Stranger in a Strange Land Themes

Brace yourselves for an awesome metaphor. In Stranger in a Strange Land, Dr. Mahmoud refers to language as the map one uses to see the world. It leads characters to where they are going, helps them...

We tend to think of freedom and confinement as opposites—like country and rap music, they just can't share the same space. But in Stranger and a Strange Land, the two are inseparable. Let's take...

Tradition! Tradition! (Tradition!) Love 'em or hate 'em, you can't live without 'em. In Stranger in a Strange Land, Mike finds himself constantly in opposition to the customs of humanity. His Marti...

Rules and order prevail over human independence. (Sounds menacing, right?) But unlike their "Traditions and Customs" counterparts, they do not hide behind the scenes like some Illuminati-type consp...

In Stranger and a Strange Land, religion comes in two varieties. The first hews closer to spirituality than religion, but for the sake of ease, let's just keep them under the same umbrella. This fo...

Sex and spirituality are majorly linked in Stranger in a Strange Land. When Mike first comes to Earth, he uses water as a means to bond with people and form "water brothers" (more on water in the "...

If you've checked out our two cents on "Genre," you know that Stranger in a Strange Land is first and foremost a coming-of-age story. And you know what that means—a lot of transformation. Mike be...

Identity gives us a sense of home (e.g. American, Californian, Timbuktian, etc.), allows us to form bonds with people of like-minded identity (bookworms, gamers, Twihards), and helps us make import...