In “The Dome,” narrated in the first person, Steven Millhauser uses satire to tell a man versus nature story in which domes are being placed over estates to produce perfect conditions. The weather is controlled, at least in the summer, for they have not yet discovered how to heat a dome effectively. In the beginning, the domes were a novelty for the rich, but after finding less expensive ways to produce the domes, they became commonplace. Soon, whole towns are covered in domes and improvements in the design have eliminated many of the flaws. The cities have become like shopping malls which “encourage feverish consumption.” (118) The one flaw the engineers of the domes have not been able to resolve is the unnatural nature. Nevertheless, the whole United States is covered by a dome.
“Because everything lies beneath a single dome, because everything is, in a very real sense, indoors, our feelings about Nature are no longer the same. The dome, in a single stroke, has abolished Nature” (pg.119)
There is irony and humor in that the people become so engrossed in the artificial they take formerly serious issues, such as rundown neighborhoods, robberies, and death, as a “part of the artificial displays under the dome.”(pg.120)
The fantastic in the story is the idea of creating perfection by doing the impossible- covering the United States (and eventually the world) by a dome.