< previous page page_116 next page >

Page 116
f9a522f89232d5b7d27e9f2bbc694306.gif f9a522f89232d5b7d27e9f2bbc694306.gif
Walls were crutches! Darkness and crowds were crutches! He must have thought so, unconsciously, and hated them even when he most thought he loved and needed them. . . .
f9a522f89232d5b7d27e9f2bbc694306.gif f9a522f89232d5b7d27e9f2bbc694306.gif
He felt himself filling with a sense of victory, and as though victory were contagious a new thought came, bursting like an inner shout. . . .
That thought is the solution to the murder. One good thing leads to another. Asimov has shown Baley passing through successive stages of his agoraphobia and the consequences of his attempts to conquer it, growing more able to control his fear with each incident, until at last he masters his deepest apprehensions and becomes a better person at the same time that he solves the murder that brought him to Solaria.
Only Baley's return to Earth remains to bring the movement of the novel full circle. The theme of The Caves of Steel was the need for Earthmen to emigrate to the unsettled planets, as a means not so much of relieving population pressure (an impractical notion, as Asimov exposed in Nemesis) but of resuming humanity's march to the stars so that it can accept its heritage: the uninhabited Galaxy. The theme did not seem to be taken particularly seriously in the first novel, for the possibility of Earthmen going to other planets without their enclosed environment seemed so unlikely as to be virtually impossible: at best it might be left to their children or their children's children. But in The Naked Sun Baley faced his fears for all Earthmen; what he can do, others can do. Baley thinks of his son Bentley "standing on some empty world, building a spacious life. It was a frightening thought. Baley still feared the open. [Asimov was a realist about human psychology and did not believe that he could work a miracle and change Baley completely.] But he no longer feared the fear! It was not something to run from, that fear, but something to fight."
Baley goes through a few paragraphs of reverie, retracing his experiences with the open spaces and the naked sun on Solaria, and realizes not only that others can do it but that it has changed him. He no longer fits in on Earth. "He had told Minnim that Cities were wombs, and so they were. And what was the first thing a man must do before he can be a man? He must be born. He must leave the womb. And once left, it could not be re-entered." For Baley the caves of steel now are alien.
The novel ends as it began, with Baley facing his fear. But now he can handle it. He also has been changed by his experience and he understands his dream on Solaria. The last words of the novel are:
f9a522f89232d5b7d27e9f2bbc694306.gif f9a522f89232d5b7d27e9f2bbc694306.gif
He lifted his head and he could see through all the steel and concrete and humanity above him. He could see the beacon set in space to lure men outward. He could see it shining down. The naked sun!

 
< previous page page_116 next page >