Childhoods End

Thesis: Childhood's End demonstrates the problems of a utopian society by showing that a utopia cannot satisfy everyone and removing goals and struggles only creates more conflict, and that a utopian government usually leads to too much power.

I. Utopias remove conflict which only creates more problems in the society.

A. New Athens is a symbol of how a utopia can decay a society.

a. The New Athens Community attempts to reinvigorate creative activities (such as art and science) by isolating themselves from the Overlords and setting up a new society.

i. However, this creates a problem because now, New Athens is essentially a “utopia within a utopia.”

ii. The idea of New Athens is to preserve humanity by artificial primitivism.

iii. New Athens also represents artistic stagnation, which happened because of the lack of struggles.

B. By removing struggles and conflict, the Overlords put humans in a position where their only choice is to begin educating themselves or fall into stagnation.

a. Jan Rodricks became restless and morally deprived

b. As a utopia progresses, the more dissatisfied people become.

C. Jan Rodricks leaves by ship to see the rest of the world because he’s frustrated by his curiosity of the over lords.

a. However, when he returns, he finds that the Overlords have taken over the Earth and that all the children had underwent their “transformation”.

b. The transformed children are basically servants to the Overlords.

c. The children have no interest in anyone, even their own parents and siblings.

II. Technology accounts for the utopian social organizations in Childhood’s End.

A. The Overlords use technology to impose totalitarian rule.

a. They force all the children to undergo a “transformation”, in which they are nothing more than mindless robots, who will eventually become a mass of energy that the...