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Chapter 5
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
In fifty years, the world and its people have been entirely transformed through the Overlords’ vast knowledge, social engineering, and intelligent use of power. Karellen had once explained this to Stormgren, arguing that what matters is not how much power is used (in terms of destructive potential), but the way that it is applied. This was demonstrated in the way that the illusions of the Overlord ships were a very simple trick, but the effect gave the Overlords much control over humanity. Stormgren thought this was a little too similar to “Might makes right.” Karellen had been right, however, to not reveal the Overlords’ appearance too early, since the Overlords were the exact image of the Devil passed down through millennia.
This is the key behind the Overlords’ efficiency with which they exert their power. Rather than dominate militarily or with any shows of great force, they just assert their presence and let humanity surmise and dread about their obvious technological superiority. With a little technological sophistication and a deep understanding of human psychology, massive populations are able to be controlled by a seemingly few number of people. The Overlords have mastered colonization.
Themes
The Overlords rarely left their single ship. Few people had ever seen one in person and it was anyone’s guess how many there actually were. Even so, the Earth has been transformed into a utopia. Consumer goods are available at nearly no cost, war is a distant memory, and crimes of passion are rare, now that humanity is much more psychologically stable. The world has slowed down its frantic pace of the 20th century and has embraced a leisurely attitude of tranquility. Education has become a lifelong pursuit. Reliable contraceptives and precise methods for determining the father of a child loosen sexual conventions. Air travel has been so improved that travel has become remarkably easy.
The Overlords’ power has become so well-established and well-respected that they are able to take a mostly hands-off approach to governing, allowing humanity to at least have the illusion of relative freedom. It should be noted that the Overlords are never giving up any control or power; they are simply letting it fade into the background as humanity grows more content and more less concerned about its rulers.
Themes
Religion has also fallen; the world has become entirely secularized. The Overlords possess an observation tool that allows its user to look back at any point in history. Humanity immediately used it to look at the starting points of various organized religions and apparently saw that they were built on false pretenses. This crumbled organized religion overnight. “Humanity had lost its ancient gods: now it was old enough not to need new ones.”
Though humanity has abandoned religion, it is revealed throughout the story that many of them ascribe a level of godhood to the Overlords themselves, wrongly believing that they are all-knowing and all-powerful. This suggests that humanity’s proclivity for the mystical and supernatural is far more deeply-rooted than organized religion itself.
Themes
However, with the fall of religion has come the fall of art and science. Although many now have a recreational interest in science and art, nothing new or truly original is being created. Earth is still sating itself with the greatness of past works. Most of humanity is still enjoying the newness of utopia too much to notice.
This suggests that religion, though it stands in many ways antagonistic to scientific development, is also spurred by it. The belief in higher power and higher purpose—rather than simply the hedonistic pleasures of utopia—also pushes scientific minds to greater heights in an effort to extend humanity’s knowledge and its reach.
Themes
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