In Steven Millhauser’s “The Dome” the narrator retells the events that have led up to being encased inside of a giant dome, as well as the effects it is starting to have on the people living inside of them. At first, domes were only for the most wealthy and elite to have and are assumed to be a passing trend by the everyday man. First, the domes have a ton of issues that wealthy consumers complain about, which leads to the assumption of this just being a passing trend. The creators of the domes soon find cheaper materials that half the cost of making the domes and eliminate the problems dealing with them. To begin pushing domes beyond the wealthy, they take advantage of recent issues to trumpet the safety and happiness domes will bring. Finally, everyone is now stuck under one dome. With this, parts of reality begin to slip away from them. Tragedies and even death become almost like a simulation to them, and at the end of the story, the creators of the domes are proposing one that entraps the whole world.
This story does a very interesting job of pursuing the horrors of when people begin pushing too far with technology for the betterment of humanity. “For under the visible fact of the Dome, it is difficult not to imagine still vaster encompassing. (120). However, with this continued push it is beginning to damage and become harmful for us. At this point, the narrator and many around them have become completely numb to shootings, robberies, even death have lost their meaning, just part of the “simulation” of the Dome to make it “real” and now they want to encase the world. But isn’t that just human nature? To push for progress even past the breaking point.