Summary
A man named Nelson fits Holston for his protective suit that will ensure he survives on earth's surface long enough to clean the camera lens. However, Holston knows from watching his wife's death that the entire suit will deteriorate after just a few moments. Though Holston sentenced many people to cleaning during his tenure as sheriff, Nelson insists on going over "the procedure" for cleaning with "cult-like intensity." He explains how to use wool scrubbers to clean the camera lens properly. Unlike most prisoners, Holston does not object; finally, he realizes he is ready to accept his death.
Nelson leaves the room, and the airlock chamber seals. As Holston imagines the space behind him incinerating for disinfection, fear finally sets in. He questions whether or not the surface is what Allison predicted or if he will be dead as soon as he finishes the cleaning. A warning signal cautions everyone but Holston to disperse, and the airlock fills with argon, veiling Holston's view.
When Holston reaches the surface, he is shocked and delighted to find that it is full of "green grass" and a sky "the exact hue of blue from the children's books." He also notices that the distant buildings are not "twisted and jagged" like on the screen, but a likely inhabited city.
Despite his resentment towards the silo, Holston follows the "press of history, of precedent, to obey" and diligently performs the cleaning with "raw pity and unconstrained joy." Though he imagines "there was no one left who loved him enough to watch" him perform the cleaning, he waves at the camera. His mind races with questions and new information as he scrubs the camera lenses. For example, he wonders how many people in the silo know the truth about the outside world and, if so, why they conceal it. He concludes that the "false" images on the screen are tools of control, preventing people from inciting another uprising.
Though Holston considers giving a signal to the "inside people," he ultimately "turn[s] his back on the people who had turned their backs on Allison." Knowing the truth about the outside world, he resents the silo and feels free to live on his own terms.
After he finishes the cleaning, Holston climbs the hill, excitedly searching for Allison. He begins to feel dizzy and experience stomach cramps—the beginning signs of asphyxiation. Holston concludes that the technicians, also deceived by the screen, only gave him enough oxygen to survive the cleaning. He searches for a rock to break open his helmet, as his protective suit "wasn't meant to come off, not without help." Losing his vision, he trips over a boulder.
Suddenly, Holston's visor goes blank, and he presumes he has gone blind with the effects of oxygen deprivation. At the last moment, he forces off his helmet and attempts to "suck in a deep, crisp, revitalizing lungful of blue air." However, as soon as Holston's eyes acclimate to the outside world, he sees it isn't verdant as he thought, but barren—just as the screen represents. Dying, he realizes that it is the helmet that manipulates his view of the outside, using the programs Allison discovered. Holston sees that the "boulder" he tripped over is actually Allison's decaying body. He holds her corpse and wonders what the people inside the silo see as they watch him.
Analysis
Just as he never questioned the silo's curated narrative before Allison, Holston does not question the reality he encounters outside. Because he is shocked and overwhelmed by the discovery that the earth is habitable—the truth he hoped for—he cannot think clearly or thoughtfully discern whether or not to clean the lenses. The text demonstrates Holston's overwhelmed state by presenting his internal dialogue in a series of rapid-fire questions interspersed with the cleaning procedure he was conditioned to perform. The cleaning procedure is written as an automatic function, demonstrating the silo's control over him even after he "frees" himself.
By distorting the landscape to appear green and hopeful, the silo tricks Holston into believing he has more than enough time to perform the cleaning. He only cleans because "it was what his wife had done, what all the other cleaners before him had done." As Holston resists his impulse to "tear off his helmet and bulky suit and scamper up the hill," the silo indirectly exerts control over his choices.
"Wool" explores the power of history and memory to direct human behavior. For example, Allison's mistrust of the silo's leadership is sparked when she discovers that her predecessors' history has been erased; this lack of information compels her to seek her own answers by undertaking the cleaning. Allison and Holston struggle to leave a mark or impact on their community in a system that curates historical narratives. Holston knows that no one watches him undertake the cleaning and that the airlock would be "scrubbed clean before nightfall, ready for the next cleaning," effectively erasing his death and ideas from the silo's collective memory. In fact, Holston's only impact on the silo—cleaning the cameras—is fleeting, as the lenses will be dirty again in a few years.
When Holston takes in the life-filled world around him, he notes that the sky is the same hue of blue in the picture books with fluffy white clouds "roaming like beasts" across it. When Holston discovers that the image is a lie, the text describes the now-black clouds as "roaming beasts." Using the analogy twice, the text comments on the distorted imagery Holston experiences. When seeing the "heaven into which he'd been condemned" for the first time, he notes the untamed, powerful forces of nature beyond his wildest imagination, invoking the symbolism of children's books to emphasize his sudden innocence, like an "adult child." When he discovers that, like the picture books, the green landscape is an imagined version of the real world, the text emphasizes nature's dangerous, sinister side by invoking the imagery of "roaming beasts."
The ending of "Wool" ironically subverts expectations and emphasizes the themes of control and distorted reality. Throughout the text, Holston and Allison's conclusions that the silo's leadership uses false images of the outside world to keep the population afraid to ask questions seem reasonable and logical. This wrong conclusion is briefly affirmed when Holston goes outside, as the restored environment perfectly explains the silo's corruption, the necessity of the cleaning, and why the condemned inevitably perform the cleaning. However, when Holston removes his helmet and sees that the world actually is destroyed, the holes in his understanding of the silo's motivations are filled. By distorting the cleaners' reality, the silo can control them from afar and ensure they carry out their essential function; Allison did not return for Holston because she also died. And, by introducing uncertainty about the nature of the outside world, the silo leadership can subvert uprisings before they happen. The text thus invites readers to question the nature of their reality, even when it appears positive and sensical.
