Home > If I Forget Thee, O Earth . . . Summary & Study Guide

If I Forget Thee, O Earth . . . | Introduction

‘‘‘If I Forget Thee, O Earth . . . ,’’’ by Arthur C. Clarke, was first published in Future magazine in 1951. However, it received its greatest exposure when it was collected in Clarke’s Expedition to Earth, which was published in 1953. The story tapped into one of the great fears of the 1950s, the threat of atomic war. The U.S. decision to drop atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki at the end of World War II ushered in the atomic age, and many writers, especially science fiction writers, wrote stories depicting an atomic apocalypse. In this story, Marvin, the ten-year-old main character who lives in a lunar colony, gets to see an earthrise for the first time. However, joy turns to despair as he sees the glowing, radioactive earth that has been destroyed by an atomic World War III. He realizes that he is in permanent exile and that only his descendants will be able to return home. Critics and popular readers alike appreciate the cautionary message in this story and note the quality of many of Clarke’s short stories in general. However, it is Clarke’s novels—most notably Childhood’s End; the novelization of his screenplay for the movie, 2001: A Space Odyssey; and Rendezvous with Rama—that have made him famous. ‘‘‘If I Forget Thee, O Earth . . . ’’’ can be found in Clarke’s Tales from Planet Earth, published by ibooks, inc., in 2001.

If I Forget Thee, O Earth . . . Summary

‘‘‘If I Forget Thee, O Earth . . . ’’’ starts off by introducing Marvin, a ten-year-old boy. Marvin and his father walk quickly through a large building, which includes a greenhouse and an observatory, then enter an airlock chamber, where they get into a scout car and drive outside. Before now, Marvin has only seen the outside in photographs and on television. At this point, Clarke has not revealed where they are, but he starts to give clues that they are not on earth as soon as Marvin and his father leave the airlock. The sun is moving across a completely black sky, a sight not possible from earth due to earth’s atmosphere. When the sky is black on earth, it is because the sun has set, in which case the moon comes out. Also, Marvin has read about the classic rhyme ‘‘Twinkle, twinkle, little star’’ in one of his father’s books and is surprised to see that the stars do not twinkle. When stars are viewed by the unaided human eye from within earth’s atmosphere, the turbulence in the higher ranges of the atmosphere causes the stars to look like they are twinkling, an effect known as scintillation. The absence of this effect is one more clue from Clarke that Marvin and his father are not on earth.

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