Then all was silent save the voice of the high priest, whose words grew louder and louder, […]

Ch'ishan, a second class district city, much resembles Wukung and Fufeng, and seems fairly prosperous for a city of Central Shensi.

And therefore it was especially his disdain for mediocrity and for doing things by half measures that made him expect something from the Party, which had promised to do something decisive and to contradict communism effectively.

This contradiction is condensed within the aptronym Casey Falls: her first name recalls Jim Casy, the preacher who is sacrificed helping migrant workers in John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath, while her surname evokes Eve and the Fall.