West (short story)

Last updated
"West"
Author Orson Scott Card
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Published inFree Lancers: Alien Stars IV
Publisher Baen books
Media typePrint (Paperback)
Publication date 1987
Cover of the short story collection Free Lancers: Alien Stars IV. OSCfreelancers.jpg
Cover of the short story collection Free Lancers: Alien Stars IV.

"West" is a short story by American writer Orson Scott Card, originally published in his short story collection The Folk of the Fringe . Card previously published a shorter version of this story in the collection Free Lancers: Alien Stars IV (1987).

Orson Scott Card American science fiction novelist

Orson Scott Card is an American novelist, critic, public speaker, essayist, and columnist. He writes in several genres but is known best for science fiction. His novel Ender's Game (1985) and its sequel, Speaker for the Dead (1986), both won Hugo and Nebula Awards, making Card the only author to win the two top American prizes in science fiction literature in consecutive years. A feature film adaptation of Ender's Game, which Card co-produced, was released in 2013. But Card has written many more novels and series since 1979, including the Locus Fantasy Award-winning series, The Tales of Alvin Maker.

<i>The Folk of the Fringe</i> book by Orson Scott Card

The Folk of the Fringe (1989) is a collection of post-apocalyptic stories by American writer Orson Scott Card. These stories are set sometime in the near future, when World War III has left America in ruins. The stories are about how a few groups of Mormons struggle to survive. Although all of these stories in this book were meant to stand alone, they each include at least one character from one of the other stories which helps to make them a cohesive collection.

Contents

Plot summary

In a post-apocalyptic America, Jamie Teague is traveling from the east coast to his home in the Great Smoky Mountains. Along the way, he comes across a group of people traveling on the highway and headed straight for a group of Bushwhackers that kills anyone who tries to pass. After warning them, Jamie starts to follow them and, when the Winston highway patrol refuses to let them take an alternate route, he decides to help them get past the Bushwhackers. As they travel together, Jamie finds out that the people are Mormons and that they are headed for Utah to avoid being massacred. Knowing that they will die without his help, he agrees to take them as far as his cabin. He also agrees to let them stay with him during the winter. In the spring, Jamie tells the group about how when he was a child his mother made him keep his younger brother and sister locked in a closet until they went insane. After making this confession, Jamie gets baptized as a Mormon and decides to lead the group to Utah. When they finally arrive in Utah, they all settle down into their own homes but remain close friends.

Apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic fiction sub-genre of science fiction taking place after the end of human civilization

Apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic fiction is a subgenre of science fiction, science fantasy or horror in which the Earth's technological civilization is collapsing or has collapsed. The apocalypse event may be climatic, such as runaway climate change; natural, such as an impact event; man-made, such as nuclear holocaust or resource depletion; medical, such as a pandemic, whether natural or man-made; eschatological, such as the Last Judgment, Second Coming or Ragnarök; or imaginative, such as a zombie apocalypse, cybernetic revolt, technological singularity, dysgenics or alien invasion. The story may involve attempts to prevent an apocalypse event, deal with the impact and consequences of the event itself, or it may be post-apocalyptic, set after the event. The time frame may be immediately after the catastrophe, focusing on the travails or psychology of survivors, the way to maintain the human race alive and together as one, or considerably later, often including the theme that the existence of pre-catastrophe civilization has been forgotten. Post-apocalyptic stories often take place in a non-technological future world or a world where only scattered elements of society and technology remain.

Great Smoky Mountains American mountain range along North Carolina/Tennessee border

The Great Smoky Mountains are a mountain range rising along the Tennessee–North Carolina border in the southeastern United States. They are a subrange of the Appalachian Mountains, and form part of the Blue Ridge Physiographic Province. The range is sometimes called the Smoky Mountains and the name is commonly shortened to the Smokies. The Great Smokies are best known as the home of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, which protects most of the range. The park was established in 1934, and, with over 11 million visits per year, it is the most visited national park in the United States.

Bushwhacker

Bushwhacking was a form of guerrilla warfare common during the American Revolutionary War, American Civil War and other conflicts in which there were large areas of contested land and few governmental resources to control these tracts. This was particularly prevalent in rural areas during the Civil War where there were sharp divisions between those favoring the Union and Confederacy in the conflict. The perpetrators of the attacks were called bushwhackers. The term "bushwhacking" is still in use today to describe ambushes done with the aim of attrition.

During the trip from Jamie Teague’s home in the Great Smoky Mountains to Utah, the group finds a little mute boy whose parents had been killed by mobbers. They take him along with them and he is placed in foster care when they reach Utah. The short story "Salvage" by Orson Scott Card takes place about fifteen years after the events in "West". The little mute boy has grown up and been named Deaver Teague after Jamie Teague and Brother Deaver. In this story, Deaver is a young man who goes diving in a Mormon temple to try to find hidden gold. Deaver is also the main character of the story "Pageant Wagon". It takes place when he is in his late twenties and is the story of how he meets up with and joins a group of traveling actors. At the end of "West", Deaver Teague and his group meet with Sam Monson, the governor of Deseret. In the story "America", Sam met and had a baby with an American Indian woman when he was a teenager.

Muteness or mutism is an inability to speak, often caused by a speech disorder or surgery. Someone who is mute may be so due to the unwillingness to speak in certain social situations.

Foster care system in which a minor has been placed into a ward, group home, or private home of a state-certified caregiver, referred to as a "foster parent"

Foster care is a system in which a minor has been placed into a ward, group home, or private home of a state-certified caregiver, referred to as a "foster parent" or with a family member approved by the state. The placement of the child is normally arranged through the government or a social service agency. The institution, group home or foster parent is compensated for expenses unless with a family member.

"Salvage" is a short story by American writer Orson Scott Card, originally published in the February 1986 issue of Asimov's Science Fiction magazine. It appears in Card's short story collection The Folk of the Fringe and was also reprinted in the anthology Wastelands: Stories of the Apocalypse.

Influences

As with many of Card's other literature, a Christian/Mormon influence is present in this story.

Christianity is an Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth, as described in the New Testament. Its adherents, known as Christians, believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and savior of all people, whose coming as the Messiah was prophesied in the Old Testament.

See also

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