Foreshadowing In The Cold Equations By Tom Godwin

460 Words2 Pages

In the not so short story “the cold equations” the author presents a hard decision to kill one or many the killing of one to save many is decided. Tom godwin wrote a story about an EDS pilot who find a stowaway-- an 18 year old girl named Marilyn. Marilyn snuck on the little ship halling fever medicine for 6 men that were sent to the planet Woden. The pilot gets to know Marilyn who snuck on the ship to go see her brother who was on the other side of Woden. The rule was any sort of stowaway was to be jettisoned immediately “ He would, of course, do it. It was the law, stated very bluntly and definitely in grim Paragraph L, Section 8, of Interstellar Regulations: Any stowaway discovered in an EDS shall be jettisoned immediately following discovery.”(1) This quote is foreshadowing that he would end up killing her even if the intentions are good because there isn’t enough fuel to make it there and back plus the weight was exceeded making the EDS pod fall faster than it should that it is the law to kill any stowaway found. …show more content…

He tries to contact the 2nd exploration party with the girls brother (Whom she was trying to go visit) Both the pilot and marilyn find out that she is going to die one way or another either woden's harsh environment or by law. They then attempt to contact marilyn's brother who wasn’t at the camp at the time the time was starting to run dim. Near the end of this story marilyn makes a decision "Then—" She straightened and looked toward the airlock with pale resolution. "Then I'll go when Gerry passes beyond