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
On the Overlords’ ship, Rashaverak reports what he has seen to Karellen, as well as an analysis of the books in Rupert’s library. Amongst the 15,000 volumes on paranormal activity, most of which he believes are trash, Rashaverak found 11 “clear cases of partial break-through” and 27 “probables.” Rashaverak is more interested in Jean than in Rupert, whom he considers just a hobbyist. Jean, it seems to him, is the “channel through which the information came,” even though she is too old to be a “Prime Contact.” Rashaverak thinks that she must be connected to this Prime Contact somehow, and that they need to closely observe her, since she could be “the most important human being alive.”
It is revealed that the Overlords’ interest in paranormal events is far more serious than a simple anthropological review, suggesting some level of connection—or at least, synergy—between science and mysticism. This seems to be a reflection of the author’s own view: Clarke himself took the paranormal very seriously and invested millions of dollars and countless hours trying to prove the existence of paranormal happenings and psychic abilities. By the end of his life, however, he was skeptical of nearly all of it.
Themes
Karellen also inquires about Jan. Rashaverak says he was there by happenstance, though with his interest in space travel he will certainly investigate what he has heard. Karellen opts to closely watch him as well, since the Overlords, as a matter of policy, never reveal where they have travelled from. Rashaverak does not believe the information Jan has will lead him anywhere, but Karellen is wary.
Jan is the perfect person to come upon such information. While most people would have done nothing with the information even if they had understood what it was, Jan, the curious scientist and brave adventurer, sees it as the opportunity of a lifetime. And now that the Overlords’ secrecy, from which they draw much of their power, is threatened, they begin to exert their overreaching power once more.
Themes
Rupert had pondered the strange happening, but never drew a conclusion. The page on which Ruth had written the string of numbers the Ouija board had answered with had disappeared, and to Rupert it seems like nonsense.
Contrary to Jan, Rupert represents the majority of humanity in its utopian stupor: happy to write off anything that does not fit within a familiar frame of reference. Although he sought evidence of the mystical, as merely a hobbyist, he does not know what to do once he has actually witnessed it.
Themes
George is most affected by the fear he felt when Jean fainted, though he caught her as she fell. That fear makes him realize that he cares more for Jean than any of his other lovers, and as she awakens in their flying transport, destined for home, he asks her to sign a marriage contract for five years. She accepts, but says it should be for ten years instead. Jean confesses to George that she fears the Overlords, not because she thinks they are evil, but because she cannot imagine what their plans are.
George’s love for Jean does not stop him from seeing any of his other lovers, just that he wants to stay with Jean for at least several more years. This suggests, again, that a utopian, sexually-liberated state results in weakened commitments and a weakened family unit. This seems to be intended by the author as a sign of the moral degradation of society.
Themes
Get the entire Childhood’s End LitChart as a printable PDF.
Jan goes to London on the pretense of attending an astronomy conference, but his true purpose is to look up “NGS 549672,” which he alone has recognized as coordinates in outer space, at an astronomical observatory. He finds a star in precisely the right place, in the direction he had seen the Overlord supply ship launch when he was standing on Rupert’s roof. Although Jan is conflicted about believing an answer given to him by a Ouija board, since it seems scientifically unviable, the correlating evidence that the Overlords’ star is there seems too great to be coincidence. Jan smiles, realizing that he is the only human being who knows the origin of the Overlords, which gives him power.
That Jan has obtained this scientific knowledge—the location of the Overlords’ star—through the mysticism of a Ouija board implies that there ought to be a synergy, rather than outright conflict, between mysticism and science. And though he is conflicted about using data gained from such an unscientific source, that Jan, the hero scientist, is open to investigating that data at all suggests that the ideal scientist is one who is open to the paranormal as well as the rational, again implying a synergy between the two.
Themes
