The Evolution of The Thing
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separate the aliens from the humans. The test flushes out fourteen aliens who are
quickly destroyed during their transformations, using the blow torches. As a
coda, MacReady and the remaining humans find that Blair in isolation had been
taken over and had been in the process of building an air lifting device to take
him to civilization. The device is driven by atomic power, only a theory at this
time, and anti-gravity which has never been developed. Even the danger of an
albatross flying in and being taken over could have led to the destruction of all
humanity. A word needs to be said about the setting that works both to
advantage and disadvantage. The isolation is frightening, in that the human
group can expect no outside help. One critic, Elizabeth Leane, actually sees the
environment as also being an alien force. A similar linkage to the alien
environment appears in an earlier study by Vivian Sobchak in reference to the
Arctic in the earlier film (Chapter 2). However, the setting is also
disadvantageous to the alien in that it cannot use its greatest advantage, imitating
life forms, once it has been discovered, due to the bleakness of this landscape.
Although the threat is never minimized, with the stakes of the entire
planet on the line, the American hero is more than equal to the task of defeating
the alien presence. The trump card for humanity turns out to be instinct, the gut
feeling that Norris and the dogs experienced at the appearance of the alien, and
the ferocious survival instinct. These quintessential^ human characteristics
dating back to the earliest appearance of humanoids and shared by its fellow
animals, the dogs in particular, are the salvation of humanity. The theme
suggests that pure science is inferior to the biological nature of humanity, as
found in the red-blooded American hero whose physicality defeats the advanced
intellectuality of the alien just as the Roosevelt administration eventually
defeated the Great Depression.
Campbell believed in activism. As editor or writer, he preferred stories
“. . . in which the protagonist solves a technical problem through scientific or
engineering training or outwits one or more aliens because humans are the
toughest, smartest kids on the block” (D’Ammassa 70). Furthermore, he
believed in rugged American individuality over the rising block of collectivism
emerging from Communism in the USSR and China. “For him [Campbell],
collectivism is a monstrous thing that would devour human ideals, but should
not be able to do so as long as the superior strength of individuals is united in
free association” (Stover 116).
Following World War II, Americans continued to feel confident after
their defeat of the Axis powers. However, the Atomic Age brought new
concerns about threats to America. The prospect of invasion from powerful
enemies in China and the USSR, now possessing atomic weapons and aided
through espionage, created a climate of fear and paranoia leading to the
extremes of McCarthy ism. President Harry Truman, though the successful
prosecutor of the American victories in Europe and Asia, fell into a quagmire in
Korea trying to combat Communism in a limited war. His popularity fell as he
was blamed for “losing” China to Communism and failing to fight aggressively