A comprehensive health plan (symbol)
“A comprehensive health plan” is a symbol of well-established life and stability. There is no need to worry about “any catastrophic illness, any foreseen tragedy,” for it is “completely covered.” Not to mention that “all dependents are completely covered” too. For now, one can breathe out with relief, for “some rare toxic blood disorder,” wounds caused with “semiautomatic gunfire” or “a hideous degenerative muscle disease” are also completely covered. This is an illusion of safety.
A mega-marker (allegory)
A mega-market is allegory of a consumer society. “A twenty-four-hour mega-market” is open all the time, so that everyone could satisfy that unsustainable hunger that seems to haunt the modern society. There is literally everything! “An all-night pharmacy and café, a video store, and a lounge with sofas and reading lamps and a fireplace with imitation logs burning in it” make this place feel more like home than actual flats and houses.
Life (motif)
The main motif of this collection of short stories is the life of a modern person. Its characters “love,” “cry,” “hate,” “would walk through fire” for their loves ones, submit to “painful and humiliating sex games,” ignore their colleagues, steal lunches, act “crazy,” sip “a Diet Mr. Pibb,” run “every day,” and whatnot. They are not flawless and these facts make it easier to relate to their problems.
