The Space Between Worlds

The starkly contrasting settings of Wiley City and Ashtown function as the novel’s central symbol, representing the violent realities of systemic inequality, class division, and racial segregation. Wiley City is a walled, sterile metropolis of immense wealth and privilege, a place that has “vaccinated most viral illness into extinction” (5). By contrast, Ashtown is a polluted wasteland that is populated by the disenfranchised groups whose poverty makes them ideal, expendable candidates for traversing. The physical wall separating the elite from the marginalized symbolizes the seemingly impassable social and economic barriers that define their world.

This harsh division fuels the novel’s broader critique of how systems of power exploit marginalized communities, for Wiley City’s prosperity is literally built upon the high mortality rates of Ashtown’s citizens. Cara exists in the liminal space between these two worlds, inhabiting a uniquely precarious position as she finds it impossible to “hover in between without being torn apart” (14). This constant tension defines her internal conflict and drives her search for belonging, but ultimately, the symbolic opposition of the two cities suggests that true belonging can only be found by integrating the disparate parts of Cara’s identity, which were forged in these opposing worlds.