Sleep

In the novel, sleep symbolizes cultural and technological desolation. The novel’s title refers to the fact that, before the creation of electric lighting, people would sleep in two four-hour blocks of time each night. On a more metaphorical level, the title refers to the fact that the characters are living in a second medieval age, where the apocalypse has sent human culture and technology (and sleep patterns) back centuries.

Technology

Modern-day technology (which the characters refer to as pre-apocalyptic technology) symbolizes the significance of human advancements because of the apocalyptic event(s) and the Church’s subsequent suppression of human knowledge, this pre-apocalyptic technology is far more advanced than the technology of the characters’ current society. Thus, the novel urges the character not to take human knowledge and technology for granted.

Apocalypse

The mysterious apocalypse in the novel symbolizes the disastrous effects of unpreparedness. In...