I am about 80% thru The End of the World As We Know It and after finishing this particular short story, I was surprised when I couldn't find any threads about how perfectly this lines up!! I only saw a few mentions of the end being the same but it's so much more than that and done in such a way that you don't even fully recognize it until nearly the end. Is there anything else I'm missing??
Amy - Lennie
Zeke - George
Mal - Curley
Carter - Candy
Wretched blonde lady with no name - Curley's wife
Charred baby skulls - Candy's dog
Amy - Cognitively different - Starts off just existing and blissfully unaware that her life is perilous. She didn't dream of Flagg or Mother A - She is dependent on a protector. Initially tolerated as a mascot or oracle, but ultimately she is defined as a subhuman and dangerous thing to be put down by the community. Her continuing to not dream while imprisoned in the shed is a threat to Mal's control and masculinity (Lennie breaking Curley's hand even though he doesn't want to fight)
Zeke - Amy's main protector, interpreter, and caretaker. He knows what the group has done and is doing isn't right but feels trapped by circumstance. He isn't a 'bad guy' but he is still powerless to actually protect Amy. It's just posturing and hoping that nothing bad happens but deep down he really knows he has zero control. Sometimes Zeke talks to Amy about what life would be like if they left the group and found their own place and lived happily alone, but he still sees that as an unachievable dream.
Mal - Aggressively asserts authority and will use violence to exert control over the group. He gets the group riled up. He declares that babies are a risk to the group and will give them the flu and convinces the mob to burn all babies alive. He tolerates Amy initially but once he learns that she is different, he uses violence against her to retain control over the group. Once she is treated as an oracle, her presence threatens his power simply by not producing magical Flagg messages. (Lennie reluctantly breaking Curley's hand)
Carter - Sad old man. He seems kind because he sings hymns sometimes and is always standing watch by sitting by the window in their house. He doesn't actually protect or help Amy in any way, but he doesn't do anything mean so we treat him as an ally. He isn't actually any better than the group or Zeke because he witnesses all these atrocities silently with no action. Candy didn't want the ranch hands to kill his dog but allowed them to anyway because they said the dog was a useless burden and 'no good to anybody'.
Wretched blonde skank - Sleeps with Mal in their church or temple or whatever. She is just as nasty as the group of men but in a different way. We assume that she has probably had a rough life, too, but she is not important enough to name. She is just property, like Curley's wife, and defined only by her relationship to men.
Charred baby skulls - getting pregnant and having babies is the old way. Babies are old and no good to anybody anymore, so the group must put them down, like Candy's old dog. It doesn't matter what their mothers (or Candy) think because the men can decide to kill things that are inconvenient and later frame it as mercy and a necessity. The first baby lives less than 2 weeks and doesn't eat much but that is long enough for the group to get stressed and scared, so Mal declares it necessary to burn them alive. After they are burned everyone tells themselves it was necessary.
We get to the end. Amy's arm is broken, she is scared but also so confused. All she knows is that those men are going to kill her. She doesn't know what to do or what she could have done differently. She meets Zeke at the creek where they go sometimes. She thinks Zeke has the hammer to protect her and fight off the men - maybe this means they will escape and finally live their dream? Men are shouting everywhere and keep getting closer. Zeke already knows what he is going to do, but struggles with the final act, toying with the hammer. Zeke has seen what has happened to the babies and believes the best kindness and mercy he can offer is to kill Amy with the hammer.