45 pages • 1 hour read
Gordon KormanMasterminds
Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 2015A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Themes
Nature Versus Nurture
The concept of nature versus nurture has been argued by scientists for generations. The central question is whether a person’s genetic makeup or circumstances determine character. In this novel, the question that Dr. Hammerstrom asks is whether a person becomes a criminal because of a biological tendency or because of a bad upbringing. Masterminds tackles this thorny question head-on. Dr. Hammerstrom believes that he can solve the riddle by rigidly controlling the environment in which his test subjects grow up. All 11 children in the Osiris Project are cloned from master criminals, and Hammerstrom wants to know if they’ll grow up to be exactly like their DNA donors.
To determine the answer to this crucial question, all other variables related to nurture must be carefully controlled to exclude anything violent or unpleasant that might have a psychological impact on the test subjects. The difficulty of controlling every facet of a child’s upbringing is abundantly clear in Serenity. The town must be not only geographically isolated but also isolated from American culture as a whole. Information must be censored to exclude violence and criminality.
While sheltering children from life’s unpleasant aspects might seem benign, the cold-blooded nature of the experiment soon becomes apparent. Surveillance cameras monitor every detail of the test subjects’ lives. Even casual activities at school provide data for the experiment. In hindsight, Malik realizes this: “If I didn’t cheat on tests and gorge myself on cookies and cupcakes and get myself classified ‘toxic’; if I wasn’t such a big jerk, would Hector still be alive?” (297). His comment indicates that even a dessert is a test. Amber comes to a similar conclusion: “I speak up and ask for the same regular spoon everyone else has. The adults nod approvingly. Now I understand I’ve passed another test” (270).
In addition to monitoring the test subjects’ behavior at random moments, the experimenters indoctrinate them with values that run contrary to what most career criminals might be expected to believe. The three Essential Qualities are honesty, harmony, and contentment, and the children embrace these values without question.
Hammerstrom’s experiment might be an interesting intellectual exercise, but it’s detrimental to its subjects. Its most shocking feature is its lack of humanity. The lab workers watch for aberrant behavior and are perfectly ready to weed out malefactors who are labeled “toxic” when they reach age 14. Hammerstrom and his team would have no difficulty liquidating Malik, for example, if he no longer fits the experiment’s parameters. In the world of Masterminds, very little difference exists between the Osiris test subjects and the average lab rat slated for dissection once an experiment is over.
Clone Identities
All of the test subjects in Project Osiris are clones who received their DNA from living criminals. The subject of cloning, much less of cloning criminals, creates a major ethical dilemma, which is how clones should be legally defined: whether they have distinct identities or are merely biological copies of existing persons. Human cloning has been banned in many countries around the world because of the moral and legal issues it raises.
From Hammerstrom’s perspective, clones are the perfect means to test his nature-versus-nurture hypothesis. He clearly sees his test subjects not as distinct human beings but as lab specimens. The doctor’s cold approach to his subjects eventually leads to the authorities terminating his project. Eli finds an article on the internet stating, “Project Osiris was criticized for its callous use of human life for research purposes and for its lack of endgame” (200). Once Hammerstrom proves or disproves his theory, he makes no provision for the future of his test subjects because he doesn’t see them as human.
Some of the doctor’s researchers mimic his approach to the Osiris children. Hector notes that his parents don’t show him much affection. As scientists, their job is to observe him, not to bond with him. He says, “I finally understand my mother’s words to my father. You know how valuable he is. It wasn’t a mother’s unconditional love for her baby. I’m not her baby. I’m nobody’s baby. I’m not even human” (202).
While some of the researchers maintain clear boundaries with their charges, Tori’s surrogate father, Steve, has the opposite reaction: He has formed an emotional attachment to his daughter and, by extension, to her friends. When Malik is coded as “toxic,” Steve is upset:
‘I don’t like it,’ I hear my father say. ‘The kid’s not just a number. You’re talking about one of Tori’s best friends.’ ‘It’s always been in the protocols.’ This from Mom again. [...] ‘This isn’t what I signed up for.’ Steve sounds stressed (222-23).
If Hammerstrom’s intention was to create responsible adults by providing a nurturing environment in Serenity, he has failed to note the single most important factor of such an environment: parental love. All the surrogate parents are scientific researchers. Becoming emotionally entangled with their test subjects compromises their objectivity. This clinical approach begs the question of how genuine nurture could be provided to a human child at all, much less to a clone.
Personal Autonomy
Hammerstrom’s experiment is carefully designed to exclude any variables that might compromise the outcome. DNA is carefully harvested from selected criminal subjects. Their clones are then raised in an isolated environment free from crime and poverty. While these two conditions answer the need to separate nature from nurture, Hammerstrom has neglected to answer the most basic question about criminality, which is what happens if neither nature nor nurture is ultimately responsible for a criminal outcome—that is, if personal choice is the determining factor.
Masterminds seems to lean heavily toward this conclusion, and Eli is the first of the test subjects to demonstrate the importance of choice. When he accidentally stumbles across the real Boston Tea Party story, he recognizes that sometimes war and rebellion are necessary to achieve independence. Even more telling is his brief mention of an altered Pledge of Allegiance. The concluding words are “…one nation under God, indivisible, with unity and gladness for all” (112). Unity and gladness immediately contrast with the actual words of the pledge: with liberty and justice for all. The Osiris clones have been deprived of both. They’re being treated unjustly as test subjects rather than human beings. They’re also deprived of their physical liberty by being held prisoner in Serenity because of their tracking devices.
Fortunately, all the clone children exhibit a healthy streak of individuality. Even if they struggle with the question of identity, they intrinsically feel that they’re entitled to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness on their own terms. Such an assertion defies their indoctrination in Serenity. In some sense, the escape of the Osiris subjects is an assertion of independence. At one point, Eli alludes to how their actions parallel the start of the American Revolution: As he watches the cone truck go over a cliff and explode, he views the event as the clone declaration of independence:
An enormous explosion rocks the countryside, and a huge fireball rises up into the sky, momentarily turning the valley bright as high noon. This is our Serenity Day fireworks, I think to myself with a stab of savage satisfaction (285).
From Hammerstrom’s perspective, the theft of a factory truck and an assault on Surety personnel are lawless actions that might confirm that the criminal DNA in the clone subjects is asserting itself. However, their actions might alternatively be explained as desperate acts of rebellion to free the disenfranchised. The Osiris clones have chosen personal autonomy over the tyranny of determinism.
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