The final chapters demonstrate how class inequalities are upheld by cultural inculcation, violent force, and city planning. Avis remarks on how these systems create and reinforce a culture and mindset that legitimize the labor castes and the ruthlessness of the capitalist system. Members of the Oligarchy take positions in the fields of the Church, science, and literature to indoctrinate citizens and secure their authority in future generations. Avis claims, “[I]n those fields they served the important function of moulding the thought-processes of the nation in the direction of the perpetuity of the Oligarchy. They were taught, and later they in turn taught, that what they were doing was right” (299). Her indictment references the ways that the Oligarchy uses education and culture to regulate and anchor the ideologies of the ruling class. Avis refers to these methods as parts of the “governmental machine” that manufactures dogmas into truths and normality (297). Countering this mindset requires an awareness of how these processes work and invokes the theme of Class Consciousness as a Path to Solidarity and Revolution.

Avis demonstrates the effectiveness of the Oligarchy’s governmental machine in the assimilation of the Mercenaries. The Mercenaries, who were former investigators turned soldiers, quickly adopted the established order’s hierarchies for the right price. Avis claims, “They were losing all touch and sympathy with the rest of the people, and, in fact, were developing their own class morality and consciousness” (298). The concept of class consciousness in Marxian terms describes the idea that the proletariat will become aware of their exploited rank in society. London uses the term to describe the class consciousness of the ruling class and its aspirants, whose sense of superiority and goal of social ascent is reflected in the city’s infrastructure and urban planning. Levies displace the working class from their homes, and the displaced are then conscripted to construct lavish buildings in the bigger cities of the wealthy. The Mercenaries live outside the law in their own privileged, self-governed cities to secure their cooperation and contentment. Avis describes, “When unusual needs arose for [the Oligarchy], such as the building of the great highways and airlines, of canals, tunnels, subways, and fortifications, levies were made on the labor-ghettos, and tens of thousands of serfs, willy-nilly, were transported to the scene of operations” (303). Avis addresses both the seen and unseen ways that capitalism informs the ideological and physical structures of society to perpetuate class disparity. In the callous world of capitalist logic, the suffering of others is not only ignored but also exploited. 

Avis delves further into the mindset of the ruling class and criticizes the nature of capitalist ethics and the role of self-righteousness in the Oligarchy and its supporters. Children are taught to fear those who have little to nothing as threats to their own comfort, stability, and safety. Rather than establish empathy on a humanist level, the Oligarchy operates on division and an “us versus them” mentality. Avis contends that these individuals believe that they are doing what is good and right and envision themselves as “saviors” who protect civilization from the lower-class “beasts” (299), further emphasizing the theme of Capitalism as a Dehumanizing System. At the same time, Avis offers a complex analysis of politics and ethics and acknowledges that a sense of rightness is a source of great strength for both parties. She compares the Oligarchy’s righteousness with that of the Revolution’s with the distinction that the revolutionists are willing to die for their convictions, whereas the Oligarchy is willing to kill. 

The novel’s climax emphasizes the violence and alienation of a society under the Oligarchy’s rule. The Chicago Commune, which has been foreshadowed throughout the novel as a bloodbath, finally appears in its own chapter. The setting of Chicago reflects the city’s historical significance as a site of labor union activities and upheavals, such as the Haymarket Affair, the Pullman Strike, and the formation of the Chicago Labor Union in the late 19th century. At this point, readers know that the First Revolt will end in violence and failure for the revolutionists, further building the suspense and horror of the event that culminates in a dystopian massacre. Of significance is Avis’s observation that the two warring factions have become indistinguishable. Her comrade Garthwaite remarks, “Friend and foe are all mixed up. It's chaos. You can't tell who is in those darned buildings” (341). Likewise, Avis catches the gaze of a wounded proletariat and admits that she is alienated from the people she is fighting for. She proclaims, “He saw me, but there was no kinship between us, and with him, at least, no sympathy of understanding” (344). The man does not recognize Avis as an ally and feels no sense that they share a cause. His gaze is that of an individual without agency. The novel ends with the failure of the Revolution, and as Meredith states in the Foreword, the event is but one of many failed revolts in the coming centuries to end in bloodshed. Avis’s encounter with the wounded man suggests that true revolution occurs when the world can see from the eyes of the proletariat.