The Food of the Gods · Chapter
IV explained
After his conversation with Redwood, Mr.
What happens
After his conversation with Redwood, Mr. Bensington is so excited about the potential of the Food of the Gods that he cannot sleep, dreaming of the earth swelling beyond its boundaries. Redwood also has a dream, envisioning himself lecturing primordial forces on the revolutionary growth his discovery will bring. Both dreams underscore the scientists' profound belief in the significance of their idea.
Themes in this chapter
Scientific Responsibility and Unintended Consequences
The scientists' dreams reveal their excitement and hubris about the Food's potential, foreshadowing unforeseen consequences.
Inevitability of Change and the New Order
Bensington's dream of bursting boundaries and Redwood's vision of overturning slow natural processes emphasize the theme that change is unstoppable.
Characters to notice
- Mr. Bensington
Lies awake after discussing the Food with Redwood, then dreams of the earth swelling and bursting boundaries.
- Professor Redwood
Also dreams that night, imagining himself lecturing primordial forces about the new growth made possible by the Food.
Key passages
“He did seem once to get into a sort of doze, but it was only for a moment, and then he dreamt he had dug a deep hole into the earth and poured in tons and tons of the Food of the Gods, and the earth was swelling and swelling, and all the boundaries of the countries were bursting, and the Royal Geographical Society was all at work like one great guild of tailors letting out the equator.”
Bensington briefly dozes and dreams of pouring the Food into the earth, causing it to swell until national borders burst, and the Royal Geographical Society frantically adjusts the equator like tailors letting out a garment.
This dream illustrates Bensington's subconscious excitement and the global scale of change he imagines.
“It was a diagram done in fire upon a long scroll of the abyss. And he (Redwood) was standing on a planet before a sort of black platform lecturing about the new sort of growth that was now possible, to the More than Royal Institution of Primordial Forces—forces which had always previously, even in the growth of races, empires, planetary systems, and worlds, gone so:— And even in some cases so:— And he was explaining to them quite lucidly and convincingly that these slow, these even retrogressive methods would be very speedily quite put out of fashion by his discovery.”
Redwood dreams of a fiery diagram in the abyss, where he lectures primordial forces on a black platform, explaining that his discovery will soon make their slow, retrogressive methods obsolete.
Redwood's dream reveals his conviction that the Food will revolutionize growth, surpassing natural processes.