Freedom

Over the course of the collection, the author explores notions regarding freedom and liberty in the short stories “Liberation Day,” “Ghoul,” and “Elliott Spencer.” In order to nuance his explorations regarding this theme, the author employs a range of narrative points of view, structures, and forms. These formal decisions are always in service of the pieces’ central conflicts, and in these stories, enact the author’s thematic considerations. In both “Liberation Day” and “Elliott Spencer,” for example, the main characters and first person narrators Jeremy and Elliott, are prisoners of their respective dystopian organizations. Both Jeremy and Elliott have had their memories wiped at the behest of their supervisors, individuals who are using them as parts of a human, social experiment. Although the characters are being victimized and oppressed, they are unable to understand the true nature of their entrapment. For example, in “Liberation Day,” when...