A chunk, of something, chunky peanut butter, a chunky person; the word chunk can be used in many a’ context. Comfortably, the word “chunky” in Lucifer’s Hammer is usually referenced in terms to the comet, Hamner-Brown, or some damage that has occurred in the storyline due to this comet hitting the earth. Comets are massive objects, so chunky could obviously be a good description of what a comet would, could possibly feel like. Sharps says, “They’ll be embedded in the frozen gases and water ice. It would all hit as several solid masses. Not as a lot of little chunks” (85). He says this when explaining the possible trajectory of the comet and what its effects could be on the planet. The comet is also later described as having “mountainous chunks” that would be volatile if they came in contact with earth (186).
The damage that is caused by the degradation of the comet is also many times referenced to be “chunky”. “A chunk with part of a bay window in it had dropped through the passenger section of Hamner’s car” (235). Here we see the degradation of housing, and structure from the effects of the chunky comet. It’s almost as if the reader can automatically assume that when they read the word “chunky” in any portion of the novel, that they can either already tell that it’s describing the content and structure of the comet, or that somehow danger is looming just around the corner for one of the ill-fated characters—if it isn’t at their feet at the time! Later again, the word “chunky’ is used to describe the destructive degrading force of Mother Nature to describe mud that is beginning to cover a bridge (351).
For the most part the word follows its normal association pattern, in one instance the word is used to describe meat, as Harvey pulls the chunky piece of food from out of his bag (415). This is an instance when the word “chunky” is used to describe the size and not the texture; thus perpetuating the theory that the word “chunky” is only used when describing the actions, or rather reactions, of Earth to the comet striking or to the actual texture of the comet itself.
Therefore, justly, the themes that are co-represented with this word are destruction, degradation, chaos, the ending of the world, loss of the old. Every moment in the novel that uses the word “chunky’ follows with someone either dying or grave chaos ensuing, a comet nearing its impending target, or the disastrous force of nature.