Editing Tunnel in the Sky (section)

==Themes==
As in ''[[Lord of the Flies]]'', which had been published a year earlier, isolation reveals the true natures of the students as individuals, but it also demonstrates some of the constants of human existence as a social animal. Its underlying themes run counter to those in ''Lord of the Flies'', however, in that it shows a belief in the inherent strength of humans as proto-adults who can self-organize rather than descend into barbarism. Some of the students fall victim to their own foolishness, and others turn out to be thugs, but that is a part of human nature, just as the counter-trends take the group as a whole towards the beginnings of a stable society. The numerous political crises of the fledgling colony illustrate the need for legitimacy in a government appropriate for the society it administers, another common theme in Heinlein's books. In both its romanticization of the [[settler|pioneer]] and its glorification of ''Homo sapiens'' as the toughest player in the [[Darwinism|Darwinian]] game, it presages themes developed further in books like ''[[Time Enough for Love]]'' and ''[[Starship Troopers]]''. Unusual for science fiction at the time, but quite typical of Heinlein's works, the novel portrays several competent and intelligent female characters.<ref>James, Edward and [[Farah Mendlesohn]] (2003). ''The Cambridge Companion to Science Fiction''. Cambridge University Press. {{ISBN|0-521-01657-6}}. p. 245.</ref>

The earlier part of the book makes a reference to a war – some generations before the book's plot begins – in which [[China]] conquered and colonized [[Australia]]. The remnants of Australia's original population – evidently referring to both [[Aboriginal Australians]] and European-descended Australians – were evacuated to [[New Zealand]]. The Chinese then engaged in a giant engineering project to reclaim Australia's central desert, but it soon became a vast overpopulated slum. In the book's present, the Chinese are colonizing marginal planets with harsh conditions, which nobody else wants, miserable peasants forced to move there against their will. All that has little bearing on the book's main plot, serving mainly to demonstrate the strong [[Malthusian]] pressures which inflicted Earth until the way to colonize other planets by matter transmitter was found.