One of the most inventive and thematically rich decisions made by Finney was to have his alien invaders from outer space take the form of seeds which transform into pods which give birth to duplicated human life. Inherent within the novel’s celebration individualism as an expression of how one thinks rather than how one looks is the underlying caution that this very spirit is never more at risk than when one is faced with choices related to self-preservation.
Ultimately, it must be admitted that the pods have no political agenda for taking over the lives of earthlings indeed, their only agenda seems to be self-preservation. That the duplicates created by the pods manifest every other aspect of their host’s unique individuality except their passions for anything hints very strongly that Finney was being completely honest when he asserted he wrote the novel without any ideological stance. The ability of the alien pods to successfully duplicate every aspect of what makes a human being distinct from every other human being except the ability to process the emotional responses that lead to the acquisition of ideologies is a testament to the novel’s central theme being the celebration of the ability and the subsequent freedom to think and believe what one wants. This much is evident from the fact that the original 1950’s movie adaptation has been interpreted equally as a Red Scare warning against communist subversion and as railing against the forces of McCarthyism which stood at the vanguard of that very warning about "commies" and "pinkos" lurking on every street corner. One can read into Jack Finney’s tale of conformity run amok any ideological perspective one prefers. We are thankful for their contributions and encourage you to make your own.
These notes were contributed by members of the GradeSaver community.
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