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The Freedom League
The viewing screen in the conference room in which Stormgren and Karellen periodically meet functions as a minor symbol of the Overlords’ rule: it is opaque and deceptive, based on illusion and the inclination of humanity to not question its own assumptions.
Stormgren simply assumes that the viewing screen is in fact a display of some sort. He has never questioned that assumption in the five years that he has been meeting with Karellen, until he finally comes to discover that it is simply a sheet of one-way glass through which Karellen watches him. Despite the Overlords’ vast technological capacity, the illusion is simple, merely a trick of the light. This is representative of the Overlords’ use of their power to rule in general—like the trick with the viewing screen, much of the Overlords’ perceived power is similarly an illusion. For example, the threatening Overlord ships that hover over humanity for fifty years are really just mirages.
Despite Stormgren’s friendship with Karellen and despite the Overlords’ displayed affection for humanity, the Overlords keep their plans as opaque as the viewing screen, never being fully honest about their own nature, their intentions, or what is transpiring around them. The Overlords base their entire rule on such deceptions, which are often comparatively simple, and their refusal to be honest or open with their subjects only reinforces their role as authoritarians, regardless of how friendly or benevolent they may appear to be.
Karellen’s One-Way Screen Quotes in Childhood’s End
The Childhood’s End quotes below all refer to the symbol of Karellen’s One-Way Screen. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapter 20
Quotes
“All of our sojourn here has been based on a vast deception, a concealment of truths which you were not ready to face.”
Related Characters:
Related Symbols:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Get the entire Childhood’s End LitChart as a printable PDF.
Karellen’s One-Way Screen Symbol Timeline in Childhood’s End
The timeline below shows where the symbol Karellen’s One-Way Screen appears in Childhood’s End. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 2
...stepping into a small conference room with one chair, which he sits in, and a viewing screen that is always off.
(full context)
Karellen’s voice enters the room through a hidden grille and he begins discussing with Stormgren the meeting with Wainwright. Karellen wishes that the people...
(full context)
Chapter 4
...the shape and build of the meeting room to Duval, Duval surmises that perhaps the viewing screen is no screen at all, but merely a sheet of one-way glass, and that it...
(full context)
...later, Stormgren is finishing his meeting with Karellen, his briefcase sitting inches away from the viewing screen . Karellen announces that he has received word from his superiors—to ease some of the...
(full context)
...Karellen is indeed sitting some six feet behind the sheet of one-way glass of the viewing screen . Karellen is sitting in a dark room and Stormgren in a brightly lit room,...
(full context)
...had rescued him. Stormgren moves quickly and presses his light against the glass of the viewing screen .
(full context)
