“Afraid?! *twitch* I’m n-n-not afraid…”
Are you afraid of change? I am. It just feels… unfamiliar, uncomfortable… like the very core of my world, my “bubble,” has been ripped from me, leaving me cold and surrounded by an alien world. Suitable for this story isn’t it? Alien… I think this was the primary cause of Maxine’s actions in Clifford Simak’s Immigrant upon being pushed to try something she herself did not believe was possible yet was happening before her very eyes.
An experience of experiences to say the least, its not every day that one gets to witness telekinetic powers in use, much less to be the user. She was afraid and rightly so! I said above that the change, the unfamiliarity of the situation, was the primary cause of Maxine’s fear, but I think there were other more subtle causes as well. One of them was her reluctance for change. Change is an unnerving thing, but there are different ways to accept change, and even to embrace it (this is the point that I think Bishop had reached) but because Maxine was afraid of the change, she was also trying to fight it away, trying to ignore it out of existence (ironically enough I feel that by ignoring change it makes it all that much more frightening, especially when the change is inevitable). One more thing that I think also contributed to her fear was her acceptance of and to the world as it was given to her by the Kimonians. Now that might sound a bit confusing but let me try and explain it. The Kimonians are known to the human race as a race of superior technology, intelligence, physiology, etc. This plants a seed in her mind. The Kimonians are now seen as “master” (I think a good term for this can be found in the book Childhood’s End and is what the humans called the aliens that came to them in the story, the Overlords). Now the Kimonians are, in her mind, her “overlords” and she is to simply do what they say and not question it, not wonder about it, not ask “why?” When in reality this is perhaps the worst course of action she could have chosen, but her mindset further hinders her understanding, consequently leading to her fear when she exhibits telekinetic powers. She immediately discredits herself and says “…they are always watching…” and “…they play tricks like that on us…” and I could just see the Kimonians watching this happen and the glimmer of hope they had had only moments ago fade as Maxine walks away from this momentous event in the growth of the human race.
Ultimately I think Maxine symbolizes the discomfort and fear with change not only for herself but for the human race, and Bishop the future of the human race. The Kimonians set out to find someone they could relate with and they found them, sort of. Embrace change and don’t run from it but rather into it. You never know what might happen.
I think that change can be good. My point is, not necessarily. Many of us are set in our ways, and that doesn’t always mean that our ways are wrong or need improvement. However, it is necessary to keep an open-mind. The case with Msxine is that she completely shuts herself off and doesn’t allow for room to explore the changes all around her. Comfort and pride are leading factors of hinderance.
alexis tracy said this on November 18, 2009 at 12:16 pm