Robert Heinlein's All You Zombies

All You Zombies was written by Robert Heinlein, in one day (11 July 1958), and published in the March 1959. In this short story, author briefly tells a story of one person with the tools of time travel and time paradox. Story starts with a dialogue of a bartender and a man who calls himself ‘Unmarried Mother’. Unmarried Mother tells the bartender his lifestory briefly. He was born as a girl, and grew up in an orphanage. One day she met a stranger and got pregnant, when she just gave birth to her daughter, she received some news from her doctor that, there was a gender changing operation and she was a male now.
Bartender then asks him that if he wanted to take revenge of the past from the father of the baby and he accepts it. Then bartender

First of the themes that he mentions in the text is the idea of gender, and gender roles in the society. In the beginning of the text, we face with a different character who take a stand with his name against the usual gender stereotypes. The name of ‘Unmarried Mother’ is a critical name according to this time’s norms. Society, even today, expects you to be married if you have a child. And our protagonist chooses a very suitable name for himself without caring the period’s cultural norms. Another thing which is considered as not so appropriate in that era, was being intersex or having another gender identity out of male or female. Our main character, Jane, feels very lost after the gender changing operation for a while. Quotation of “
I was ruined as a woman can be; that bum really ruined me- I was no longer a woman…and I didn’t know how to be a man.” (28) clearly shows us, he’s really confused because he was so used to be a female and play the female role that the society needs her to, but now he

And the actions which was made for him is so easier than to choose to act like whatever he wants, because he doesn’t need to bear the consequences.

And for the last topic, we need to analyse the concept of solipsism. The philosophical idea solipsism claims that only one’s own mind is sure to exist.* Quotation of “You aren’t really there at all. There isn’t anybody but me-Jane-here alone in the dark. I miss you dreadfully!” (32) strengthen the idea of solipsism in the text. Jane asks ‘the zombies’ where do they come from, but also answers the question himself. The answer of the question, if it is real, brings loneliness and great responsibilty to Jane as well, because in order to survive, or create the universe he lives in, he needs to keep going in the space-time continuum. He will be the only being which was ever lived, ever decided to create himself. The loneliness has quite effects on Jane too, “I miss you dreadfully!” (32) is a clear addressing to herself, the time that, she was only one person, not anybody else.

Heinlein did a pretty good job with playing people’s mind in this short story. That’s why, it’s the most famous paradox along with the “Grandfather Paradox”. But what