dogmatic agendas to promote under the guise of 'free scientific inquiry'. Scientific inquiry should in fact be free. The warning: If it is not, if it is subject to this or that ideology, then do not be surprised if .. history … is repeated. Weimar leads to Auschwitz. The nihilism of some scientists in the name of ideology or sentimentality and the consequent devaluation of individual human life leads straight to the gas chamber.” List of characters Thomas More: The main character of the novel. He was put in jail for the distribution of pharmaceutical drugs for two years, once he is released on parole he goes back to the city to find things are different, specifically the behavior of the individuals. He is a psychiatrist and a failed Catholic. His female patients began trying to make sexual advances with him, which he considered to be strange and bizarre. He witnesses his wife change from a dull conservative to a really good contract bridge player. Ellen Oglethorpe More: She is Thomas More’s longstanding wife and nurse, her personality changes drastically throughout the novel due to the sodium ions in the water supply that is affecting the individuals in the population. She is someone you see change during the text to a more ape-like existence. She is essential to Thomas More’s epiphany about the situation going on in their town. Ellen and his patients were the key to this realization. Lucy Lipscomb: She is Thomas More’s cousin and for this reason he gets in contact with her about the problems he sees. She is an epidemiologist and because of this she feels she could be useful in the investigation of the absurdities happening in the town. His work in figuring out who is behind the scheme in the town heavily relied on her access to government locked information. She also felt something was morally incorrect about the forced reduction of crimes rates, along with other things, through the addition of sodium ions. References 1987 American novels 1987 science fiction novels American thriller novels Farrar, Straus and Giroux books Novels by Walker Percy