Corruption of Power

One of the strongest themes running throughout the novel is power and how it can easily be corrupted. The primary example of the misuse of power is the Emergency when the Prime Minister changes the law that found her guilty of cheating. She writes new legislation that gave her the right to do whatever she wanted, even if that meant suppressing the people's rights. Stemming from this corruption is the other examples of abuse of power: police brutality, compulsory sterilization, the flattening of slums and the clearing the streets of beggars and sending them off to work camps. These laws also allowed people to be wrongfully sent to jail and any authority to use force if they thought it necessary. The author uses this initial corruption of the Prime Minister to show how quickly people will abuse power if they know they are able to get...