Childhood’s End
Themes, Motifs and Symbols
THEME: A central idea or statement that unifies and
controls an entire literary work.

Utopia

No utopia can make everyone happy
Jan Roddricks still longs to explore outer space
 Freedom League rebels against the Overlords’
rule


With the promise of utopia comes the
threat of boredom and complacency

The New Athens Colony has to be founded in
order to perpetuate artistic and scientific
achievement
Themes: Knowledge and
Adventure

Humans have an innate need for adventure and
exploration

At the Grand Canyon: Hundreds of meters down the shadowed slope at
whose brim Karellen stood, a mule-train was slowly winding its way into the
valley’s depths. It was strange, Karellen thought, that so many human
beings still seized every opportunity for primitive behavior. They could
reach the bottom of the canyon in a fraction of the time, and in far greater
comfort, if they chose. Yet they preferred to be jolted along tracks which
were probably as unsafe as they looked. (102)
Themes: Knowledge and
Adventure

Some knowledge exceeds
human capacity



Jan realizes that the stars
are not for man.
Karellen reminds humanity
that some knowledge
exceeds our capacity.
The aim of all humanity is to
do something better than
anyone else, that is, to be
an individual.


Jan and Professor Stanley
both long to achieve
something that will be
remembered by posterity.
Even in the face of the
world’s destruction, Jan
takes pride in being the
world’s best pianist.
Now, it’s your turn:

With a partner, identify one theme from
Childhood’s End

Explain the theme and connect it to the text
MOTIF: A conspicuous recurring element, such as a
type of incident, a device, a reference, or verbal
formula

Humans as children: the Overlords are the
caretakers and protectors of a race that is
coming into maturity.


The universe was great and vast, but that fact terrified
him less than its mystery. George was not a person
who thought deeply on such matters, yet sometimes it
seemed to him that men were like children amusing
themselves in some secluded playground, protected
from the fierce realities of the outer world. (150)
Dr. Sen to Overlord Inspector: ‘Our problem in
bringing up these children must, I imagine, be very
similar to yours when confronted with the human
race.’ (161)
Motifs: Christian Imagery

Childhood's End may be read as an
allegorical tale, a morality play set on a
science fiction stage.



The arrival of the Antichrist, or Satan (the
Overlords)
the end of humanity (as it dies out after the
Overlords' announcement of the coming of the
Overmind)
an Armageddon and assumption of the faithful
into Heaven (as the children of the last
generation join the Overmind, destroying the
Earth in the process)
Motif: Collective Consciousness

The Overmind is that it is a kind of collective conscious, a
being of thought and energy composed of the minds of
millions of other beings, all working as a single entity.

As a race, all humans—even those thousands of years
before the children of the last generation—have had some
latent abilities of this sort. Ie. When Rashaverak discovers
“11 clear cases of partial breakthrough and 27 probables”.

This is what provides the explanation for why the Overlords
look so similar to a Christian image of the Devil: humans,
as a collective, had a premonition or memory of their
ultimate end, and they feared that end. Therefore, they
made the Overlords into demons, an object of fear and
evil.
Motifs: Children are unknowable

:‘Enjoy them while
you may… They will
not be yours for long.’
It was advice that
might have been
given in any age: but
now it contained a
threat and a terror it
had never held
before. (177)
Now, it’s your turn:

With a partner, identify one motif from
Childhood’s End

Explain the motif and connect it to the text
Symbols: The Overlords

The Overlords can be seen as ironic symbols of the
Devil. Like the devil, the Overlords bring about the
end of humanity. However, whereas Satan would
have brought about much death and destruction
before the final end, the Overlords bring about peace
and prosperity.

In the end, humanity does degrade into violence and
death, just as predicted in Revelations; and the
shepherds of this end are the Overlords. Whether they
are evil or not is a matter of perspective; they do the
bidding of the Overmind and play a part in the end of
humanity and the destruction of Earth.
Symbols: New Athens

New Athens is symbolic of the inevitable decay of
a utopian society and the uselessness of
peacefully attempting to combat those problems.
For all its hopes of artistic achievement, the New
Athens colony is ultimately impotent. It is a
symbol of the broader utopia of Earth around it.
Both are doomed to failure.
Symbols: The Overmind

If the Overlords represent the
devil, then the Overmind is the
closest thing there is to god. The
way in which the children of the
last generation are incorporated
into the Overmind is reminiscent
of Christian descriptions of the
Rapture, when the souls of the
faithful are called into the Divine
Presence, there to remain for
eternity as part of the Holy Trinity.
But, in theory, the Overmind is a
thing of science; it should be
capable of being studied,
understood, and perhaps even
destroyed. By placing the
Overmind in a science fiction
novel, there are certain
constraints on how far a symbolic
or allegorical comparison can be
taken.
Symbols:
Overlords as British colonists

The Overlords…seldom left
their one remaining ship.
Perhaps they found it
physically uncomfortable on
Earth… They were never
seen without a belt adorned
with complex mechanisms
which, it was generally
believed, controlled their
weight and enabled them to
communicate with each other.
Direct sunlight was painful to
them, and they never stayed
in it for more than a few
seconds. When they had to
go into the open for any
length of time, they wore dark
glasses which gave them a
somewhat incongruous
appearance. (71)
Overlords as British Colonists, ctd.

At his party, Rupert Boyce explains the
Overlords’ interest in paranormal
phenomena and human psychology:

“Surely you’d study the superstitions of any
primitive race you were having dealings
with!”
Now, it’s your turn:

With a partner, find one symbol from
Childhood’s End

Explain the symbol and connect it to the text