For the most part, the children remain silent about their motivations. Eventually, they abandon the homes of their adoptive parents for a school run by the Ministry of Defence, where they are taught by a local man, Professor Gordon Zellaby. The children develop unnaturally quickly, and they can communicate telepathically with each other: as one learns something, so do the others. They all give birth on the same day and their children share an unusual appearance, including glowing golden eyes, pale skin and platinum blond hair. When they come round several hours later, they seem unaffected, but gradually all women of child-bearing age in the village are discovered to be pregnant. The action begins when all the inhabitants of the small English village of Midwich suddenly fall unconscious. But, like Golding, Wyndham is primarily concerned with fundamental questions about the future of the human race – questions for which the figure of the child provides a useful and challenging focus. The fictional world of John Wyndham’s novel The Midwich Cuckoos, published in 1957, is a very long way from that of Lord of the Flies.
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