In fact, the writers seem to have been inspired by Ayn Rand's Anthem . Except that Z is a whining nebbish of an insect, encumbered with Woody Allen's neurotic personality instead of Equality 7-2521's strong, silent resourcefulness. The ant heap where Z lives is sort of a North Korean communist monarchy. The Queen is the supreme ruler over two rigidly stratified tiers of ants.
Soldiers come first, and workers second.
Communist propaganda abounds throughout the colony. Every ant's place in society is determined at birth, when they are still larvae. Again, this is reminiscent of Rand's Anthem , where the totalitarian leaders determine, when the children are very young, exactly how they will serve the state as adults. Z was sentenced to a life in the tunnels. But he feels he' s not cut out to be a worker, and muses of a better place, a world where individual lives matter.