The Only Thing To Fear Essay

”Zara thought about a world without Führer's or Heil Hitlers, a world where fireworks reign the skies instead of gunfire, where a German boy and half-Japanese Kleinbauer could stand hand in hand.”
In a remarkable reimagining of history, Caroline Tung Richmond makes her debut with the novel The Only Thing to Fear. The story begins eight decades after the allies were overpowered by Hitler’s genetically engineered super soldiers. People with this genetic condition are nicknamed Anomalies and they all possess specific super powers. On a small farm in The American Territories, the story follows the life of Zara; a dual anomaly with a half-Japanese half-Aryan ethnicity. She lives with her uncle, who goes by the name Red. He is part of a rebellion

In this parallel world, anyone who is not of the Aryan race are considered less than adequate in Germans’ eyes. People we would regard as upper class today are your average German family in this world. The government follows an idea of elitism and dictatorship. The working class, comprised of all of those not deemed perfect, provide the backbone for the Germans by performing tough manual labor under tight conditions. This shows the author wanted it to be clear that the vast majority of less-than-perfect people live a life of slavery, hardship, and cruelty that has been found today in a smaller quantity. The government also suppresses any group that could do them harm. On page forty when Bastian, a full blood German with a Nazi Colonel for a father, asks Zara “My mother is searching for a new housekeeper” he follows with “I thought I would ask you. You seem- very skilled.”This takes Zara by surprise due to her link to the Alliance and Zara changes how she acts in many of the following chapters. I suspect the author did this to show that many people are ultimately afraid of the government. The author is also very sure to include fine details about how and why the government performs certain actions, in which one example can be found on page 85 when the government's response to vandalization is to hang the skeletons of dead bodies over the capital. The author also draws attention to the setting, such as