"Examination day" by Henry Slesar is a short story set in a dystopian future children are required to take an intelligence examination by law on their twelfth birthday. Though his parents seem worried, they bring him to a government testing facility. There he is given a serum to ensure he tells the truth is given questions by a machine.
After the test is complete, Dickie's parents are contacted by the government and told that Dickie's "intelligence quotient has exceeded the Government regulation." The government caller then asks how they would like him to be buried.
Mr and Mrs Jordan are anxious because they know how important the Government test is and that Dickie must do it. This might explain as to why they are abrupt with Dickie when he asks them some questions. His parents are preocupied by the test on a day that is usually meant for celebration, showing how afraid it makes the.
Dickie’s questions highlight how inquisitive Dickie is and demonstrates that he wants to learn about the world, which forshadows what we learn about his intelligence quotient at the end of the story. Fear of the consequences also explains why the Dickie's parents - and the parents of every other 12 year old - continue to take their children for the test, even though it is plain to see they don't want to.
The government in this dystopian world are presented as totalitarian and oppressive. There would be no other explanation for a twelve year old having to take truth serum and answer a Government test.
There is also a sense that the Government are controlling their citizens and the freedom they allow their citizens to have, this is revealed by the fact that Dickie is killed simply because his IQ is too high or above what is acceptable by the Government. This is most likely because people who are clever will question things, which in turn will result in challenges to the Government and how they operate. The examination is a way for the government to maintain control and exterminate threats whilst they’re young before anything can stand in their way.
In addition, though his parents are afraid they do not spare Dickie from the test - neither do any of the other parents who are seen bringing their children to the examination.
At the end of the story, a government official calls to inform Mr and Mrs Jordan of Dickie's death and ask abouit their preferences in the burial. The tone of the government official is matter of fact which belies the brutal information they are conveying. Only the reactions of the parents adds any emotion to Dickie's killing.
The apparant routineliness of the official's call elucidates that this future dystopian society has now normalized the killing of young children and no one appears to question it. Mr Jordan seems to have personal experience with the examination, which reveals that it’s been going on a long time and nobody has questioned the legitimacy of the Government’s actions.
Nobody in the story forewarns Dickie of the consequences of the test. He is an innocent child who has been willingly sent to his death by both his mother and father. Something they both appear to accept, which suggests that the examination has been so instilled into their society that it has been normalized and no one attempts to make any change.