The Compound
49 pages • 1-hour read
Aisling RawleThe Compound
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Symbols & Motifs
Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of animal death, graphic violence, racism, gender discrimination, and anti-gay bias.
The Pond
The pond at the back of the compound is a motif related to the novel’s thematic interest in The Insidious Nature of Reality Television. The changing state of the pond reflects the residents’ lack of control and foreshadows their descent into violence. When Lily and the other residents arrive, the pond is “beautiful” with “sweet smelling flowers growing toward the water” and a vibrant community of fish swimming like “glints of orange and gold flashing beneath the water” (59). The pond is a place of refuge for the residents, and Lily has personal conversations with Ryan and Sam there. However, the pond soon changes in accordance with the producers’ whims. When the producers are frustrated with the residents and decide to turn off the water, they drain the pond entirely. Lily is disturbed to find that “the fish that had lived there lay on the muddy ground, like nuggets of gold” (212). When the residents complete a task and banish Becca in exchange for water, the producers reward them by rehabilitating the pond so that it “[is] full, and new fish [swim] happily in its depths” (249). Such episodes demonstrate the producer’s complete control over the residents and their environment, underscoring the show’s twisted power dynamics.
The ducks who live in the pond foreshadow the violence that the show encourages and that the residents eventually enact. When the residents arrive, the ducks in the pond are peaceful, “swimming idly back and forth” (59). However, when the contestants run out of food, Sam and Ryan work together to trap the ducks using barbed wire and kill them for food. Lily notices that “the more ducks that died, the more violent the others became, tearing their wings against the barbed wire” (93) in their attempt to avoid death. The duck’s frantic reaction to violence foreshadows the end of the show, as the remaining residents resort to increasing violence to be the last one standing.
Bushfires
Bushfires burning in the desert surrounding the compound are a recurring motif related to the theme of The Threat of Climate Change. When she first arrives at the compound, Lily sees a bright spot of red on the horizon and asks if there is “some red plant growing there” (83), only to learn that there are bushfires. Lily’s ignorance of this threat reflects popular ignorance of the threat of extreme environmental events caused by climate change. Similarly, even those who recognize the threat downplay its importance: Although Carlos acknowledges that the fires “might have been burning for hours, or even days” (83), he assures Lily that “they won’t reach [the compound]” (83). However, the bushfires remain a threatening presence throughout Lily’s time on the compound, “burning in the distance, raging and writhing, miles away […] but moving closer, inch by inch” (143), implying that neither the compound nor the world at large is as safe as people assume.
Ultimately, the bushfires do not reach the compound, though ash reaches the perimeter. However, the extreme heat and drought that allows the bushfires to spread also exacerbates a smaller fire that producers intentionally set on the compound. Lily explains that producers “had only meant to set the shed ablaze, but the grass was so dry and caught fire quickly, spreading faster than [she] had thought possible” (181). Lily explicitly connects the aftermath of this fire to the bushfires, calling it “a thousand times worse than what had been blown over from the bushfires” (182). This rhetorical association of the producers’ fire with the bushfire suggests that, even in the compound, it is impossible to escape the threat of climate change.
The Show
The unnamed show at the center of The Compound acts as a symbol of the dominant ideologies of Lily’s world—particularly capitalism, but also a number of ideologies intertwined with it, including white supremacy, patriarchy, and heteronormativity.
The show mirrors capitalist society in a number of ways. It operates on principles of wage labor and artificial scarcity: Residents of the compound earn rewards, from food and medical supplies to luxury items, by completing tasks individually and as a group. Although Lily feels that these tasks are easier than the hours she’d have to work to afford similar goods in the outside world, the novel still frames this as work. In the compound, as on the outside, Lily can only obtain the things she wants by working at the whim of outside forces who determine the type and value of the work. Her desire for consumer products, exploited by the show’s producers, likewise contributes to the novel’s critique of capitalism by exploring The Perpetuation of Capitalism Through Materialism.
The show also enforces several ideologies that reinforce capitalism. For example, the rules of the show force residents to couple up with a resident “of the opposite sex” (24), which dictates most of Lily’s interactions. Because “there [is] no safety to be won from being in a same-sex couple” (123), Lily does not pursue her attraction to Candice. Instead, she finds herself “constantly considering how [she] look[s], measuring the way [the men] look[] at [the women], calculating their intentions, their shifting levels of desire and interest” (99). Collectively, Lily’s rejection of a female partner and fixation on her desirability to men suggest how patriarchy and heteronormativity structure gender roles and romantic relationships. The novel further implies that these ideologies operate in tandem with capitalism—for instance, by commodifying women’s bodies and by encouraging reproduction.
Lastly, the experiences of characters like Jacintha reveal the show’s investment in white supremacy. As the only Black woman on the show, Jacintha occupies a marginalized position from the start: She is worried, for example, that white men will not want to partner with her. When the residents begin receiving personal rewards, Jacintha’s marginalization becomes clearer, as she rarely receives what she asks for, particularly when her requests are in some way tied to her racial identity (such as products for natural hair). This intertwining of racism with the show’s “economy” evokes the way capitalism both profits from and reinforces racial hierarchies.
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