What would be motivation of Aliens?

This quote by Arthur C. Clarke is very poignant to the story too:

Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.

The characters in the story (and we, the readers) think something supernatural and important is happening because we simply do not know what causes the Dome to appear. The reveal might be an anticlimax story wise (there's is no real big pay-off at the end) but when you take it in for a moment, it perfectly makes sense. Not everything happens for a reason, or: not everything that happens has a clearly defined meaning behind it. It's a human trait to seek more significance behind certain events because we sometimes cannot fathom that some things just happen. That's what I love about the novel the most, actually. The entire "community is isolated and goes to hell" has kinda been done to death (though it's still enjoyable in the way King writes his version), but the ending is what pays off the best, I think.

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Originally Posted by GNTLGNT

Ever see kids collect bugs in a jar? Same concept...

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GG, that's it. Nail on the head.

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Originally Posted by Sigmund

Hello, Sir.

If I am not mistaken, the 'alien children' were simply playing. Like Earth children 'play' by stirring an anthill with a stick. Or catch fireflies.

(Again, this is just my take on it. We humans believe we are the highest evolved species in the world as we know it. In UtD we realize that there are other beings bigger and greater than us. And just as we take those that are smaller weaker or 'lesser' and 'play' with them, these aliens saw Earth as we do an anthill and just for giggles or just to see 'What happens if I do X?' they placed a dome over part of our world (anthill). When the alien child saw the people struggling to live and pleading for help the alien child felt compassion (remorse?) and removed the dome.)

I hope that made some kind of sense. It worked in my head.

Peace.

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Hi, this definitely makes sense. Thank you.

My thought was this. I can so see my kids doing this, and their reason would be, "It seemed like a good idea at the time."

Seems like I remember the alien kids saying "You're not real.", implying that they considered it a video game of sorts.

This is a great point, blunthead. And I'm glad I'm not alone on it.

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If King would have made the explanation of the dome vague I would have considered it a cop-out. And a cop-out is not what a 1000+ page book needs.

Ah!..Someone turned the tables on us. How long have we put others under a dome and watched in amusement? The shoe was on the other foot here. That is what I thought.

Exactly. Little heathens. LOL.

I am more afraid of humans than the aliens

I love all these views. UTD I always considered a great read until the end. Now, I'm looking at the ending entirely differently. This what I love about the SKMB!