Capitalism

Throughout the narrative, Etter thematically examines late capitalism. Toward the outset of the novel, the narrator tells the reader that San Francisco is full of Believers who are meant to be there. However, she moved to the tech city “in an attempt to heave [herself] up out of [a] dying town, out of in-state college, out of [a] lower-class past and into the upper strata of wealth” (7). She is “surrounded by all of the signs of money crushing the life out of a place: the rich live inside tall town homes, the poor live in faded dirty tents if they are lucky” (6). The author includes this moment in order to illustrate the wealth gap created in a capitalistic society. While capitalism promotes equal opportunity and financial mobility, it creates a classist society in which the rich profit and the poor struggle to survive. Etter suggests that...