52 pages • 1 hour read
George SaundersLiberation Day: Stories
Fiction | Short Story Collection | Adult | Published in 2022A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Symbols & Motifs
Brainwashing
Content Warning: The source text and this study guide discuss oppression, mental and physical control, wartime violence, addiction, suicide, and sexual abuse.
Brainwashing technology is a key motif in the collection, in stories including “Liberation Day” and “Elliot Spencer.” In both stories, oppressed groups—who are made up of formerly impoverished and vulnerable people—undergo brainwashing procedures which scrape their entire memories. These characters are then impressionable tools which can be easily manipulated by powerful groups; in both “Liberation Day” and “Elliot Spencer,” however, brainwashed characters have moments of recollection of their past lives, which lead them to rebel against their oppressors. In other stories, such as “Ghoul,” a form of brainwashing occurs when manipulative regimes are able to spread falsehoods to citizens over the courses of their entire lives, thereby feeding them a completely warped idea of society and their roles within it. In all of the stories in which brainwashing or brainwashing technology appear, the victims have brief instances of mental autonomy in which they suddenly understand that they are being damaged by a self-serving power or group. These flashes of remembrance or understanding point to theme of Oppression and Control throughout the entire collection, in that the brainwashed characters are able to use mental wherewithal and flashes of personal autonomy to understand the web of oppression that implicates them and, in some cases, to formulate rebellions or escape plans.
Because Saunders’s work is dystopian and satirical in nature, his repeated use of brainwashing technology throughout the text points to his visions of what a technological (and oppressive) society might be able to do in an imagined future. Certain elements of the brainwashing technology strike closely to contemporary American society; in “Elliot Spencer,” for example, Saunders portrays a violent mob governed by singular ideas which their proponents do not fully understand or support. In this sense, Saunders combines contemporary concerns within American society—media echo chambers, manipulative political messaging, violent protest, and movements underscored by violent ideas—with non-existent brainwashing technology to create a terrifying image of a future society. As is the tradition in dystopian literature, Saunders combines hyperbolized, unprecedented circumstances with current realities to articulate a possible, if improbable, future.
Speaking Wall
In “Liberation Day,” the speaking wall is a symbol of the system of enslavement and oppression to which Jeremy and his colleagues are forced to conform. The speaking wall is a large physical structure that is integral to Mr. Untermeyer’s ability to manipulate his Speakers. The Speakers are rarely permitted to leave the Speaking Wall; they are forced into various positions upon the wall, at different heights and angles, which subscribe to whatever aesthetic Mr. U hopes to portray through their performance. At one point, Jeremy thinks about his future life, always strapped to the Speaking Wall, if his love interest Mrs. U and her husband were to reconcile: “I imagine the lonely nights to come, should they reconcile, as I hang bereft on the Speaking Wall, hearing their laughter…” (39). In this quote, the Untermeyers are able to enjoy their lives through autonomous decision making, which realizes itself in joy and emotion. For Jeremy, however, life occurs entirely on the Speaking Wall. The Wall symbolizes not only Jeremy’s enslavement but also the nature of Mr. U’s manipulation: Mr. U uses Jeremy and the other Speakers as ornaments of entertainment for his wealthy peers, which is why he repositions them in frivolous places on the wall despite possible discomfort or claustrophobia. The Speakers and, eventually, the Singers live their entire lives confined to the wall—a symbolic structure of imprisonment and physical oppression.
“Egress Spout”
In “Ghoul,” the Egress Spout is both a linguistic proper noun within the underground society’s common language and a symbol that represents the nature of the ongoing government control within that society, For Brian and his peers, the Egress Spout is the long tunnel between their world and the Above world. Within the underground society, general knowledge posits that there is an Above world (which can be assumed, from Saunders’s descriptions, to be the real, contemporary world), from which visitors will one day descend to see the performances of those below ground. This empty promise has governed the work of those below for as long as Brian, the narrator, can recall. About midway through the story, however, it is revealed that the Egress Spout does not lead into the Above world but rather that it is closed off with cement, which uncovers the reality that there were never going to be visitors into the underground society.
The Egress Spout, then, symbolizes widespread social manipulation, and it represents just how entrenched the government’s lies about the social and geographic structures of the underground society are. Because the government uses the Egress Spout as a symbol of hope for a future in which the Above world descends and makes all of the underground citizens’ efforts worthwhile, it is a key tool within their widespread manipulation tactics. Because very few people go up the Egress Spout, the visual unknowns about the Above world, and the underground society’s connection to it, offer citizens the hope of eventual connection. Without this hope, as the oppressive government realizes, their citizens would question the purpose of their perpetual, useless tasks and performances. The symbolism of the Egress Spout is further entrenched when two figures climb up it and realize the truth about the lies behind the structure; the Spout, then, becomes the key tool to Brian’s planned resistance, in which he intends to spread the truth about the Egress Spout and spark realizations within his community.
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