Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Lathe of Heaven, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
The Limits of Utilitarianism
Dreams and the Limitations of Knowledge
Cosmic Balance
Power and Selfishness
Summary
Analysis
It’s only 3:00 p.m., but Orr decides not to return to work. Though Orr’s memory tells him he’s had his job for five years, it “ha[s] no reality for him.” Orr knows that in rejecting reality he risks “the loss of the sense of free will,” but he can no longer exist in this “hollow,” unreal reality. He vows to go home, dream freely, and accept whatever new existence those dreams would bring.
To Orr, reality is an interconnected system where every living being has the “free will” to impact and be impacted by other living beings, which results in a balance derived from the give-and-take rhythm which free will allows. The world Haber created feels “hollow” to Orr because its absence of free will leaves it unbalanced and meaningless: nothing matters because nothing contributes to the higher purpose of maintaining the universe’s collective balance—the balance (or imbalance) is maintained and altered by Haber alone.
Themes
Orr exits the funicular early and walks toward his district. He examines the struggling stores and restaurants that dot the streets and walks into an antique store that looks like a place Heather’s mother might have worked.
A funicular is a cable-operated railroad that consists of counterbalanced ascending and descending cars. One might interpret the dualism of the funicular’s operating mechanism as a physical example of the Taoist concept of yin and yang, because the opposing forces of the cars complement rather than counteract each other.
Themes
The Alien shopkeeper greets Orr. Orr asks the Alien if he can define “iahklu’” for him. The Alien pauses a moment before explaining that this word is “incommunicable” in Orr’s language. He extends a “flipperlike extremity” and introduces himself as Tiua’k Ennbe Ennbe. Orr shakes its hand, staring up at the Alien’s nearly opaque headpiece. He wonders if there’s anything inside the Alien’s armor.
The opacity of the Alien’s headpiece parallels the opacity of Haber’s eyes, so it makes sense that Orr might be wary about what—if anything—lies beneath the Alien’s headpiece. That iahklu’ is “incommunicable” in Orr’s language implies that it has relevance to concepts beyond the scope of human understanding.
Themes
Orr asks Ennbe if he knows anyone named Lelache, but Ennbe does not. Orr shops some more before settling on a bust of Franz Schubert that almost looks like a Buddha. After he pays, he asks Ennbe if it’s possible to control iahklu’. Ennbe struggles to speak in terms Orr will understand. Finally, he walks away and returns with a Beatles record, “With a Little Help from My Friends,” and offers it to Orr. Orr thanks him, deeply moved. As Orr walks home from the antique store, he thinks it make sense that the Aliens get along with him, since it was he who invented them. Orr thinks about being “interconnected” with the worlds he’s created.
That Orr compares the bust of Schubert (a 19th century Austrian composer of classical music) to a Buddha reflects his desire to project ideas derived from Eastern philosophy (Buddhism) onto Western culture. Ennbe’s decision to convey iahklu’ gesturally rather than through language reflects the advice Orr gleaned from the Alien in this dream earlier that day: that silence is superior to words and, by extension, that effortless action is superior to deliberate action. Tiua’k Ennbe Ennbe’s effortless action of giving the gift to Orr results in a feeling “interconnected[ness]” that counteracts the isolation and meaninglessness that characterize Haber’s world.
Themes
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Orr, on the other hand, grows more distant from Haber with each new continuum, and the aspects of the world Haber coerced him into creating are the things to which Orr feels least connected. Orr agonizes over Haber’s earlier snakebite analogy and tries to justify what he did in April four years ago, though it’s hard for him to think about “the burned place.” Orr anguishes over his conflicting responsibility to help others and not to play God. If a person’s going to play God, Orr reasons, they “have to know what [they’re doing],” which Haber does not.
Orr regards his act of restoring the world after its collapse in April 1998 as no different than Haber’s attempts to improve the world now: he sees both actions as reckless abuses of power that disrupt the universe’s natural rhythm. Orr thinks it’s immoral to act on behalf of others—even if one is well-intentioned—because no mere mortal is capable of predicting the consequences of their actions.
Themes
Orr arrives at his building and borrows a phonograph from Mannie Ahrens. They share a pot of cannabis tea before Orr takes the phonograph back to his apartment to listen to the Beatles record. He listens to “With a Little Help from My Friends” 11 times before falling asleep.
The number 11 might allude to Chapter 11 of the Tao Te Ching (one of Taoism’s foundational texts), which discusses the importance of emptiness. The chapter begins by describing the hole at the hub of a wheel that allows the wheel to turn and be useful. Perhaps the novel is implicitly comparing the hole at the center of the Beatles record to the hole at the center of the wheel.
Themes
Heather awakens on the floor of a bare room, feeling groggy from Mannie’s marijuana. George is asleep next to the turntable, which is still playing the Beatles record. Heather turns off the record and heads to the kitchen. All there is to eat is pig liver, which is gross but a good value for three meat-ration stamps. Heather prepares the liver and sets the table in the kitchen, still groggy. Orr enters the room. He stops and stares at Heather before smiling a broad, genuine smile, which touches Heather. Orr murmurs “my dear wife” and takes Heather’s hands in his own. He looks at Heather’s gray hands and says, “you should be brown.” Heather sees tears in Orr’s eyes, and, for just a moment, she remembers everything.
Orr abandons the impossible feat of controlling his effective dreams and gives in to them, letting his unconscious guide him where he’s meant to go. In so doing, Orr replaces the deliberateness of his attempts to exert power over his dreams with the effortless action of relinquishing that power. This seems to be the essence of iahklu’: to let one’s experiences wash over oneself instead of trying to control or impose a narrative onto one’s experiences. Orr’s effortless dreaming allows him to restore a version of Heather to be his wife, though the only version of her that can exist in Haber’s dystopic, gray world is but a shadow of her former self, since being biracial was such a critical component of her identity. This version of Heather also has no conscious awareness of her former self or the experiences that former self shared with Orr.
Themes
But the moment passes, and Heather takes Orr in her arms, pleading with her husband not to go back to Haber, who is “destroying” him. Orr laughs, insisting that nothing can destroy him if he “ha[s] a little help from [his] friends.” Orr tells Heather he’s going to go back to Haber but not to worry: their time together is almost done. Orr and Heather make love after dinner and fall asleep in each other’s arms. Heather dreams of “the roaring of a creek full of the voices of unborn children singing,” and Orr dreams of “the open sea.”
Orr’s comment about having “a little help from his friends” implies that he’s going to use the understanding of iahklu’ he gained from listening to the Beatles record to protect himself against Haber. Heather and Orr both dream of water: Heather’s dream evokes the “roaring” creek she heard at the cabin the night of the Alien invasion, which suggests that she unconsciously remembers this previous reality. It also poses an interesting question about reality: Heather’s previous existence is real, but it remains unreal or inaccessible to her because she can’t contemplate it with her conscious mind. Orr dreams of an open sea, which evokes the opening scene of the novel, in which a jellyfish gains strength and reassurance from existing with the ocean’s ecosystem and moving in accordance with the natural rhythm of the ocean’s tide. Orr is now that jellyfish, navigating the dream world by simply existing within it instead of by trying to control it.
Themes
The next day, Heather leaves the office of Ponder and Rutti, where she works as a legal secretary, to meet Orr at the HURAD tower for his therapy session at 5:00. When she sees Orr emerge from the trolley, she’s filled with a feeling of intense love for him. Heather vows to destroy Haber if he hurts Orr. Heather rarely thinks of violence—she doesn’t even swear—but she feels “bolder” today. Orr and Heather greet each other affectionately. Heather tells Orr she’ll wait for him downstairs, but Orr asks her to accompany him to Haber’s office.
In addition to being a grayer version of her former self, this Heather is also much milder: she’s a secretary for a lawyer instead of a lawyer herself, she doesn’t swear, and she considers the “bold[ness]” she feels today to be entirely out of character. The Heather that exists in this version of reality is mild because she has no choice but to be: deprived of their individuality, the citizens of Haber’s hypercontrolled world are shadows of their former selves. In particular, the raceless quality of Haber’s world prevents Heather from accessing the biracial identity that had formerly influenced the way she oriented herself in relation to the rest of the world.
Themes
Haber appears in a doorway as Orr is signing in with the autoreceptionist; Heather has met him just once before, and she’s afraid of him. In a loud, enthusiastic voice, Haber proclaims that today will mostly likely be Orr’s last session. As Haber talks, Heather stands in awe of his “larger than life-size” demeanor. She’s amazed that such a renowned scientist as Haber would take the time to treat Orr, who is nobody.
Haber’s “larger than life-size” character reflects his desire for complete control; Haber doesn’t want to engage in an equal, interconnected experience with other living beings—he wants to rule over them.
Themes
Orr, Heather, and Haber enter Haber’s office. Haber, whom Heather describes as “huge, like a grizzly bear,” begins attaching electrodes to Orr. Haber hypnotizes Orr and gives him the hypnosuggestion to dream an effective dream that he’s “completely normal.” When Orr wakes up, Haber instructs, he’ll have a memory of once believing he could dream effectively, but he’ll know this memory isn’t true. Orr will dream a “pleasant” dream, and whatever “symbolism” that dream utilizes will be the “effective content” that enacts the new reality in which he cannot dream effectively. As Haber speaks the word “Antwerp” to put Orr to sleep, Heather hears Orr mumble something she can’t make out. It reminds her of last night, when he mumbled the words “air per annum” in his sleep.
Bears hibernate, so perhaps Heather’s description of Haber as “huge, like a grizzly bear” foreshadows Haber’s plans to “hibernate” by inducing an effective dream in himself once he’s finished using Orr. Haber is finally following through on his promise to cure Orr, despite Orr having asked for this since the very beginning of the novel. Ironically, Orr’s understanding of iahklu’ seems to suggest that he no longer needs Haber to cure him—at least, not in the way he did at the start of the novel, when his main gripe with his dreams was their control over him. Now, Orr doesn’t have to worry about the impossible feat of controlling or suppressing his effective dreams, because he recognizes a third solution, which is simply to relinquish control, let the dreams be, and trust that their (and his) effortless participation in the larger universe will guide them where they’re meant to go. When Heather thinks she overhears Orr mumble the words “air per annum,” he’s actually saying Er’ perrehnne, which is the term Orr learns from an Alien he sees in a dream, who teaches him to use the term to guide him through troubled dreams.
Themes
As Heather watches Orr sleep, Haber turns on the Augmentor. He fiddles with the equipment as Orr drifts between dreams. Haber alternates between observing Orr and talking to Heather; Haber intimidates Heather, though, and she wishes he’d just let them sit in silence.
Haber’s compulsion to fill silence reflects his resistance to Taoist thought. He can’t let anything be: he feels compelled to shape even silence with his thoughts, his voice, and his influence.
Themes
Haber turns to Orr, who is sleeping, and prompts him to nod if he can hear him. Orr nods. Haber gives Orr a hypnosuggestion to dream that the Mount Hood mural is on the office wall. Haber finishes his suggestion and says “Antwerp,” which is supposed to induce Orr into a dream state, but nothing happens: the machines are still. “With a Little Help from My Friends” enters Heather’s head and refuses to leave. Suddenly, Orr wakes up. Haber is livid. The Augmentor was stimulating Orr with d-state patterns, which should have made him dream—not wake up. Haber determines that Orr has managed to override the machine’s pattern simulation.
In instructing Orr to dream that the Mount Hood mural is on the office wall, Haber is trying to gauge whether Orr is cured: if the mural fails to appear, it will mean Orr can no longer dream effectively. When Orr wakes up without Haber’s prompting, it’s indicative that something has gone wrong: perhaps Orr’s new understanding of the dream makes him more resistant to Haber’s hypnotic suggestions. That “With a Little Help from My Friends” pops into Heather’s head certainly implies that Orr is focusing on the wisdom Tiua’k Ennbe Ennbe and his gift imparted to him and using it as protection against Haber.
Themes
Haber asks Orr to recall his dream. Orr correctly remembers the dream about the Mount Hood mural on the wall behind Heather; Haber notes that the wall is bare. Of the first dream, Orr recalls a dream about dreaming; the dream-dream was banal and unremarkable—he’d been buying a new suit. When the store employees checked his height and weight, both measurements were average. Haber laughs at the banality of Orr’s dream.
Haber sees the Mount Hood mural’s absence and the banality of Orr’s dream as proof that Orr can no longer dream effectively and, by all accounts, Haber’s assessment is correct. But Haber is also unaware of the new, nuanced understanding of the dream world Orr has acquired with the help of his Alien mentors, so it’s also possible that Orr can still dream effectively but is somehow hiding this ability from Haber.
Themes
Haber is immensely pleased with the session’s success. He laughs too long and loudly before announcing that Orr is finally relieved of his duties. Heather wonders if Haber is acting strangely or if he’s always this hyped up. Orr asks Haber if he’s ever discussed dreaming with an Alien, or Aldebaranian, as they’re officially known. Haber says he hasn’t; a scientist in Washington conducted some preliminary tests on some of them, though the communication gap made interpreting the results difficult. At this point, it’s unclear to the scientists whether the Aldebaranians are rational creatures, or whether they’re simply mimicking the rational behaviors they observe in humans.
Haber’s decision to terminate his relationship with Orr is entirely selfish: their therapy sessions end because Haber is done using Orr, not because Orr is cured. Haber thinks the Aliens have nothing to teach him about dreams because they (supposedly) lack the capacity for rational thought. This reflects Haber’s adamant belief that confronting life’s uncertainties with rationality and logic offers the most productive, direct path toward understanding and personal fulfillment. Haber subjectively interprets the Aliens’ go-with-the-flow relationship to the world as symptomatic of their mental inadequacy or unwillingness to think for themselves, when in reality (and as Orr knows) it’s not that the Aliens lack the ability to rationalize, but that their worldview prioritizes an effortless, spontaneous engagement with the world over a rational, deliberate one.
Themes
Orr asks Haber if he knows what “iahklu’” means. Haber doesn’t. Orr tells Haber it would be wise to talk to an Alien about dreaming and iahklu’ before he induces any effective dreams in himself, since the Aliens know far more about the dreamworld than any human.
Bringing up iahklu’, which can be felt but not rationalized, since there’s no way to translate it to English, is Orr’s indirect way of cautioning Haber against using rationality to understand and control dreams.
Themes
Haber dismisses Orr’s advice as mystical mumbo-jumbo and as the antithesis of logic. Orr makes a final plea to Haber to say the Alien word “Er’ perrehnne” before he uses the Augmentor on himself, which will give him “a little help from your friends.” Heather thinks Orr’s gone crazy and wonders if the treatment is to blame. Haber pokes fun at Orr’s philosophizing, telling Heather that Orr’s smarts are “wasted as a draftsman,” which confuses Heather, as Orr is a designer, not a draftsman. Orr and Heather leave Haber’s office, and Heather complains about how fake Haber is.
Haber ignores Orr’s advice about Er’ perrehnne because he thinks he can rely on knowledge and rationality to control the dream world. Haber’s refusal to heed Orr’s advice is also the consequence of his dangerously inflated ego: Haber sees himself as intelligent, powerful, and above asking for “a little help from your friends.”
Themes
As Orr and Heather exit the building, Heather suggests they eat at Chinatown but swiftly corrects herself—Chinatown had been demolished a decade ago. Heather’s sudden forgetfulness puzzles her. She suggest they go to Ruby Loo’s instead.
Heather forgets about Chinatown’s demolition because she’s conflating the present reality with an unconscious memory of an alternate universe in which Chinatown existed.
Themes
Orr and Heather arrive at Ruby Loo’s, which is located in the Lloyd Center, an old, half-abandoned shopping center. Heather looks up at the jade green sky and feels her anxiety leave her, but the relief is temporary: she feels a sudden “shifting” that makes her stop in her tracks. The place seems “spooky” to her. Orr says nothing but looks concerned. A too-warm wind rips through the air; the neon restaurant sign no longer bears any words. Heather runs to a wall and cries, fearing it’s she who’s insane. She demands to know what’s going on.
Reality is “shifting” so visibly that even Heather, who has only an unconscious awareness of multiple realities, can sense that something isn’t right. The suddenly odd “spooky” quality of the world suggests that Haber has induced an effective dream in himself, failed to heed Orr’s advice to consult with an Alien beforehand and, as a result, something has gone horribly wrong.
Themes
Orr tells Heather he needs to return to Haber’s office, ordering her to wait for him in the restaurant. Heather doesn’t listen and follows Orr to the funicular station. She demands to know what’s going on. Orr explains to Heather that Haber is dreaming and gestures for her to look out the window. Heather looks outside and sees that the river has run dry. Downtown, skyscrapers are melting into puddles on the ground. The funicular moves too fast and doesn’t stop. As it climbs higher into the sky, Mount Hood comes into view, and they spot the volcano just as it erupts. Heather thinks back to the odd feeling that came over her as she looked at the jade green sky, and it now strikes her as “a sort of emptiness,” an indication that things had gone “the wrong way.”
The novel uses water to symbolize cosmic balance and living in accordance with the Tao, so absence of water in the riverbed indicates that Haber’s dream, which is his deliberate, final attempt to control the world, is throwing the world out of balance. Mount Hood fulfills a similar function, with its lava reflecting the chaos that Haber’s effective dream has unleashed onto the world.
Themes
Orr exits the funicular car at the terminal. Heather tries to follow him, but she becomes “lost in the panic dark […] until she sank down in a ball curled about the center of her own being,” forever encased in a “dry abyss.”
The language here is rather vague and amorphous, but it seems that Haber’s dream has created a black hole that devours everything in its wake. Haber’s attempt to control the universe has backfired, and reality is now collapsing in on itself. This symbolizes Haber’s misguided attempt to use rationality to understand dreams. The black hole also reflects the lack of interior substance beneath Haber’s ambitious, gregarious exterior. Haber expends so much effort trying to improve his status and exude an aura of confidence and importance that nothing of himself remains beneath his artificial, rehearsed exterior.
Themes
Orr continues to the HURAD tower, walking over mud, mist, corpses, and toads to get there. It’s freezing, yet the air smells of “burning hair and flesh.” Orr reaches the HURAD tower and steps inside. He rides the helical escalator to the top floor. When he gets there, the floor is encased in a layer of ice, through which he can see stars. As he steps across the floor, the stars emit noise that sounds “false, like cracked bells.” The burning smell is worse here. Orr enters Haber’s office, but nothing exists beyond the door. He cries out for help and realizes he doesn’t have the strength to enter nothingness alone; he thinks of Tiua’k Ennbe Ennbe and Heather, which gives him the reassurance to go on, though he knows entering nothingness will cost him everything.
Haber’s failed attempt to experience his own effective dream creates an effective nightmare, and the chaos that envelops the world is the direct consequence of Haber’s vain attempt to exert power over the universe. Orr succeeds in entering nothingness because he selflessly accepts the help of others, which Haber refused to do. Taoism holds the idea of nothingness in a positive light, construing it as a state of mind one achieves when one lives in accordance with the Tao, practices inaction over action, and abandons the notion of a self that exists separate from the collective universe. Implicit in this final detail is the absence of ego inherent in nothingness. The reason nothingness consumes Haber is because without his ego—without his vain ambition and greed—he is nothing. Haber can’t experience nothingness the way Orr can because he doesn’t know how to engage with the world outside of the subjective, limited confines of his ego.
Themes
Orr confronts the nothingness and so “enter[s] the eye of the nightmare.” The room is cold, dark, and spinning. Orr can’t see a thing, but he locates the Augmentor by touch and turns it off, which propels the world back into existence. Orr and Haber are no longer in the HURAD tower, but in a junky, average office Orr doesn’t recognize. Haber lies on the couch; his beard is red-brown again, and his skin isn’t gray. Orr disconnects Haber from the Augmentor. He’s seized by the sudden urge to destroy the machine but decides that “a machine is more blameless […] than any animal.” Orr shakes Haber awake. When Haber opens his eyes, they’re not “opaque,” but “empty.”
Orr restores the world to the way it was before Haber started meddling with Orr’s effective dreams, and the universe is balanced once more. Orr’s observation that “a machine is more blameless […] than any animal” alludes to the destructive nature of consciousness, which animals have but machines do not. The Augmentor is not capable of conscious, deliberate action because it can only do what Haber tells it to do, so it’s really Haber who’s to blame for the chaos the machine helped facilitate, not the machine itself. Haber’s empty eyes reflect his disillusionment. He’d thought that he could use rationality and deliberate action to make sense of and exercise power over the world around him, but he overestimated his ability to understand the universe, which is infinitely large and unknowable.
Themes
Orr becomes physically scared of Haber and leaves to get help, passing through the unfamiliar office, unfamiliar waiting room, and exiting onto a street he’d never been on before. Orr realizes that the “emptiness of Haber’s being, the effective nightmare,” has projected itself onto the city, severing “connections.” Whereas before Orr had been able to trace the continuity between the different continuums, he now lacks the memories he needs to orient himself in his current reality, and the only things he knows “c[o]me from the other memories, the other dreamtimes.” People who can’t sense the shifted continuum might be less disoriented than Orr, but they’ll be more scared and confused by this incomprehensible new world. Orr knows that Heather is gone.
The world isn’t fully restored, though: elements of different realities now commingle in the same universe. Orr’s observation that the “emptiness of Haber’s being” is to blame for this fragmentation of reality confirms what Orr has known to be true all along: that beneath Haber’s showy display of heroism, ambition, and intellect, he is essentially nothing. He has no personality beyond the calculated, feigned version of a self he performs to impress others, and his morals lose their relevance the moment they cease to be a means through which he can accomplish an ambitious end. The incoherence that lingers in the aftermath of Haber’s “effective nightmare,” thus, is the lingering presence of the incoherent, centerless self Haber’s nightmare unleashed on the world.
Themes
Orr doesn’t help Haber. There’s nothing he can do for him. He walks through the streets and ends up in northeast Portland. Orr can see the dormant Mount Hood in the distance, its eruption never having occurred. Orr trudges forward, though he’s exhausted and wants nothing more than to sleep. He’s in the business district now, approaching the river. In the aftermath of chaos, people go on with their lives: men loot a jewelry shop, and a woman holds her crying baby.
Mount Hood’s transformation from an active volcano to a sleeping mountain symbolizes the world’s return to normalcy in the aftermath of Haber’s reign of terror and control.
Themes
