Ready Reference Treatise: Childhood's End

By Raja Sharma

“Childhood’s End” by Arthur C. Clarke is a highly popular and widely read novel; it was first published in 1953. It is a science fiction novel. The story describes the peaceful alien invasion of Earth. The mysterious Overlords invade Earth.

With the arrival of the aliens, utopia begins on Earth and it continues for several decades. The Earth is indirectly ruled by the aliens. However, the utopia comes at the cost of human identity and culture.

Ready Reference Treatise: Childhood's End
Copyright
Chapter One: Introduction
Chapter Two: Plot Overview
Chapter Three: Major Characters
Chapter Four: Complete Summary
Book One
Book Two
Book Three
Chapter Five: Thematic Analysis

• Language: English
• Publisher: Raja Sharma
• Release date: Feb 26, 2016
• ISBN: 9781311824714

Raja Sharma

Raja Sharma is a retired college lecturer.He has taught English Literature to University students for more than two decades.His students are scattered all over the world, and it is noticeable that he is in contact with more than ninety thousand of his students.

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Ready Reference Treatise: Childhood's End

Copyright

Ready Reference Treatise: Childhood's End

Raja Sharma

Copyright@2016 Raja Sharma

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Chapter One: Introduction

Childhood’s End by Arthur C. Clarke is a highly popular and widely read novel; it was first published in 1953. It is a science fiction novel. The story describes the peaceful alien invasion of Earth. The mysterious Overlords invade Earth.

With the arrival of the aliens, utopia begins on Earth and it continues for several decades. The Earth is indirectly ruled by the aliens. However, the utopia comes at the cost of human identity and culture.

In the year 1946, the author had written a short story titled Guardian Angel. He later expanded that story into a novel in 1952. It became the first part of the book titled Earth and the Overlords.

When Childhood’s End was published, the first printing of the novel was sold in a few days. Most of the reviews were highly positive. It came to be the author’s first successful novel.

Both critics and readers regard Childhood’s End as the best novel written by Arthur C. Clarke. It is often described as a classic of alien literature. In the year 2004, the book was nominated for the Retro Hugo Award for Best Novel.

It is noticeable that Childhood’s End precisely predicted a Space Race between the Soviet Union and the United States of America. The book has been adapted into a film and several television serials. However, the levels of success have been different.

The author thought in 1990 that Childhood’s End had outdated nature, so he revised it a bit. In the revised edition, he changed the space race to the race of Mars.

He also included a new prologue to the revised book. In that new prologue, the author mentioned that he was fully sceptic. It was obviously a very different view from those presented in the novel.

Chapter Two: Plot Overview

Childhood’s End is divided into three parts. These three parts are related to the reader by a first-person omniscient narrator.

At the beginning of the novel, the author describes the expeditions that the United States and Soviet Union have been conducting to study the reaches of space. They are working hard to go ahead in the race, but their efforts are interrupted by the entry of huge spaceships in the Earth’s atmosphere. These spaceships cover Earth’s major cities.

The ships belong to the Overlords. Karellen is the leader of the Overlords. They communicate with the people of the earth through their leader. The leader speaks with Rikki Stormgren. Rikki happens to be the United Nations Secretary-General.

The Overlords make an announcement that they are going to control the international affairs and they want the end of war and violence on Earth. The humans try to push back some times, but they eventually settle into peace.

The Overlords keep the humans under strict surveillance. There is some resistance on several occasions, but they control them.

The one particular resistance comes from the Freedom League. They suspect that they cannot see the Overlords face to face and do not understand their long term goals, although the Overlords seem to be extremely benevolent.

A positive relationship develops between Stormgren and Karellen, the leader of the Overlords. Once, a radical fringe of the Freedom League kidnaps Stormgren. He is rescued by Karellen, but Stormgren later learns that he was just a pawn in Karellen’s hands because