Emotional Renaissance

“It was reasonable to struggle, to suffer, perhaps even to die, for a more just, a more
compassionate society, but not in a world with no future where, all too soon, t
he very words “justice,” “compassion,”“society,”“struggle,” “evil,”
would be unheard echoes on an empty air” (112).
P. D. James's The Children of Men (1992)

Points for Reflection

P. D. James' The Children of Men (1992), 121-241

1. Why might Theo grab his diary the night that Miriam shows up on his doorstep saying the group needs his help? He claims the diary is not particularly incriminating, so why take it with him when he hurriedly leaves town?
2. Does Theo’s deepening self-knowledge involve a reconsideration of his hostile attitude towards faith and religion, or does his rejection of Christianity grow only stronger? [Moe M]
3. During his informal interrogation of Theo, Chief Inspector George Rawlings wonders aloud whether the Five Fishes group that has been blowing up Quietus ramps and the like is a Christian group, since their symbol is a fish (125). Given what the reader learns of this group in this week’s reading, would it be inappropriate to characterize this group as “Christian”?
4. Does Theo's developing emotional self overwhelm and supplant his intellect, or does he achieve a healthy synergy that combines the powers of the mind and those of the heart? [Natalie M]
5. Does the narrative encourage the reader to side with Rolf in his aspirations to supplant Xan as leader of England?
6. Back in chapter seven, we met Theo’s old mentor Jasper Palmer-Smith, a history don whose approach to humankind’s slow death is detached and cynical. Jasper looked forward to being “spared the intrusive barbarism of the young” (45 top). Does the nature of either his wife’s death (74-75) or his own (162) validate this approach to life? Does the narrative, that is, serve up Jasper as a hero?
7. Why might Theo throw his diary into the lake (219)? Is this some form of symbolic act?
8. Does Theo, ultimately, share Xan’s comfort with power and violence?
9. Do this week’s various revelations about Luke (183-84, 186, 188, 189-90, 237) impact or alter any of the novel’s manifest themes?
10. Do the various changes undergone by Theo in this novel include a spiritual rebirth?
11. Does Xan come to represent evil incarnate for the reader, as he has for Julian?
12. Which is more important in helping Theo finally to recognize and to value both beauty and love, his intellect or his emotions (223, 227, 230, etc.)
13. Earlier in the novel, Theo’s response to Rolf’s and the group’s criticisms of the Quietus, treatment of the Sojourners, and the Isle of Man Penal Colony was that no one cared enough to complain, since they are relatively comfortable and safe. Luke and Julian suggest that what society really needs is a transformed “moral will,” that the people themselves have to be changed (64). Does this novel prove their hope to be an impossible pipe dream?
14. In this novel’s opening pages, Theo reflects on both the curious nature of Christianity (and whether a visiting alien race will be able to decipher the significance of the cross) and humanity’s deification of science and medicine (4-5). By the close of this novel, have either God or science emerged victorious?
15. Julian was once painted by Theo as a mess of contradictions. She has both the beauty of a Pre-Raphaelite model and a deformed hand (39); she was once a skilled debater in his class but is now clumsy in her request for help (40 mid), and her name is supposed to be “Julie Anne,” but the hospital messed up and her legal name became “Julian” (41 bottom). By the end of the novel, have these contradictions resolved themselves? Has Julian proven herself admirable or heroic?

Wychwood Forrest (online)
Michele Field

Dr. Paul Marchbanks
pmarchba@calpoly.edu