I really had to work at it. First I had to stop myself from telling the truth. Then I had to think of the lie I wanted to tell. Then I had to think about whether it was believable or not. Then I had to consider what would happen if I got caught. And only after all that would I dare tell it. But Ronnie was a natural. It was almost like he thought of the lie before he thought of the truth.”

As a foil for Scott, Ronnie demonstrates an aptitude for dishonest activities to which Scott is not naturally predisposed, such as lying and stealing. In this case, Ronnie’s easy dishonesty contrasts with Scott's innate sense of integrity. However, although Ronnie happily embraces these darker instincts, his inclination for misbehavior only causes issues for him and Scott. Thus, the boys’ interactions and conflicts are designed to mirror the broader interactions between nations, showing the limits of a confrontational worldview.

“Sometimes, when it’s quiet for a long time, I think I hear whispers, as if there’s someone else down here. And even though I don’t believe in ghosts, I get scared.”

Prolonged stress and fear can often cause mental health crises, and this passage emphasizes that the extreme hardships of the shelter environment are beginning to cause some of the inhabitants to experience auditory hallucinations. While Scott believes that he might be hearing things, the other inhabitants of the shelter experience their trauma differently, as when Mr. Shaw reaches such a point of despair that he tries to flee from the shelter before it is safe to do so.

“My friends and I took in the charred devastation. The smoldering heap of gray ash, the wisps of smoke rising like ghosts. All that remained of the crickets were burned carapaces, except for a few dead ones that had managed to hop away before the fire began, only to be poisoned by the gasoline.

‘Just like what could happen to us,’ Ronnie said.”

The threat of nuclear war has infiltrated all aspects of life in the pre-attack timeline. Even here, as the boys engage in typically childish activities such as setting piles of leaves on fire, they cannot escape the imagery of death and destruction, and the ever-present worry of nuclear war therefore manifests in their perspective on the charred crickets amid the wreckage of the leaves. Their perspective indicates that paranoia can infect the daily interactions of regular citizens who must live amid tense geopolitical situations.

“‘According to Nietzsche,’ Paula’s father replies, ‘In reality, hope is the worst of all evils, because it prolongs man’s torments.’”

Mr. McGovern’s quotation of Nietzsche carries a deep irony, for in this case, hope ultimately allows the inhabitants to escape the confines of the fallout shelter. Specifically, the enduring hope of Scott’s father allows him to persist in his attempts to escape even when the others have given up. Although Mr. McGovern dismisses the concept of hope in this passage, he nonetheless owes his life to its existence.

“Dad watches Mrs. Shaw caress and soothe her husband. He turns his gaze to Janet hugging Sparky. Then he looks at Mom, lying on her bunk with that blank expression, not the slightest bit aware of what just happened.”

All of the families in the shelter have lost someone significant during the nuclear attack. However, Scott’s father is in a unique situation, because he must care for his injured and disabled wife even as he attempts to lead the group of neighbors to safety, and these heavy responsibilities take an immense toll on his psychological health.

“I tried his closet next. Here amid the hanging suits and slacks, the scent of feet and leather filled my nostrils. Two shelves held shoes, each pair kept in its proper shape by wooden shoe trees. A small chest of drawers contained Dad’s wool socks, tennis clothes, and sweatshirts. I slid my hands under the contents. Nothing. So Ronnie was wrong. Not every father hid Playboy in his dresser drawers.”

Although Ronnie likes to claim that Scott is the strange one, Ronnie’s own behaviors and lack of respect indicate that his home life is rather strained. This impression is strengthened by his insistence that all fathers must be hiding something from their families. Although the issue is never explicitly examined, the narrative nonetheless suggests that Ronnie’s fixation on women as sex objects may stem from the dynamics between his parents.