An Essay In Retrospect To The Novel

Childhood’s End Essay, Research Paper

All through history humans have rebelled against authority and overthrown their leaders whom they did not approve of. People do not readily accept others as their rulers, especially when they did not elect those rulers themselves. Some examples of this date back to the revolutionary war when the 13 colonies rebelled against their mother country of Great Britain. To the 13 colonies Britain probably seemed invincible. But the colonies rebelled anyway despite the great overwhelming power that Britain possessed. And with a little help from some outside supporters a new nation was formed from Britain s former 13 colonies. This is what is unavoidable in the novel Childhood s End.

The overlords came to earth with overwhelming power and technology and very easily, with hardly any resistance at all became the supreme rulers of earth. They made rules and laws with no objection by the human race. In the beginning an opposition did oppose the overlords, but it died out shortly after Karellen s announcement to come down to earth in 50 years. But now, 50 years later one man is starting the rebellion, Jan Rodricks. He is the George Washington so to speak of the planet earth. Jan is the one that will start the ball rolling to overthrow the overlords. Humans can only be suppressed for so long before someone comes forward to lead them to victory. And the overlord s days of rein have been numbered.

Jan has successfully stowed away aboard an overlord supply ship and is on his way back to the overlord s home world. He has done this by getting the number of the star that the overlord s come from through some supper natural force. When Jan reaches the overlord s home planet, he will undoubtedly find out some pieces of information that will help the rest of the humans to rebel against the overlords. When he returns he will most likely lead humanity to overthrowing their rulers. If all of the humans unite against their rulers and fight them, or just refuse to recognize them, the overlords will be forced to take some kind of physical action. They have yet to do this, which leads us to believe that they will never do something of that sort.

Another fact that foreshadows the absence of the overlords in the future is the titles of the three sections of the book. The first section is titled Earth and the Overlords . This shows that earth has just met the overlords, which will be their future leaders. This section is about humans realizing what the overlords have come to do.

The second section is titled The Golden Age . Golden is usually thought of to be perfect, and flawless. This section is therefore about the generation of people that live a perfect life that has everything provided for them due to the overlords. The last section is titled The Last Generation . This title suggests that that section will talk about the generation of people that are the last to deal with the overlords. And therefore they must be the generation that is led by Jan Rodricks to overthrow the overlords.

Humans can only be suppressed for so long before they rebel. Jan Rodricks is the one who will lead the human race to overthrow the rulers of the earth. This is shown throughout history, and is also foreshadowed in the book. The overlords, who apparently

had good intentions, will not be ruling the earth for much longer.