Life in the Village is not all that pleasent, well not for the Prisoners who don't talk it isn't, especially for those whose hearts and minds lay further afield in another world.
You might think that No.6 is pubic enemy No.1, and to all intents and purposes you'd be right. A thorn in the side of No.2 might be a better way to put it. Yet there are others, whose life in the Village is not what it might be. There's Cobb, but it didn't take long for him to be turned, and soon found himself a 'trustee' who although having been brought to the Village a Prisoner, he was trusted enough to leave the Village and not talk about it. Or did he? Because once away from the Village, Cobb could have gone and done anything. Talked to anyone about the Village, if he was feigning having gone over to the other side, whosever side that might be, just to be able to escape!
Then there's No.12 of Administration, who sees the Professor as being a trouble-maker who attracts trouble-makers. As well as being a crank, and should be treated as such! No.12 was not against the occasional act of sabotage, and assisting No.6 in bringing down both the General and thus sabotaging the educational experiment of Speedlearn.
The Rook-No.53 was put through a form of Pavlovian experiment, which was originally used on dogs, not rats, by Pavlov. No.8-the white Queen, she was used in an experiment that was originally used with Dolphins in submarine detection. Having had a emotion transmitter placed on her in a locket, that made her part of the Village alarm system! More than that, No.8 was conditioned and hypnotised into believing that she is in love with No.6, and he with her.
No.73 had it worse, because she was only brought to the Village because 'they' didn't know where her husband was, who having tried killing herself once by slashing her wrists, was driven to jump to her death out through a hospital window by No.2 during an interview.
A retiring No.2 also becomes a victim of the Villages Administration, by being under sentence of execution, by the Administration he had served so loyally.
In A Change of Mind everyone in the Village is a potential victim, should they do anything which is out of the norm, hence being posted as Unmutual! Those trouble-makers who continually offend, are given the treatment known as 'Instant Social Conversion.' By this it is meant a lukeotemy, to isolate the aggressive frontal lobes. Of course there are all manner of different therapy treatments for those citizens who are found to be in need. Such as to conteract obssesional guilt complexes producing neurosis for example.
There are also those citizens who perhaps feel dissatisfied with life in the Village, such as the Shopkeeper-No.99, or the painter-No.42, who although have the wit to formulate their own escape plan, soon join forces with No.6 and No.53 in order to form an escape plan. And don't forget all those 'Jammers' whose plans and developments of all kinds of mischief were designed to confuse the Observers. The plots were all make-believe, non-existant. But Control couldn't know that until they'd checked them out. They used to run themselves ragged, checking out the schemes of jammers. But they don't do it any more. Anything Control picks up from known Jammers, they simply let ride {sounds like a perfect way to escape if I were a Jammer!}.
Then there is No.51, the Watchmaker, who takes the next step and becomes an anachist! In league with No.100, he makes a bomb which is housed in a replica of the Great Seal of Office, and designed to kill the retiring No.2 during the Appreciation day ceremony. This act is designed, as far as No.51 is concerned, to wake the Citizens up from their lethargy. No.6 was once accused of being an anarchist, of having a bomb, by No.2, but that was just his paranoia!
No.48 had been with the Village, until he went and gone! But what employment, or position No.48 held in the Village can only be speculated on. Perhaps he was a Top-Hat Offical, seeing as how No.48 wore a Top Hat! And don't forget that list of malcontents as mentioned by No.2 in It's Your Funeral, of which No.6 is top of the list!
It would seem that there has been an air of dissatisfaction within the Village, long before the Prisoner-No.6's arrival!
Be seeing you
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