Olivar

 I think that Olivar is a bad idea. It gives too much power to the people who own the town who will likely abuse that power. It reminds me of the company towns that used to exist in America such as the Pullman company town. The Pullman company had complete control over everything that happened in the town. They could raise the rent and store prices whenever they wanted, they controlled what books were put in the library and could evict people without notice or reason. They also had complete control over wages as everyone in the town worked for Pullman. The town of Olivar sounds exactly like the Pullman town, meaning that the residents will end up with the short side of the stick, they won’t have any power and they will be abused by the system. Add in the armed guards that patrol Olivar and the even higher stakes and nobody will have a way to escape the town when things get bad. There is no way that this town will go well for the residents. What do you guys think? Is there any way this town could be good?


Comments

  1. L. MoffittApril 23, 2021 at 7:16 AM

    Agree, and this does seem like a place in the book where Butler is directly commenting on a historical reality. I can't see any good in Olivar either, but there's a chokehold on the people and they seem to see it as the lesser of two evils. At least Lauren doesn't.

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