"You look so beautiful," people tell me as I walk through the packed ballroom. My flowing blue dress trails around my ankles, and I feel as graceful as a princess as I bow my head in thanks. I am so lucky to be here, wearing this lovely dress, in this lovely hall, celebrating with all these lovely people. 

Today is the hundredth anniversary of the Building's opening, and the Head Councilman has thrown a feast for all the Building's occupants. Spotting my parents across the room, I head toward them, meanwhile trying to picture in my head what it would've been like to be one of my ancestors- to be in this room a hundred years ago. How wonderful it must've felt, to finally escape the horrors of the Outside, to shut the savages out forever. 

"Oh, it feels like it's been forever! Hi, honey," my mom pulls me into a tight hug before we sit down at a round table with a white tablecloth. Only, it hasn't been forever. It's only been a few days. My parents' apartment is on the fifteenth floor of the Building, and mine is on the seventeenth. We see each other in the elevator and at the grocery store at least a couple of times a week. 

We are a small family. Just my parents- both only children- and I. We only have each other... I often think it would be nice if we could share an apartment. We could split household and financial responsibilities, easing all of our burdens. But now that I'm past the age of eighteen, I must go out and build my own life. I must support myself. After all, the Building is all about independence. The Building is all about freedom. This is what distinguishes us from the Outside. The Outside, where good things go to the corrupt and the lazy instead of those who earn them through honest work. It may seem more difficult, or less practical, but the Building's way is the best way. 

"How are your studies going?" my father asks as he twirls a piece of pasta around his fork. 

"Very well," I smile. I attend one of the Building's top universities. Classes are entirely online, so I have the freedom to keep working the job I love without sacrificing my education. Like many institutions in the Building, it's a wonderful compromise that allows me to be maximally productive. 

I'm studying to be an architect- inspired, of course, by the Building. I want to help build more Buildings, to bring our superior way of life to the Outside. It is a most noble cause that fills me with the grand, wondrous feeling of being helpful. Those other Buildings I'll someday build, of course, won't be quite like our Building. I've accepted this fact. It is not only the Building that makes our society, but the people in it. And there are some kinds of people in the Town who simply could not exist in a Building. They are so accustomed to their barbarity that they wouldn't know how to act in a civilized environment. 

I would never say this aloud- the people of the Building are polite, and never speak in prejudiced ways- but some kinds of people don't deserve a Building. 

...................

I didn't intend for it to turn out this way, but I think it's painfully obvious now that the Building represents America... 

Please note that this is a VERY dark view of American society, and I obviously acknowledge how genuinely lucky I am to live here. These are just a few of my critiques of the world around me.