Stephen King's Under the Dome

In Stephen King's novel Under the Dome, King makes a value claim about the current state of consumption in our society and its potential consequences. The claim (which is implicit in the storyline) is that we are using too many of our resources indiscriminately and that to keep doing so is to invite disaster and chaos. The grounds come in the plot line as the small town is cut off from the outside world and must rely on whatever resources were already in the town at the time, the most notable among these being propane. In the beginning propane use is near indiscriminate and as the story goes on propane becomes a much more valued commodity. The dwindling supply creates animosity between citizens of the town, as well as violence directed at securing more propane, which culminates in the townspeople looking towards a totalitarian ruler to control supply. Thus the ground is that by using so much propane, order has broken down and chaos has ensued. The two big warrants implicit in the story is that people cannot adapt, meaning that resources should not be used in the way they are because we have and will never have more efficient, and better meanings of going about our lives. The second warrant is a more obvious one, and that warrant is that the chaos that was created by the shortage of propane in Under the Dome is a negative occurrence that we should strive to avoid. If either warrant proves to be false, then Stephen King's value claim about the consumption of resources is faulty.