 Miller also used the adaptation process to add a significant layer of complexity to the story . Walker Percy recognized this dimension of the novel , which he compared to a " cipher , a coded message , a book in a strange language . " David Seed deemed the novel " charged with half @-@ concealed meaning , " an intricacy that seems to have been added as Miller was revising the stories for publication as a novel . Decoding messages such as this is an important activity in Miller 's works , both in A Canticle for Leibowitz and his short stories . For example , in the original version of " Fiat Homo " Miller limits his " wordplay " to an explicit symbolism involving the letter " V " and Brother Francis 's " Voice / Vocation " during Francis 's encounter with the wandering pilgrim . In the novel , however , " Miller reserves such symbolistic cross @-@ references to the more intellectual analysts and builds a comedy of incomprehension around Francis . " 
