“But the lights and the room and the world are bending forward to hear the man who’s speaking: Marcus Defoe.”

The author uses the metaphor of the entire environment bending toward Marcus Defoe to describe how he commands attention from everyone because of his power and wealth. However, though he is the center of attention, the metaphor suggests that he is like a blackhole or a vacuum, sucking everything toward him, which suggests a hollowness at his core. Defoe is Babel Communications’ representative aboard the Genesis 11, so his characteristics are representative of the corporation as well.

“You get in there and fight, Emmett. Be worthy. Not in their eyes, but in yours. Break the rules you need to, but never forget who you are and where you come from.”

Emmett’s father voices the main lesson that Emmett will imbibe through the course of the novel: that a person can find worth and freedom outside of society’s rules. Throughout the novel, Emmett’s father regularly encourages him to not change himself for Babel or their gain but to remain true to himself. While Emmett’s ambition threatens to derail him from this course, he manages to find his way back to it by the end.

“Babel Communications has gathered the peoples of Earth and reversed it. There’s something sacred to our easy, borderless conversation. Either something sacred or something forbidden.”

Emmett considers the biblical allusion in Babel’s name, which foreshadows how Babel’s intentions may ultimately create disaster. Throughout the novel, Emmett will wrestle with the good that Babel’s resources can do, like take care of his mother’s health, and the negative consequences of Babel’s actions, like his injuries and Kaya’s death.