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Thematic Tension In The Cold Equations By Tom Godwin

699 Words3 Pages

In the story, “The Cold Equations”, Tom Godwin depicts the thematic tension as to never go against the path that you’re traveling on, because you could take a wrong turn and end up on a path towards unexpected consequences. In the year 2178, there are cruisers to carry people to the colonies on the far reaches of the galaxy. On the cruiser Stardust, a girl named Marilyn slipped onto an “EDS” or emergency dispatch ship. The EDS’s are only given enough fuel to arrive at their destination and return to the cruiser, with no added weight or any added variables. Marilyn’s added weight had been noticed by the captain of the EDS, and he would have killed her instantly if she were a man, but because she isn’t, he tried to spare her life. He delayed her demise as long has he could, even allowing her to write to her parents and her brother, who she was going to see. The captain was able to let her talk to her brother for a few minutes, giving her some sense of closure. She then made her decision by walking into the airlock without any aid, and the captain pulled the lever. She gave up her life to save others even though she was only an eighteen-year-old girl who hadn’t experienced live; she was brave enough to save seven lives when she realized that she went against the laws of nature. …show more content…

The narrator helps this when he says… “The laws were, and the universe moved in obedience to them” (11). All laws, the laws of gravity, chemical combination, Circumference of a circle is always pi times diameter, and all other laws are a constant part of the Universe and modern day life. If there was one small piece missing of the equation, or an extra piece added, that makes up the universe, then the universe wouldn’t exist. This helps prove the thematic tension because Marilyn was that extra piece in the equation, which caused the imbalance in the fuel; and extra piece added can result in

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