Shift

As the novel begins, Senator Paul Thurman tells Donald Keene that he should learn to deny the truth and lies equally. Thurman says, “[Y]ou have to deny each lie and every truth with the same vinegar” (14). As the novel progresses, it becomes clear that Thurman is an expert at this way of dealing with the truth. He gives Donald all the information he needs to see the end coming, but this information is so wrapped up in conspiracy theories and lies that Donald can’t see the real truth until it’s too late.

This theme of hiding the truth in plain sight continues throughout the novel. Each of the silos has the truth. The heads of IT are given access to books: The Order and Legacy. Both these books outline the truth of how the silos came to be, the world left behind, and the future that will one day be available to only one silo. However, it’s so disguised in protocol and missing facts that the silo heads can’t put together enough of the puzzle pieces to understand the full truth without a little help. The only one who gets close to the truth on his own is Lukas from Silo 18. At the same time, some survivors are resistant to the drugs that cause them to forget the past, and these people, depending on where they’re located, can use this information to either cause trouble or get themselves punished. For those living in the silos, these memories are passed to others and cause unrest, leading to whole silos being put down. For those in Silo 1, a person who remembers is labeled “unstable” and often put to sleep for the project’s duration.

For Donald, this equal denial of truth and lies allows Thurman to manipulate him while getting him to design the silos that will house humanity in the aftermath of a nuclear strike. Donald receives the information he needs to see what Thurman is planning, but the full truth is so cloaked in conspiracy and lies that Donald doesn’t see it. At one point Donald can see the threat that nanobots represent, but his wife’s reaction to his emotional response to the threat causes him to begin taking psychotherapeutic drugs and attribute his fears to an overreaction. Again, he fails to see the truth because it was so outside of the current reality. This is the same kind of reaction that many in the silos have to people like Mrs. Crowe, who remember the world as it once was—to see their stories as fiction even as they inspire rebellion. Anna perpetrates the same sort of denial on Donald by denying her affection for him while conspiring to separate him from Helen so that she can be with him in the future utopia she believes her father is creating for humanity. There’s irony in the fact that Anna’s father has lied to her too, so she’s unaware that this utopia isn’t for the survivors of Silo 1 but for only one of the other 50 silos.