The Cult of Masculinity
At the heart of the novel is what the author has termed “the cult of masculinity.” Throughout the narrative, women are dehumanized as an essential component of the agenda of this cult of madness. That agenda is forwarded and propaganda, as usual, throughout expressive use of metaphorical downgrading of that which is viewed as inferior: “Women are nothing, except an incarnate desire to please men; why should they fail in their nature that time more than any other?”
The Cult of Personality
The conceit of the novel is that the Third Reich was not defeated and has been in rule of the world for quite some time. What binds the believers together by this point is the veneration of Hitler into something far beyond merely a madman:
“The rebellion of disbelief. Your Empire is held together on the mind side of it by Hitlerism. If that goes, if people no longer believe Hitler is God, you have nothing left but armed force.”
Christianity
Hitler’s war might be seen a war against Judasim, but things have grown well beyond that. Christians are now equally dealt with in a metaphorical terms:
“Well, they’re not a race at all. They’re the remnants of a pre-Hitler civilised religion."
Dehumanized
Women are constantly portrayed as being in a state of dehumanization. The leftover effect of simple Nazi fascism has metastasized into something even more—hard as it may be to believe—abominable:
“They wailed like puppies, like kittens, with thin shrill cries and sobs. Nothing human. Of course women have no souls and therefore are not human, but, Hermann thought afterwards, when his boyish terror had given way to a senseless boyish fury, they might try to sound like humans.”
Simple Similes
Metaphorical figurative imagery is also used throughout, of course, for the simple purpose of conveying a larger conception of narrative description. The use of such language is not limited to thematic purposes and intent:
“It seemed as if the hangar was rushing at him with enormous speed and mouth wide open to devour him.”
