Summary

The story “Jon” takes place in a dystopian future United States where corporate and commercial entities have completely overtaken American politics and economics. This emphasis on consumerism and corporatism has increased socioeconomic inequality to the point where most of the country’s population lives in poverty and makes a living performing difficult labor. The protagonist is Jon, a young man in his late teens. He lives and works n a corporate research facility, where his job is to watch advertisements and write reports about the impressions that the advertisements make on him. Jon and the other young adults have all lived in the facility since infancy, so they have little knowledge of the outside world, and their personal perspectives are all generally defined by the advertisements that they view. Jon has a distinct memory of being given to the company by his mother so...