Eye in the Sky Imagery
Within Arthur Sylvester's twisted theological paradigm, the world is governed by the great, all-seeing Eye of God, a literal physical eye located far up in the sky. This striking image is a perfect representation of Sylvester's hardline fundamentalism mindset: God is just a cosmic police officer, watching to make sure all the little people on Earth stay in line and don't do anything against his rules. It's utterly ridiculous, but it's effective satire. This fundamentalist imagery also extends beyond the cosmic eye to such things as plagues of locusts and strikes of lightning.
Paranoia Imagery
Inside the monomaniacal mind of Jean Reiss, the world takes on a very different tint. Within her mindset, everything in the world could be trying to kill you, so even the environment takes on a dark, intimidating appearance. While the characters are experiencing her subjective reality, the imagery mirrors this sudden change to darkness, with creeping shadows and a general air of tense suspicion.
Marxist Imagery
When the characters enter the subconscious of Charlie McFeyffe, a Marxist posing as an anti-Marxist informer, they suddenly discover a warped version of America that adheres to Marxist ideals, complete with propaganda, organization, and plenty of violence. These ideals are further hammered into the reader's mind by the language PKD uses to describe the various happenings within McFeyffe's mind, evocative of an unpleasant blend of totalitarianism and anarchy.
Industrial Imagery
Throughout the novel, the setting is routinely described as being gray, sleek, nondescript, and streamlined in an impersonal way. Set only a couple of years into the future at the time of Dick's writing, there is nevertheless a significant feel of predictive science fiction about the setting, which is full of sterile, industrial imagery when describing everything from Hamilton's office to the scientific institution of the Belmont Bevatron.
