Citizen of the Galaxy (1957)

Robert A. Heinlein

Del Rey, New York; ISBN: 0-345-34244-5; Pages: 253

A startlingly serious "juvenile," usually topping many 'best-of' lists, including my own. The story of Thorby, a slave purchased by a mysterious crippled beggar. The boy finds himself on the run from the authorities for some unknown treason apparently committed by his master, winds up on a spaceship, where he is 'imprisoned' by the rigid closed society until his adopted father repays his old debt by delivering him to a Terran vessel. After a brief stint on it, Thorby is revealed to be the heir of the mightiest and richest commercial empire on Earth, which has dark links to the slave trade...

Unusual for a book that is intended for the adolescent market, Citizen of the Galaxy offers a deep rumination on the nature of personal freedom. Thorby begins obviously unfree: a slave, with chains more than a symbol of his bondage, he is unruly, scarred, and scared, but with no choice but to obey or feel the whip. The one-legged beggar who becomes his owner soon earns his trust, admiration, and love. Suddenly, the threat to legally free him is sufficient to keep Thorby out of trouble with pick-pocketing!

Here is the first difference: Thorby is still formally owned by 'Pop' but one thing that the beggar manages to impart on him is the fact that he is not his master in spite of this document. Yet Thorby finds strange solace in knowing that Pop has legal responsibility by owning him. Nothing scares him now more than being turned loose or being on his own. Yet on his own he soon finds himself when the police raid his home, arrest his Pop, which leads to Pop's suicide to avoid interrogation.

Following his Pop's last wishes Thorby locates a Free Trader ship named Sisu and its Captain, to whom he delivers a message in a language he does not understand. It is a claim on an old debt, and the Captain rescues Thorby by taking him on board the Sisu. The Free Trades are ostensibly the freest people in the galaxy. They have no home planet, they inhabit their ships, going wherever they want, doing whatever they want, with no rules except the laws and customs of their own making.

Thorby is a fraki, an outsider, but is soon adopted into the family... and finds himself in a worse prison than before. The Free Traders are free as people but severely constrained as individuals, a necessary survival trait for such a small society. Rigid and stern rules govern everyday behavior to the minute detail. Almost no one is free to choose his destiny, and the girls have the worst of it even though the social structure is matriarchal.

However (and contrary to the restless pursuit of personal freedom that is usually the center of RAH plots), Thorby becomes quite content with his new life and has trouble leaving its predictable comfort when his adopted father forces himself to fulfil his promise to Thorby's Pop. It is revealed that Pop was actually a Terran military man from the "Exotic Corps" on an anti-slavery mission.

While on the Terran military ship, Thorby adapts yet again to the regimented but oddly free routine. This time around, the rules and regulations that govern his life are less constraining personally, juxtaposing once again the tension between formal limitations and personal freedom, but especially the lack of straightforward relationship between the two. Thorby's promising existence is once again disrupted, this time by the news that his birth family has been located... and it turns out it's the richest one on Earth, and he is the sole heir.

His is now absolutely free of any rules higher than his own. Or so it would seem. Thorby soon discovers that he has less liberty than when he was a beggar. The Uncle who runs the company behaves suspiciously and Thorby gradually comes to realize that he is being locked in a gilded cage while the Uncle runs his life. On trying to gain some understanding about the situation, Thorby meets with obstacles deliberately set up by his Uncle and his minions.

As he digs deeper, he uncovers a dark secret: His own company is linked with the slave trade; and perhaps his parents were killed for inquiring too closely about it. Thorby manages to wrest control of the business from his uncle, and sets about the dual task of running it and financing the destruction of the slave trade. He is not free again, this time due to the responsibilities as a company manager, but at least he gets to pursue a dream.

A wonderful novel, with three complete fascinating worlds to explore, COTG is nevertheless a difficult book to read. RAH wants to argue that slavery is not physical bondage but a restriction of personal rights, and can be effected by the pressure of a social group, economic necessity, or state policy. Rules (as the ones on the Guard ship) may not be constraining if they do not involve an invasion of these rights. Striking an officer on the Guard ship leads to a mild punishment (for both parties) that actually constitutes tacit approval of Thorby's reaction to the deliberate provocation, while a similar incident on board of the Sisu brings a painful social ostracism that is more painful than a formal punishment. The closely knit group can be more dangerous to the individual than a distant government.

March 24, 2003