The Five Fishes

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The Children of Men, written by P.D James, is not a single-layered story. The human race has become infertile, the Warden of England has become an all-powerful tyrant. An infertile population has created an increasingly secular society, one that trivializes religious practices and institutions. This government also takes advantage of foreign immigrants by importing them for hard labor until they become useless and old, and deport them. Theo, a self-interested Oxford historian, is approached by Julian, a pregnant member of a group that opposes the government and wishes for reforms known as The Five Fishes. The narrative goes into a chase scene; The Five Fishes attempt to flee from Xan’s forces. Eventually, the child is born and Theo kills Xan. …show more content…
James, needs to make. To James, this fictional world is a logical extension of the world she sees around her. She’s critiquing the current state of England, and of religion in general. Humanity needs to accept that there is a God, and that He is great, and to trust in Him. “The God who turns humanity to its own self-destruction, who abandons the world to its own tedium and aridity, creates a moral and religious vacuum in order to fill it with faith.”(Wood 288) Wood makes a very sharp remark here on the nature of God in James’s novel; even though God truly does work in mysterious ways, everything does happen for a reason. P.D James expresses that this awful dystopic future doesn’t disprove God’s existence – this disaster actually makes it clear that the human race needs to be reminded of His power, and that the human race needs redemption. The baby’s conception is a miracle, but we aren’t given an explanation on how it came about. P.D James does this to explain that we must embrace miracles, that some things are only explainable through God. Theo transforms from a dry secular humanist that is incapable of love to a man who realizes the true power of love, hope, and God. If humans, whether in the face of global infertility or atomic war, can follow in Theo’s footsteps, perhaps there is hope for the human race after
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