The Dome (symbol)
Someone can use an opportunity to use the barrier as a part of the power game to capture the city, to get rid of the dome, on which all inhabitants are dependent. However, in fact this dome symbolizes dependence and even partly death. It is like a terrible nightmare, from which it is not possible to get out. The dome controls life of all people, who are inside it. At the end of the book, this barrier begins to destroy destinies of many people. Only strong-willed people oppose this huge bubble.
Air (symbol)
All the characters of this novel realize the value of life, when all oxygen is burned under the dome and they have practically nothing to breathe. They realize that only air can save them. Air is a symbol of life. Moreover, all inhabitants of Chester’s Mill do everything possible to breathe air in order to live.
Isolation, Struggle for life (motifs)
What can be worse than being isolated from the outside world and knowing that you can die at any moment? There are people with different reputations under the dome: murderers, fanatics, drug addicts, alcoholics, rapists, moral freaks, dirty cops and politicians. However, there are those, who resist evil and simply survive in this hell. The dome destroys life, takes away dreams and goals, which inhabitants try to achieve. Closed space, an insane crowd, which will believe in anything (and do anything), a thirst for power in any way and many secrets are hidden in this small and at first innocent town. All the same, the inhabitants have one goal - to survive.
