Previous
Chapter 1
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Childhood’s End, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Science and Mysticism
Benevolent Dictatorship and Freedom
Utopia and Creative Apathy
Individuality, Globalization, and Progress
The Fate of Humanity
Summary
Analysis
The Secretary-General of the United Nations, Rikki Stormgren, stands on the 43rd level of a New York tower, wondering if working at such a height has led him to become detached from the rest of humanity. His assistant, Pieter Van Ryberg, enters the room to tell him that Alexander Wainwright, leader of the Freedom League, will be there for their scheduled meeting any minute now, and a procession of protesters are accompanying him.
Though the specifics of his situation are not yet clear, Stormgren is presented as a character at odds with the rest of human society; this position is symbolically reflected by his physical position atop a tower. The mention of the UN, the Freedom League, and protestors creates a sense of foreboding, as something has clearly affected the entire planet.
Themes
Van Ryberg and Stormgren can see Wainwright’s group coming down the street, what looks to be 3,000 protesters with their fists in the air, protesting the aliens who arrived in the ships, whom humanity has christened the Overlords. Stormgren imagines that Karellen, the leader of the Overlords, must be looking down in amusement, since it was he who initiated Wainwright and Stormgren’s meeting. Stormgren does not understand why Karellen asked to meet with the Freedom League, but he trusts that it is part of Karellen’s plans.
This is the first introduction to the Overlords, the beings whom the astronauts in the opening chapter must have seen. Clearly enough time has passed since that initial arrival that these beings are enmeshed in global politics. As will later be revealed, Karellen governs most often through clever scheming and social engineering, using his deep understanding of human psychology and society to guide humanity along without their realizing it.
Themes
Wainwright arrives, and he and Stormgren discuss the lodging of his formal protest against the Overlords’ plan to create a global federation, a single world-government. Stormgren points out that the idea of consolidating separate national governments into a single unit was already underway before the Overlords arrived—the countries of Europe had recently been formed into a single federation. Wainwright replies that they are worried about the idea of worldwide-government itself. Rather, what disturbs the Freedom League is that this government is being created by the Overlords, rather than being created and run by humanity.
The Overlords are quick to consolidate power, since it is far easier to rule a single government entity than to constantly be moderating between numerous little nations, each with their own ideas and expectations. A single world-state allows them to rule centrally and exert more influence through Stormgren and the United Nations so that they can carry on their work of making Earth a utopia.
Themes
Stormgren knows that the heart of the matter is that he trusts Karellen while the Freedom League does not. He challenges Wainwright to deny that the Overlords have made everyone on Earth safer, wealthier, and happier through their governance. Wainwright admits that they have, but says that in doing so, humanity has lost its autonomy—its right to make its own choices without answering to anyone else. More than material provision, he believes, humanity needs to be free to govern their own lives “under God’s guidance,” tipping Stormgren off to the fundamentally religious nature of the conflict.
This moment reflects the novel’s broader consideration of benevolent dictatorships, and whether prosperity is worth sacrificing freedom for. Stormgren’s readiness to defend Karellen reveals that he believes that the trade-off has been worth it for humanity. This scene also establishes the Overlords as incompatible with religious faith and mysticism.
Themes
Get the entire Childhood’s End LitChart as a printable PDF.
Stormgren promises to relay Wainwright’s concerns to Karellen, though he knows it will not change anything. Wainwright adds one final thought: more than their control, the Freedom League detests the Overlords’ secrecy, since not even Stormgren, the only human to speak with Karellen at all in the last five years, has ever seen an Overlord or has any inkling of their plans.
The Overlords’ secrecy and mysteriousness also reinforces the psychological control they have over humanity. Without any knowledge of who the Overlords are, why they are on Earth, or even what they look like, humanity’s imagination is allowed to run wild. More threatening than a powerful enemy that humanity can observe is a powerful enemy who remains invisible, but whom humanity knows is there.
Themes
The narrator recalls the day that the Overlords came to Earth. Though it was a small operation to the Overlords, it was the biggest day in humanity’s history. The Overlord ships arrived without warning, hanging steadily and silently over every major city for six days. On the sixth day, Karellen spoke through every broadcast channel, in flawless English, and explained that the Overlords would be governing the Earth.
Even the Overlords’ arrival was a subtle use of human psychology to magnify their power. Rather than immediately speaking and announcing themselves, they let humanity fret for six days, imaginations running wild. When the Overlords announced that they were peaceful—rather than aggressive, as many imagined them to be—it would have been such a relief that most would not want to fight. This underscores the Overlords as benevolent dictators—but dictators nonetheless.
Themes
Resistance was futile, though some did try. When one government shot a missile at an Overlord ship, the missile simply vanished. When the South African government refused to give its citizens civil rights, the Overlords demonstrated their power by blotting out the sun for thirty minutes, terrifying the government into compliance. Other than that, aside from a constant suspicion that something worse may yet happen, the world had not greatly changed in the five years since their arrival.
Again, the Overlords, rather than using any direct power, simply let the imaginations of humanity do the work for them—if the Overlords could simply block the sun’s light for half an hour, then they are certainly capable of far more terrifying and destructive acts. This fear of unknown power is enough to keep the whole world in line.
Themes
Stormgren gathers his briefcase and walks out to a field, where a small Overlord transport ship arrives to take him to his weekly meeting with Karellen. He arrives in the Overlord ship, stepping into a small conference room with one chair, which he sits in, and a viewing screen that is always off.
The viewing screen, Stormgren later realizes, is simply a sheet of glass through which Karellen watches him. This reflects the power dynamic between the two, and between the Overlords and humanity in general: Karellen is always in control.
Themes
Karellen’s voice enters the room through a hidden grille and he begins discussing with Stormgren the meeting with Wainwright. Karellen wishes that the people of Earth would stop seeing him as a dictator and instead see him as the administrator of a colonial policy that he truly is. Stormgren reiterates that it is difficult for the people of Earth to trust the Overlords when they have never even seen them.
It is interesting that Karellen sees the role of a colonial administrator as so much better than a dictator. Even as colonizers, the Overlords arrived uninvited and instituted changes without humanity’s permission, governing without input from their subjects. This is a dictatorial form of government, regardless of whether it is benevolent or ruthless.
Themes
Karellen points out that the real source of the Freedom League’s distrust is the fear that the Overlords’ presence will make religion obsolete, even though Karellen states that they have no desire to take humanity’s mystic beliefs away from them. The humans suspect that the Overlords have been watching Earth for thousands of years, and if that is indeed the case, then the Overlords could say definitively whether the various miraculous events that began many religions truly did happen (because they would have seen them), though they refuse to ever do so. Even so, Karellen states that he will ask his superiors when they may reveal themselves.
Although the Overlords have no desire to wipe out religion—they seem quite content to let human beings believe whatever they want—their mere presence on Earth challenges many of the basic assumptions of organized religion. For example, many religions teach that humanity are the children of God, the most important beings in the universe. The existence of another, far superior race seems to defy that idea.
Themes
Van Ryberg meets with Stormgren after his meeting, sharing his latest conspiracy theory about Karellen’s true nature. Stormgren comments on how often Karellen alludes to his superiors and refers to his post on Earth as something temporary, seeming to suspect that the Overlords, too, answer to a higher power. Van Ryberg agrees with the Freedom League: the Overlords ought to show themselves.
Although much of humanity assumes that the Overlords are all-knowing and all-powerful, Stormgren’s closeness to Karellen helps him to realize that Karellen is not a god, just a worker. The rulers of humanity also have their own hierarchy above them.
Themes
The narrator recalls how, in the first year of their arrival, the Overlords seemed almost completely unobtrusive, except for when humanity paused to consider how their swiftly-rising standard of living was due to their new governors. The Overlords did not seem to care what type of government a country had, so long as it was not oppressive, and their presence eliminated the possibility of war between nations. Other than that, the Overlords were largely unnoticeable.
The Overlords are masters of using passive power to govern and control. Humanity is initially so fearful of the Overlords’ potential power that even after the fear has subsided, human beings know that to disobey their rulers would put them in great peril. Thus, the world is finally at peace, and the Overlords are able to take a hands-off approach.
Themes
