The novel is concerned with how internalization enables the state to create an environment in which the idea of disobedience does not even emerge in ordinary people’s mind. It suggests that if people are born into a culture of ignorance, disobedience against their oppressed state cannot have strong roots. The novel also analyses how powerfully visibility and citizenship influence the way everyday people form their identities. Moreover, it specifies the necessary qualities the state must assume and retain in order to maintain its supremacy. The City & the City presents a shadowy, unreachable and unseen organization, called Breach, with an almost supernatural and unlimited power that seems to be similar to that of George Orwell’s Big Brother. However, unlike many literary examples, this novel also gives an insight into the possible weaknesses of such an organization and underlines how mutual dependency may give way to a controlled form of surveillance. I argue that the novel can be read as a piece of social criticism on how surveillance is integrated into our society through internalization and the construction of identity and visibility from which the only escape can be achieved through gaining a wider perspective and the knowledge of the influence that power can possibly have on us.