In the oppressive society of the novel, marginalized individuals in the Green, Purple, and Orange castes must often sacrifice their own sense of dignity in order to survive the whims of the privileged Blue caste. While some such concessions are mild, others require low-citizens to make deals that erode their personal principles and strain their existing loyalties. The most prominent version of this can be found in the pervasive system of Blue entourages, in which a Blue offers protection to specific low-citizens but often requires them to take on servile roles that would otherwise be relegated to the robotic “Pinkies” that handle the day-to-day practicalities of cooking, cleaning, and conducting administrative tasks. As the inexperienced Loredana quickly learns, surviving Grandmaster University often means aligning with one’s oppressors.

The inevitability of these compromises is emphasized when Loredana vows never to join a Blue’s entourage but then almost immediately reverses her stance when her desperate circumstances force her to seek out Edmund Prew’s protection. In this moment, she recalls her friend Harrison’s cynical advice, “Choose your hard” (47). Recognizing that there are no easy choices for low-citizens, he urges her to at least choose which difficult concession she will make. His philosophy suggests that in the oppressive atmosphere of the so-called Civilized World, a low-citizen’s only freedom is to choose which form of submission they can tolerate. Harrison’s warning that many low-citizens will betray friends and family for a “pat on the head from a Blue” further illustrates that the system itself incentivizes betrayal (43), turning the oppressed against one another as they scramble for favor from the powerful.

Loredana’s journey charts a more complex path, as her alliance with Edmund—the cousin of the man she was once forced to kill in self-defense—places her in a deeply precarious position despite her ignorance of the two men’s family connection. This debacle culminates in her most significant compromise when she accepts a deal with the Brasscoat Jerome Glass, further complicating her future at Grandmaster by splitting her loyalties in even more directions. While the full consequences of her decision aren’t addressed in this novel, the narrative suggests that her new role will lock her into a lifestyle of deception. To fulfill her part of the deal, she will be forced to feign loyalty to the Heretics and steer clear of all Blues, including Edmund. By becoming a spy, Loredana accepts the personal risks that come with morally ambiguous territory, sidelining the dictates of her heart. 

Ultimately, the novel portrays the low-citizens’ compromises as the inevitable toll for surviving the demands of a brutally unjust society. From Harrison’s servitude to Loredana’s espionage, each low-citizen takes calculated risks to survive in a world where ideals are a luxury that only a very few powerful members can afford to indulge. Given that the president himself surrenders his political clout by reversing the Bliss ban, the narrative suggests that in such a stratified society, even powerful individuals must sacrifice parts of their identity to preserve their lives.