 What does the falling glass symbolize?
It fell on the streets and houses, making small geysers of shiny mist, hitting with a gentle musical sound, like the ephemeral droppings of a celesta. It was precipitation peculiar to a dome: feather-light fragments showering harmlessly on the city from time to time. And if there was a house sitting on such a mountain and if winds did blow, it would shake exactly the way that one does. The house could have been preparing to take off and sail down the.... Or, as Fownes hoped it might appear, the illusion of the domed city vanished and was replaced by a more satisfactory, and, for his specific purpose, more functional, illusion. The sun and moon both looked down upon a garden that was itself scintillant, composed largely of neon roses.
 The cracking of an illusion of safety and optimal conditions in a chaotic world inhabited by humans bent on self-destruction
 The importance of bucking authority and tradition in order to identify solutions for problems that plague communities all over the globe  The delicate balance that countries -- large and small, developed and developing -- must strike if they are to preserve Earth's natural resources  The deterioration of boundaries between members of different races, genders, social classes, and religious factions  The cracking of an illusion of safety and optimal conditions in a chaotic world inhabited by humans bent on self-destruction