Content Warning: The source text and this study guide discuss oppression, mental and physical control, wartime violence, addiction, suicide, and sexual abuse.

Oppression through physical or mental control (or both) is a key theme in almost all of the stories in Liberation Day. In “Liberation Day,” for instance, Speakers and Singers are enslaved by a ruling class who pin them to walls and control when, and how, they can communicate. In “Ghoul,” a society has been sent underground and forced to comply with performative, theatrical rituals in the vain hope that, one day, visitors might come from the world above. In several stories, including “Liberation Day” and “Elliot Spencer,” humans are oppressed through brainwashing strategies on the part of more powerful entities. The various forms of oppression throughout Saunders’s collection allow Saunders to convey the dangers of unchecked authority, the decline of personal agency, and the insidious ways in which power and domination can creep into the daily lives of humans.

In several stories, oppression and control is a highly complex, and therefore dangerous, tool that serves various social groups. In “Liberation Day,” for instance, Jeremy sides with his oppressors due to his love for Mrs.