Our Missing Hearts

Our Missing Hearts is part of the subgenre of fiction called dystopian literature. This subgenre comprises speculative literature that tells stories of a dark future; it can also take on the subgenre norms of mystery and science fiction. Dystopian literature has long been a fixation of readers because it exposes the darker sides of humanity—to highlight the danger people are to their world, society, each other, and themselves. In Our Missing Hearts, a law called PACT (“Preserving American Culture and Traditions”) dictates what is and isn’t “American”—no matter the human cost.

Celeste Ng’s earlier novel, Little Fires Everywhere (2017), also exposes the ways in which humans mistreat each other—with a town divided on the extent to which racial mixing affects babies and their reputation. As a microcosm of larger society, the town is representative of the fragile veneer of courtesy (i.e., veiled racism). While not exactly a dystopian novel, Little Fires Everywhere explores how elements of chaos often lay dormant within the fabric of society. Likewise, Our Missing Hearts deals with both overt and subtle racism—often disguised as nationalism.

The Hunger Games (2008) by Suzanne Collins is a wildly popular book and trilogy that was adapted into an equally popular film franchise (starting in 2012). In The Hunger Games, society is divided into economic castes that must sacrifice young people to participate in the titular Hunger Games. These games are meant to entertain the upper class, but are in themselves a brutal fight for survival meant to punish those who attempted rebellion decades ago. The novel highlights the disparity between oppressors and the oppressed, as well as the blurry line between fiction and reality. Similarly, Our Missing Hearts emphasizes that oppression is only possible because certain members of society get to do the oppressing, highlighting an inherent injustice. It also explores the line between fiction and reality because so many Americans are willfully blind to the horrors of PACT (because these horrors don’t affect them personally).

Fahrenheit 451 (1953) by Ray Bradbury is a futuristic novel that tells the story of a society that has banned books. Citizens are monitored for any sign of reading, because like Our Missing Hearts, Fahrenheit 451 explores the danger of ideas for those who seek to control a populace. Reading is an interpretive action and therefore cannot be controlled; furthermore, the way to get rid of ideas is to get rid of books. Fahrenheit 451 includes an underground organization that seeks to save ideas and books, while Our Missing Hearts’s own movement comprises librarians who document separated families with a history of protest against PACT (in other words, people who seek to form their own ideas and think for themselves).

1984 (1949) by George Orwell is another classic example of dystopian literature. Orwell’s dystopian society is oppressed by the Thought Police, a punitive organization that monitors the thoughts of citizens. Any thought against the dictator of the society is met with harsh punishment; the novel’s threat against humanity is obedience without critical thinking. Orwell foresaw the rise of monitoring, as it is a norm in contemporary societies; people’s movements are monitored through security cameras and the internet. In Our Missing Hearts, Ng frames the internet as a way in which the government can trace those seeking ideas—making freedom of thought an implied crime.

Like the dystopian novels that came before Our Missing Hearts, Ng writes heroes and villains while revealing societal oppression as the true antagonist.