Wool

Lukas forces himself to read the Order, which he finds boring, labyrinthine, and frightening. In the back are “chapters on group persuasion, on mind-control on the effects of fear on upbringing, graphs and tables dealing with population growth” (386). He wonders if Bernard, who is in a room on the other side of the study, is “keeping tabs on him” (386).

Lukas asks Bernard why there is nothing in the Order “about how all this came to be”(386). Bernard tells him it does not matter, and neither does the material from the other books in the bunk. What matters is that Lukas learn the Order so that he can run the silo. If he can do so successfully, “one day there’ll be plenty of people” (387)to read the books on the world’s history.

Lukas keeps asking about the origin of the silo, figuring this is a rare opportunity to broach this taboo topic with someone who knows the truth. Bernard tells him that the information is stored there, “but not in any of the books” (388) and emphasizes again that the answer does not matter. Lukas says that the Order is a “roadmap for how to get through the bad that’s piled up between our past and the future’s hope” (388), which pleases Bernard.