 The tone of the story, especially towards its end, is delivered very simplistically, in an almost child-like fashion.  This is to show that the story
When nobody aboard ship remembers where it's going, how can they tell when it has arrived? But ever since the engines somewhere in the rear of the world had changed their tone, from the steady whining Rikud had heard all twenty-five years of his life, to the sullen roar that came to his ears now, the feelings had grown. Instead, there was more of the blackness, and one very bright star set apart by itself in the middle of the viewport. But something soft had cushioned the impact—something which had come into being just for the moment and then abruptly passed into non-being again, something which was as impalpable as air. There had been a revolt—again a term without any real meaning, a term that could have no reality outside of the reading machine—and the elders were overthrown. The people had decided that they did not know where they were going, or why, and that it was unfair that the elders alone had this authority. They were born and they lived and they died as the elders directed, like little cogs in a great machine. Much of this Rikud could not understand, but he knew enough to realize that the reading machine had sided with the people against the elders, and it said the people had won. True, this was the only case of its kind, the exception to the rule, but it proved the world was not perfect. A section of it had expanded outward and assumed the rectangular shape of the viewport, and its size as well.
 is like a fable.  It offers a moral to the story and teaches a truth about society.
 is like a fable.  It offers a moral to the story and teaches a truth about society.  is like a fairy-tale because the characters go on a magical journey, but its main purpose as a story is to decieve.  is like a ghost story.  It frightens the reader by playing on the dark and supernatural.  is like mythology because it is folklore that explains society's origins.