Themes
The story is epic and sweeping, encompassing and describing hundreds of civilizations, races and species on thousands of worlds. While not bestowing upon the reader any singular theme or underlying purpose, it shows that despite the obviously massive advances in technology, society and scope of human civilisation, we are still fundamentally the same. As described by the Sleeping God, the Confederation is (paraphrasing) "one vast middle-class estate", still suffering war, genocide, environmental destruction, hideous crime and greed, best exemplified by Earth as a rotten core to the confederation. On the other hand, the prospect of alien races, starships, genetic engineering and habitable worlds is hugely optimistic, describing the state of the Confederation as a "golden age of humanity".
There is also the recurring theme of duality, Adamists vs Edenists, Tyrathca vs Mosdva, Residents vs Ivets, Edenists vs Serpents, ESA vs ISA, even the Tyrathca have an internal divide. Each divide is a division of the natures of the individual. Edenist representing the logical nature of humanity while Adamists the emotional nature of humanity while in the end humanity is a whole. Tyrathca representing persistence while Mosdva representing creativity.
Read more about this topic: The Night's Dawn Trilogy
Famous quotes containing the word themes:
“In economics, we borrowed from the Bourbons; in foreign policy, we drew on themes fashioned by the nomad warriors of the Eurasian steppes. In spiritual matters, we emulated the braying intolerance of our archenemies, the Shi’ite fundamentalists.”
—Barbara Ehrenreich (b. 1941)
“I suppose you think that persons who are as old as your father and myself are always thinking about very grave things, but I know that we are meditating the same old themes that we did when we were ten years old, only we go more gravely about it.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)