The World Set Free · Chapter
§ VI explained
This chapter illustrates the widespread skepticism and resistance to scientific discovery and invention in the late 19th century, using a domestic conversation between a father and his schoolboy son about the possibility of human flight.
What happens
This chapter illustrates the widespread skepticism and resistance to scientific discovery and invention in the late 19th century, using a domestic conversation between a father and his schoolboy son about the possibility of human flight. The father shows the boy a photograph of an early flying machine, but the boy remains doubtful, citing the authority of his headmaster, 'Old Broomie,' who insists no man will ever fly. The chapter concludes by noting that the boy later lived to fly across the Atlantic and edit his father's reminiscences.
Free preview opens on this chapter — companions, themes, and character notes appear beside the text.
Narrative arc
Story tension across the book — this chapter sits in Exposition.
- Setup
- Escalation
- Breaking point
- Aftermath
- Closing
In this passage, the emotional and psychological peak occurs as Karenin, facing his own mortality, delivers a…
Full beat labels and climax notes unlock in the reader.
Follow the arc while readingThemes in this chapter
- Technological Progress and Its Consequences
The chapter explores the resistance to technological innovation, using the example of early aviation and the disbelief that humans would ever fly.
- The Inevitability of Change and Adaptation
Despite the skepticism of figures like Old Broomie, the chapter shows that progress is unstoppable, as the boy later flies across the Atlantic.
Characters to notice
- Old Broomie
Mentioned as the headmaster who tells his class that no man will ever fly, representing the skeptical authority of the time.
Key passages
“I wish, Daddy, that you wouldn’t write all this stuff about flying. The chaps rot me.”
The boy asks his father to stop writing about flying because his friends tease him about it.
Illustrates the social pressure against embracing new ideas.
“But old Broomie, he told all the boys in his class only yesterday, ‘No man will ever fly.’ No one, he says, who has ever shot grouse or pheasants on the wing would ever believe anything of the sort.”
The boy cites his headmaster's authoritative claim that human flight is impossible, based on hunting experience.
Shows how established authority can resist scientific progress.
“Yet that boy lived to fly across the Atlantic and edit his father’s reminiscences.”
The skeptical boy later in life flew across the Atlantic and compiled his father's memoirs.
Demonstrates the eventual triumph of technological progress over initial resistance.
