A Nightmare in the Sky

This story is more of a nightmare than the ones we have read previously when characters are killed horrifically. I can't imagine being stuck taunted by old memories, tainting any good memories, and damaging any future ones. This is my idea of hell.  There are many symbols and motifs that continually resurface into his thoughts: the bee, the bird, the poster, but I think the most important and the most interesting reoccurring theme is that of guilt. "Turning, he gazed back up at the ship. Maybe I ought to go back, he thought. Have them freeze me forever. I am a man of guilt, a man who destroys. Tears filled his eyes (Dick, 103)." Even though it is a futuristic story, while the ship is helping Victor to reminisce on his life, the memories become cyclical and biblical in a sense. Religion is not really addressed, G-d is once mentioned, but he seems like a Catholic (at least a Christian of sorts) drowning in his own suppressed guilt. Every memory the ship plants in his mind ends in tears and weeping, like he was never forgiven for what his four-year-old self did.

Question: Is religion a major underlying theme or is he simply tainted by a guilty conscience?