At the end of the story Selver admits to Lepennon that the Athsheans now know how to kill and suggests that wars or fighting does go on between their species now. The Terrans certainly taught the Athsheans war and the native species used this lesson to stay alive. So in exchange for survival the Athsheans have to now deal with warring between themselves. There seems to be this duality of how society wants to live and how they can actually exist similar to the dream versus reality concept. It seems like all societies have to make these social compromises when they are faced with survival or really any source of danger.

It reminds me of how the United States today has difficulties balancing its fear of terrorism with the civil liberties of its citizens. But can we go back or have we opened a sort of Pandora’s Box? It seems to be sort of like the “war” on drugs where it is an ongoing struggle. Selver says at the very end he was not convinced that the Athsheans would ever stop killing again. I suppose it’s possible that there could be another sha’ab later that has a dream of uniting the Athsheans so that they don’t fight each other in large scale attacks. So perhaps that’s the message at the end is that we can’t go back, but it does not mean we can’t move in different directions.