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Chapter 2
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
Lying in bed at night, Stormgren is unable to sleep, so he walks out onto his rooftop garden and stares at Karellen’s ship hanging in the sky. He realizes that he, too, is starting to become obsessed with the Overlords’ secrecy. His obsession was not only due to the resistance that the Freedom League and other groups had to being ruled by someone they could not see. Stormgren saw Karellen as a person, even a friend, and simple curiosity drove him to want to know more about this person.
Stormgren’s curiosity about Karellen’s physical appearance and his plans mirror the Freedom League’s own ambitions, but Stormgren is differently motivated. The Freedom League wants to know if their fears are justified. Stormgren’s motivation is mostly personal—he just wants to know his friend.
Themes
Stormgren fails to arrive for work the next morning, and Van Ryberg discovers that he has disappeared. Van Ryberg becomes the acting Secretary-General. The intermittent protests around the world against the Overlords suddenly cease, as humanity realizes it has lost its only spokesperson. The Freedom League declares its innocence in the matter.
From humanity’s perspective, Stormgren is effectively the face of the Overlords. Once he is removed, the protesters are suddenly unsure of where to direct their protests—shaking their fists at the ships in the atmosphere won’t make any difference. It is difficult to defy a faceless enemy.
Themes
Stormgren awakens in an underground cell. A man enters his cell, addressing him as “Mr. Secretary” and explains that Stormgren has been unconscious for several days. The stranger gives him some clothes from Stormgren’s own house and invites him to dine. The stranger introduces himself as Joe.
That Stormgren feels very little fear demonstrates his extreme confidence in Karellen’s omniscience and abilities. Stormgren’s understanding of the extent of the Overlords’ power makes his defense of them even more compelling. He knows what Karellen is capable of, yet rather than fearing this power as others do, Stormgren remains loyal to him.
Themes
Once Stormgren has dressed, Joe leads him down a corridor carved from rock. They seem to be in an abandoned mine, which Stormgren surmises will prevent Karellen from being able to locate and rescue him. Stormgren is for the first time worried about his kidnapping.
This is the first time that Stormgren or the reader must consider that perhaps the Overlords are not truly all-powerful, foreshadowing their future depiction as helpless servants of the Overmind.
Themes
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They arrive at a room where two other men are sitting around a table. Joe tells Stormgren that Wainwright had nothing to do with the kidnapping, and then explains in detail how they pulled off the heist, as if it were in a movie. Stormgren is amused at their enthusiasm, though also disturbed, as the plan seems as if it possibly could have deceived Karellen.
Stormgren’s amusement at the description of the heist seems sympathetic to Joe and his comrades. This demonstrates how Stormgren’s loyalties are split—on the one hand, his kidnappers share his common humanity and he can enjoy their excitement, even if their aims may disturb him; on the other, Karellen, his ally, is foreign, alien, and utterly inhuman.
Themes
Joe and his comrades confirm to Stormgren that they are part of a movement fighting for their independence. They tell him that they will have visitors in a few days to speak with Stormgren, and they will spend the meantime playing poker.
Once again, Stormgren is able to share a very human pastime with his captors: playing games. Stormgren cannot play poker with Karellen, and it seems that this simple activity of human interaction reinforces Stormgren’s similarity to Joe and the resistance movement, as opposed to his dissimilarity to Karellen.
Themes
Van Ryberg, in the Secretary-General’s office, is unable to make any progress discovering who kidnapped Stormgren. He enters Stormgren’s communications room and uses his equipment to query Karellen for answers and advice. Karellen quickly replies that he has none, and leaves everything to Van Ryberg’s own judgment.
It is notable that Karellen makes no effort to interact with Van Ryberg in the way that he did with Stormgren. This again suggest that there is level of personal affection in Stormgren and Karellen’s relationship that transcends the merely administrative duties of the office.
Themes
Stormgren spends the days playing poker and analyzing his captors. It seems that Joe is a committed man but not one who has given much thought to the causes he fights for. Several days later, Joe tells him that their visitors, the leaders of the movement, have arrived.
Joe is the sort of man who simply fights for fighting’s sake. Such a person would naturally be inclined to fight if any governing force, however benevolent, were placed above him. Thus, he seems representative of the entire resistance movement, who want freedom for freedom’s sake, without considering the pragmatic implications.
Themes
Stormgren is led into a room where the leaders of the movement, obviously far more powerful and intelligent than Joe, are waiting for him, led by a Welshman. Stormgren inquires what his ransom will be, but the men tell him that they do not want cash. They offer Stormgren freedom in exchange for information.
Even the extremists, who have gone so far as to kidnap a major figure of government, are primarily occupied with finding answers. It seems unbearable to be ruled by a faceless entity, even when that entity has little to no impact on daily life. This suggests that even though the Overlords’ power is benevolent, its technically dictatorial nature is reason enough for humanity to try to throw it off.
Themes
Stormgren decides to cooperate for now, as he does not believe that any information he could give could actually harm Karellen. When they ask him what the Overlords truly are, he tells them he does not know, but he does explain how the weekly meetings with Karellen work and draws a map of the conference room for them.
The Overlords’ power is so disproportionately large that there seems to be nothing that Stormgren can possibly do that would disrupt their plans. To Stormgren, Karellen seems an unstoppable force and his plans for humanity seem inevitable.
Themes
Van Ryberg carries on Stormgren’s duties for him, making no more attempts to communicate with Karellen. Briefly, Karellen’s ship disappears from the sky above New York, prompting shock and some panic, and then it is seen flying low and fast to the south until it disappears into the distance.
To the people of New York, who for so brief a time are not under the shadow of the Overlords, it must be a tremendous (but short-lived) shock. This too, indicates Stormgren’s importance to Karellen, since this is the only time he has moved any of the ships since they arrived five years ago.
Themes
Stormgren continues speaking with his captors, trying to defy them but at the same time hoping that they may help him discover the Overlords’ secrets. The Welshman is frustrated by their lack of progress, so he offers a course of action: a plan for Stormgren to set off some type of observational device during one of his meetings with Karellen.
Stormgren is split between his commitment to Karellen—both for the sake of his friendship and because he believes Karellen’s plans are good—and his fellow human beings. Once again, Stormgren’s loyalties are torn—though Stormgren is opposed to the extremists, they share a common humanity; Karellen, however, is utterly alien.
Themes
Stormgren is reticent, declaring that he believes Karellen is working for the good of humanity and he has no intention of interfering with that work. As proof of the Overlords’ benevolence, he recalls the way that they put an end to cruelty to animals by causing the spectators at a bull fight to momentarily feel the pain of the bull as it was pierced by a spear. Immediately, the fight ended and the spectators no longer had the stomach for such cruelty.
In the case of the bull fight, the Overlords use their authoritarian power to teach human beings empathy, complicating the morality of their style of government. Causing the spectators to feel the bull’s pain is effectively the same as a parent telling its child, “Put yourself in their shoes,” though the implications of this specific power are far more terrifying.
Themes
The Welshman concedes that the Overlords may be benevolent, but states that the problem is that they came uninvited and robbed humanity of its liberty. Stormgren retorts that this is simply the price of progress—the world is changing and there is no use in clinging to the past. The idea of state sovereignty was already on its way out, and the Overlords simply hastened the process. No one should try to stop it.
As he finishes speaking, he realizes that everyone in the room has frozen like statues; Karellen has seemingly paralyzed everyone else in place somehow. A small orb speaks to Stormgren with Karellen’s voice and leads him out of the mine and to a flying transport. Karellen explains that he had known where Stormgren was the whole time since he had put a tracer on him, but Karellen wanted the leaders of the resistance movement to all be present when Stormgren was rescued, so they would know that now they, too, were being watched. Stormgren is irritated that Karellen used him for his own ends.
Like the rest of humanity, Karellen has also been using Stormgren as a pawn in a greater game. This reinforces the imbalance of power between them once again. The trust that Stormgren has placed in Karellen, and because of which he often defended him, is breached by a misuse of Karellen’s power.
Themes
Stormgren asks Karellen if his superiors have given an answer on whether the Overlords are allowed to reveal themselves. Karellen responds that he has received no answer, but he already knows that he will be refused. Stormgren, disappointed, begins thinking about the Welshman’s plan to attempt to observe Karellen during a meeting, realizing that though he would not do it under threat, he might try it of his own accord.
It seems that to Stormgren, Karellen using him as a pawn changes the nature of their relationship and absolves Stormgren of whatever guilt he may feel at breaching Karellen’s trust with his own scheme.
Themes
