Darkness At Noon Summary

The novel begins with the arrest of Rubashov. He is apprehended in the middle of the night by two men from the secret police for political crimes. Rubashov was once a high leader in the Party, but has been exiled because of certain speeches and writings he made. Rubashov returned to his country because he was tired of being in exile, so his arrest was not a surprise. However, Rubashov did not commit most of the crimes for which he was accused. The older policeman behaves appropriately with Rubashov while the younger acts viciously. At this point we are introduced the first major theme of the novel "Darkness at Noon"; it is between the older generation which is cultured and the younger generation which is cruel. In our world today the younger generation tends to be a little faster paced than the older generation. For example, in our churches the older generation tends to like a more conservative approach while the younger generation tend to prefer a more upbeat lively approach within services. This is an example of the visible differences between generational gaps which is clear in the Darkness at Noon novel.
Rubashov begins to think about No.1 the old Bolshevik, and the Marxist interpretation of history. All through
They met in a museum and were standing under a picture of the pieta. Rubashov told Richard that he violated party discipline. He also informed Richard he was harmful and had to be expelled from the party. Rubashov betrayed Richard and turned him into the secret police. By presenting these two characters below the pictures of the pieta, the author seems to be implying that there are two options Christianity or communism. As the author endeavors to describe the incident above, he also seems to be implying that the communism is the worse of the two options. Christianity vs. communism is the second major theme of the