After losing all of her immediate family to a mysterious illness, Rye is left alone in a world of violence and chaos. From the beginning of the story, she leads an isolated existence, unable to communicate with those around her. Though she spends all of her time fighting for her life, she finds little value in it, plagued by a sense of purposelessness and loneliness. However, Rye finds solace in her relationships with Obsidian and the children she meets at the end of the story. Butler contrasts isolation and despondency with the hope found in partnerships, suggesting that the best way to protect oneself is to live for and alongside others.
Throughout the story, it’s clear that isolation makes Rye vulnerable and miserable, which compromises her safety. This is immediately apparent when she describes taking a dangerous journey from Los Angeles to Pasadena simply because she’s lonely and wants to see if she has surviving relatives. Her loneliness, in other words, makes her take a wild risk in traveling by bus alongside violent strangers towards relatives who might not even be alive. However, Rye’s isolation would still be a danger if she remained at home. The foremost risk is suicide, which Rye admits that she has come close to doing because she finds nothing in her lonely life worth living for. Furthermore, since she has no one to protect her from the violence all around her, being alone at home leaves her vulnerable to the whims and predations of dangerous people, such as her sinister neighbor who seems to want to abduct her, or the men on the sidewalk who gesture crudely at her, making her realize that if one of them raped her, the others would be more likely to watch than intervene. Without any family or friends, Rye is all alone in combating the dangers of the world.
Rye’s partnership with Obsidian, however, alleviates this isolation, making Rye safer and more emotionally fulfilled. After Rye and Obsidian have sex, she is eager to do it again, realizing that “he could give her forgetfulness and pleasure. Until now, nothing had been able to do that.” Obsidian is able to distract Rye from the tragedy around her, helping her to forget, at least for a moment, all the loved ones she has lost. This allows her to feel comfort and joy again for the first time since the illness, and she immediately feels that she no longer wants to die. Being with Obsidian also means that she has a measure of protection from others. Throughout the story, Rye has never once relaxed; she is constantly on alert for imminent danger, remaining skeptical of everyone around her. Once she and Obsidian establish a partnership, though, she allows him to drive while she leans back in her seat and rests her head on his shoulder, showing that she no longer feels afraid of imminent danger. Being with Obsidian finally gives her the “comfort and security” she was unable to achieve on her own.
Related Themes from Other Texts
Self-Preservation, Protection, and Partnership ThemeTracker
Self-Preservation, Protection, and Partnership Quotes in Speech Sounds
The illness, if it was an illness, had cut even the living off from one another. As it swept over the country, people hardly had time to lay blame on the Soviets (though they were falling silent along with the rest of the world), on a new virus, a new pollutant, radiation, divine retribution... The illness was stroke-swift in the way it cut people down and stroke-like in some of its effects. But it was highly specific.
She nodded and watched his milder envy come and go. Now both had admitted what it was not safe to admit, and there had been no violence. He tapped his mouth and forehead and shook his head. He did not speak or comprehend spoken language. The illness had played with them, taking away, she suspected, what each valued most.
Obsidian had been the protector, had chosen that role for who knew what reason. Perhaps putting on an obsolete uniform and patrolling the empty streets had been what he did instead of putting a gun into his mouth. And now that there was something worth protecting, he was gone.
