Earth Abides

Ish’s hammer appears in the very first scene, and he carries it faithfully until his death. Both a utilitarian tool and a totem of mysterious power, the hammer takes on greater significance than Ish could imagine. After he recovers from his snakebite, he carries the hammer with him almost as a security blanket, as “[t]he familiar weight of the dangling four-pound head brought him comfort” (190). He uses it to break into shops for a newspaper or, later, for food. It becomes an unconscious extension of his body at times. He carries it even when he has no use for it. The handle is cracked, and stores are full of new hammers, but Ish keeps the old one due to his own personal superstition.

When the Tribe begins marking time by carving the year in the flat rock, the hammer takes on a ritualistic significance, a signifier of history. Its importance swells to mythic proportions when the children see him carrying it into the classroom. As the conveyer of wisdom, Ish is regarded as a god and the hammer as his divine tool, like the hammers of Thor or Vulcan. It symbolizes not only the Old Times but a remnant of past civilization.