* {{Anvilicious}}: Heinlein obviously worked a lot of themes into the novel, but he didn't try to be subtle about his opinions. Be completely self-reliant! Coddling people makes them weak! Don't be a bigot!
* DesignatedHero: Hugh Farnham's got a lot of failings for a Heinlein hero. He indulges his wife's alcoholism, implies that he should have beat his son more to prevent him from growing into a StrawLiberal, has a last-night-of-our-lives affair with his daughter's best friend, threatens to boot his mouthy son out into fatal levels of hard radiation (claiming that 'the captain of a lifeboat is an absolute ruler'), and yet the one area he feels he's been "unjust" about is his treatment of the family's servant, Joe. In the final part of the book ''he'' is the helpless victim being pushed around, and then suddenly rebellion against the man giving orders is OK.

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