Report on the Threatened City
by Doris Lessing
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Report on the Threatened City Symbols

The Earthquake

The earthquake that threatens the city represents the doomed fate of a society that is unwilling to take action or to value human life more than commercial interests. The city in the story (implied to…

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Light

Light and darkness symbolize humanity’s awareness and understanding, or a lack thereof, literalizing the idea of enlightenment in “Report on the Threatened City.” In the story, the alien envoys and their spacecraft are made of…

read analysis of Light