Piety and the arts have arrived, “civilized” activities spread across Mars. The towns are emphatically American constructions, constructed with imported wood, suggesting an isolation from the natural environment. Their Americanness is emphasized, towns so similar they appear to have been dropped down by tornados—a quintessentially American image—but rather than giving them a familiar tone, they appear as unnatural growths. This insistence upon imported culture suggests a visual dichotomy within the lives of the people, who are not fitting in naturally with their environment, but are instead grafting their former way of life onto new surroundings. There is a hominess in the evocation of small-town America, but it also amplifies a sense of surreal isolation.