The Children of Men drops the reader right in the middle of the action. It starts off powerfully, in the year 2021, when a major infertility crisis is the reason for no more children being born. On the first page, it is also stated that the youngest human being that was born on earth was killed around midnight on the first of January, althouh the reason why is not stated.Shortly after, the reader also learns that the story is being told by the protagonist who is writing all the events in his diary because of two factors: his birthday, and the fact that it's a new year.
While Theodore is telling the reader about the current state of the world crisis, he also states that many nations are momentairly storing their books, artifacts, and instruments in order to preserve the memory of the people that once lived on this planet. So that in case the extraterrestrials would land on earth once all humans will cease to exist, they will know what type of civilization once resided there. While pondering, Theodore also comes across the thought of whether the aliens would be awed and intrigued by our creations, or whether they'd simply think nothing like us, and not be touched at all by our creations. The protagonist also states how the case of infertility became a global crisis, and that soon after it was recognized that there was no pregnant woman throughout the world, the hunt for the youngest human being begun. The youngest human being that was discovered was Ricardo, and he continued being the youngest one until he was shot the previous day.
This novel seems very intriguing. Out of the four dystopian novels that I've chosen, I think that this one creates the most realistic scenario. Because of the increasing number of genetic diseases, and overall diseases in this world, I wouldn't be surprised if in the future, infertility would also become a world wide issue. Afterall, I think we're coming across more diseases than cures, nowadays, and I don't think that will change at all in the future.
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2 comments:
Could the impression that it seems more "realistic" be attributed to the fact that it is the latest novel published in your collection?
I think it certainly can. It's also more realistic when compared to the other novels because it is the most recently published novel, and also because the author didn't look too far into the future when writing it (since the novel is set in the year 2021). What I think also makes the scenario in the book more realistic, is that the author picked something that's currently a minor issue throughout the world,(infertility) but has the potential of becoming a major issue in the future.
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