The black flag at the stern of the barge approaching the Island hangs resignedly on its pole, as if it believes its days of waving are gone, and the winds here will remain forever subservient to the kingdom of stillness, in a land where the present seems to last forever, and the future is prohibited.
On Purgatory Island the Purifiers are in charge. But what kind of Purgatory is it from which no soul can make the leap into Paradise?
The dystopian writer warns against the forthcoming darkness of a desolate future that emerges out of a "defective" present.
Just as balance is always restored in the primordial conflict between good and evil, joy and sorrow, light and darkness, so, too, utopia depends on dystopia. Harmony is found in the conflict of opposites.
Utopia is not some imaginary place, but a promised land that we must constantly strive for.