Most people assume that a world with no war and death is an ideal society. With immortality, all fears are gone and people are free to live the way they want. However, death is not always a frightening thing but rather an idea that changes the perspective on how people view their own and other people’s lives. With the idea of closure, people are able to wrap things up in their lives instead of dealing with an endless cycle of facing loose ends. With three scientific short stories, a new perspective on death is created. The short story about “William and Mary” by Roald Dahl, “2B0R2B” by Kurt Vonnegut, and “The Last Answer” by Isaac Asimov reveals how the perception of death transforms the perception of life. Immortality caused people to change their ideas about life and death. As our current media and society reveal death as something to avoid, these authors create characters that confront death. Without death, there is no life. Death gives life a purpose and is presented as something people should come to understanding with rather than to avoid. With body and mind alteration in science fiction, authors can introduce society's conceptions of death and peace through the portrayal of how their characters deal with immortality.
When offered the choice to extend your life but live in a basin with only your two eyes and brain, would you? “William and Mary” by Roald Dahl in 1959, focuses on William’s decision to extend his life even with this limitation. Through body alterations after his death, William’s brain and eyes were removed from his body and connected to an artificial pump with the help of a neurosurgeon named John Landy. After this procedure, people are conscious and are able to communicate through an apparatus that produces a graph of decipherable thoughts and words. However, unlike the very advanced technology presented to William, Dahl creates a very mundane world as the story only takes place in William and Mary’s home and the hospital which do not present any new technological innovations for that time period. The setting of the story has no futuristic technological innovations despite the procedures William undergoes. Dahl’s development of this setting helps to reflect the very unexpected and spontaneous manner of technology as the procedure presented to William was an abrupt spike in technological innovations. The fast-paced introduction of technology can also be seen right now in our current society. A Huffington Post article titled “Everything From This 1991 Radio Shack Ad You Can Now Do With Your Phone” explains how many technological products we once bought in 1991 individually such as a CD player or a camcorder are all on our smartphones. The article references a 1991 radioshack advertisement and states, “There are 15 electronic gizmo type items on this page, being sold from America’s Technology Store. 13 of the 15 you now always have in your pocket” (Cichon). This helps to represent how quickly technology has been presented to society and how quickly people choose to accept it like William as it only took about ten years for us to be in a world where everyone has smartphones. Technology is further connected to human nature as William’s decision to undergo this procedure is also a very fast decision as he does not even properly inform his wife about it and decides to agree to the plan after a somewhat short conversation with Landy. Likewise, death is also a very spontaneous moment in our lives as people never know when and how they will die. The connection with technology, William’s decision, and death helps to inform how human lives with the beginning of birth and the ending of death creates an unplanned life. Life is to live with anticipation for the future. However, immortality creates an infinite amount of time that ceases the opportunity for cherishing the moments that are in possession because it will never end.
With the idea of immortality in mind, William does not cherish his last moments with his wife but is persuaded to follow Landy’s plan because he wanted to preserve the great knowledge that he built in his brain. Landy describes his brain as something useful and that he is saddened with the fact that his brain would have to be perished because of his body, “Yet soon it is going to have to die along with the rest of your body simply because your silly little pancreas is riddled with cancer” (Dahl). Landy refers to his brain as a special object which will be dying because of his “silly little pancreas.” This represents how Landy believes William’s presence is based on his brain rather than his body as a whole. In the Journal of Law & the Biosciences, Ben Sarbey introduces an idea that Landy applies to William on the idea of death, “If ‘each of us is essentially a mind’, and our minds are identical with our brains, then the death of the brain will be the death of the mind and by consequence also the death of the person” (Sarbey). Correspondingly to Landy, the death of the brain meant the death of William so he sought out to persevere William’s brain, but his brain only. Landy continues to separate William’s existence from his mind and body even before the procedure of detachment. The moment William’s brain is placed into the basin he is referred to as a scientific specimen rather than a human. William’s body is what enabled him to do all things and now that it was gone his brain is unable to do anything. The brain that Landy praised so highly was now in a basin, which is a bowl for washing things, and could not even process its own thoughts into actions. William as a brain was no longer a person but rather an experiment that was referred to as “it” by Landy and “pet” by his own wife, Mary. Death in the case of William was represented as something accidental and a tragic incident to such a diligent man who was too young to die. However, as William neglected the truth and avoided death he was made useless with a brain that had no power. William’s neglection for death and his persuasion to immortality represents how humans are so fearful of death and are swimming in the idea of a useless life rather than living a life with both a brain and body at this current moment. He seems to have lost more than gained from abiding by this experiment and even makes death a more viable option as he loses all respect from others. With the idea of immortality, William believes he will not lose anything even when being put into a basin as he does not even say a proper farewell to his wife. William’s immortality did not bring closure to his life. Knowing the endless possibility of what may come forth, William did not resolve the troubles he had because of the idea of having infinite chances.
William’s choice for immortality switches the roles William and Mary play in their marriage. Dahl portrays William as a very stern man to his wife. William created restrictions on his wife such as to not smoke or have children with him just because he “disapproves.” When saying his last goodbyes he did not mournfully reflect on his life or show appreciation for his hard-working wife who restricted herself just to match his needs. Even until the end of his death, William only talked about himself and the tasks she must do in his letter. William does not even inform Mary about his plans to undergo this procedure because Mary would start to quarrel with him whenever the topic was mentioned. Rather than creating conflict to explain his future plans, he tries to keep peace with Mary by not informing her. However, such attitude has led to the falling of their marriage. William has established immortality, but his future life has become much more restricted than the life he set for his wife. She has followed his way of living forever and she felt like his eyes were like surveillance cameras until his eyes were in the basin and were warm for the first time. This reflects a very tragic moment as Mary is only now able to see a husband with emotion when he is in a basin and is basically not himself. Creating this shift in William’s eyes which were the rare body parts of William he was able to keep, helps to reflect how much William has changed. William is no longer William, he is not in control over anyone but he must be kept under control and be surveillance in order to keep on living. This role change with his wife and William can be further seen as she mockingly smokes in front of him and even calls him “my pet” which placed William under Mary’s control and ownership. Immortality in this case for William showed Mary that we were okay to live without her. He has abandoned her to die alone as he chose to live on forever, which breaks the whole purpose of Mary’s marriage because it leaves her diligence to have meant nothing to William. Mary’s whole life was based on him, but for William it was himself. William has broken their wedding vows by literally following the saying “Till death do us part” as William leaves her to avoid death. However, after seeing how powerless William was, Mary felt that she needed him and that was what made her feel like she truly won over him. Because of his surface-level need to persevere his brain for science he has abandoned his wife and the respect he had from others. William’s immortality brought nothing but caused his troubles to continue on for eternity and left him greedy.
Greed is also seen through the people in the short story “2B0R2B” by Kurt Vonnegut where people live in a world at peace with no such thing as disease or death. Thus, the population is controlled at forty million with an average age of one hundred and twenty-nine to maintain the earth’s resources. People are able to live forever in the age that they chose to receive the treatment for immortality and their death will enable the many parents in line to place their child for birth as these newborns will take their place in the limited population. Wehling was one of those parents who longed to create space for their children. At an age of fifty-six, a young age to have children at the time, William was waiting for his wife to deliver triplets in a waiting room that was being redecorated into a memorial room. Wehling's lonely presence in the waiting room that was really a memorial room shows how the people in this world thought less about extending their family because coming to this room was rare as most people no longer bear children due to limited space. The waiting room was not a place that uplifted the hearts of new parents but rather a place that made them feel discouraged as the floors were scattered with drop cloths, chairs, and ashtrays around the room. The waiting room was barely in use and was basically a room for memorials rather than a room for waiting for newborn children. The concept of death is larger than birth in this story as characters treat death with more respect than those who bring life into the world. To illustrate such attitude, the hostess responds to the painter who called to end his life, “Thank you, sir," said the hostess. "Your city thanks you; your country thanks you; your planet thanks you. But the deepest thanks of all is from future generations" (Vonnegut). Such respect for death can also be seen as a hospital orderly hums a song about ending their life down the hallway which had phrases such as “Why should I take up all this space? I'll get off this old planet, Let some sweet baby have my place” (Vonnegut). The orderly sings about the gas chambers, a place that people end their lives, and population control disguised as a love song. Rather than singing a nice hum to a typical song about love or happiness, the typical songs that they sing is about death. Immortality has made people numb to the idea of life and made them forget what death and birth really means. Death is respected in this story because those who choose immortality are disabling people from bringing new lives into the world. Their perception of death is changed as death is seen as a way to gain new opportunities rather than a moment in time where opportunities are ending. For that reason, the decision to be immortal in a society with a restricted population shows greed as the idea of population control or equality may seem pure, the concept behind it is not fair as new lives are not given the chance to even live a life when the two-hundred-year-old adults are able to live an endless life. Death may be a way to extend opportunities as explained by Nathan Heflick who states a positive view on death in “Thinking about Death Can Make You Value Life More” explains how the idea of death may enlighten people to act thoughtfully, “Writing about death, particularly writing repeatedly about death, makes salient the finitude of life, which is something we often take for granted and even actively avoid thinking about. It could then, theoretically, make people perceive that life is more valuable and something to be cherished” (Heflick). However, death has been made too comfortable of a topic in this society that it has not made people fear what is going to happen. Their concept of death prevents people from coming to the realization that Heflick mentions. The continuous exposure to the idea of death made people numb to what it means to be alive and forget about the importance of birth.
The constant attention to death and purity of the world stripped away from people's thoughts and individuality which can be seen through the actions of Wehling and the painter. Wehling had to choose one out of three of his triplets to choose to keep and then send his own father to die so that there is room for his one child. Dr Hitz believes lives are interchangeable and reasons that someone must die for someone to live. No one is seen individually but as a whole so that there are equality and so-called peace. Rather than seeing people's lives on the quality of their perceptions and values, all people are the same and have the choice to live forever or die. However, the choice to live is not made easily. These choices cannot be made through these newborn children who don't even have the chance to live another day out of the hospital beds. Immortality brought a lack of opportunities for future generations. Wehling and the painter see the flaw in thinking that death and life are interchangeable and applies Dr Hitz’s thoughts on him by killing him, Leora Duncan, and himself. He then makes room for his all his children and even enables his father to live while the painter decides to end his life by calling 2B0R2B. Thus, both of the characters Vonnegut focuses on express their frustrations in the confines of the law because they are limited in expression and individuality. However, with the power of the law, they were able to show how corrupt it was by killing others to make space for his three children which ultimately shows how this society was not at peace. Rather than peace, the people were ignoring all the troubles in their society and were living a dissatisfied life.
This corrupted mindset to maintain peace in this society can also be seen in the large mural filled with people wearing purple and white clothing in the waiting room. The removal of individuality can also be seen through the mural the old painter drew. The mural was called “The Happy Garden of Life” and never had “a garden been more formal, been better tended” than the garden portrayed in the mural (Vonnegut). A woman in purple and an orderly commented and said how realistic and beautiful the mural was. However, the painter disagrees and believes that even if they framed the drop cloths on the floor it will be more honest than the mural being painted. This scene depicts the process of how people are born and killed. The people in white turned the soil, planted the seeds, sprayed bugs, and spread the fertilizer. These people in white can be seen as the doctors and nurses who give birth to newborn children and present the treatment of immortality to them. They nourished them and took care of them until they are unable to live or choose to die. However, the people in purple pulled out the weeds, cut down old plants, raked the leaves, and took the trash to the burners. Vonnegut makes it clear that these people were the workers of the Chicago Office of the Federal Bureau of Termination who were the ones that sent people to the gas chambers to be killed. The painter leaves the faces of the workers blank, which makes each individual not a person of their own but all the same with just different faces that are painted on after the body is complete. People are not full of emotion or given their own body so it is very obscure that it was portrayed as “The Happy Garden of Life.” These workers portray a fake idea of individuality and happiness which helps to show the unrealistic and image the government continues to portray. In this case, peace is not something that is ideal and shows how maintaining peace came at a cost.
Importance of individuality in life can be seen in Murray in “The Last Answer” by Isaac Asimov who is an atheist physicist who dies from a heart attack at a young age of forty-five years old. His soul rises from his body and he starts to believe he is in heaven until he is greeted by the Voice which assures him that the place he is in now is neither heaven nor hell. Even as an atheist, Murray believed this place to be Heaven which can be seen as he reflects on his sins and starts to fear the idea of Hell. The Voice is portrayed as a divine being with its representation as light after Murray transitions into the darkness after his death. Very much like a god, the Voice is the creator of the earth and all its people which were made to ultimately fulfil the purpose of enabling the Voice to determinate itself as its life was infinite. In this world, the purpose for a beginning is to create an ending. It toys with the end of the existence of the people it creates as it offers certain people such as Murray eternal life and others total despair. It has so much power as the existence of all is surrounded by it and even compares Murray as a single-celled organism and himself as a complex sperm whale with a thirty quadrillion cells. However, unlike his extended power, the Voice plays with the ends of others lives as it cannot figure out how its own end will come because it has no knowledge of its beginning as does almost everyone in this world but can only infer what has happened. Representing such a powerful being wanting the meaning for its own life and the end of its prolonged life seems to show the importance of purpose and motivation in life as even something with such power longs to know its end.
Murray was one of the rare people the Voice selected worthy enough to be one of the subjects to gain eternal life to solve this puzzle to end his life. Asimov makes immortality possible by detaching Murray from his body and transforming his brain’s contents into a nexus of electromagnetic forces. The Voice creates such a nexus so that uncertainty can be raised and could bring random factors that would not have been thought of solely by itself as it believes “the infinity of potential knowledge may be infinitely greater than the infinity of my actual knowledge,” and that it is “more interesting this way” (Asimov). The Voice also seems to have created this world to create amusement for its own life so that it is able to create a decision on its own death by making people on earth build up intellectually filled brains before trying to figure out its puzzle. The Voice also shows his amusement with its interactions with humans as it talks to Murray. Murray does not necessarily need to verbally speak to the Voice. However, the Voice requests he does as it is pleasing to it that Murray is voluntarily sharing his thoughts to it. This shows how the Voice continues to create the world and its contents for his own amusement rather than to complete his end as he has been recruiting an endless amount of people to help him find the answer but has yet to find it. The Voice suggested to Murray that knowing an infinite amount of even integers does not mean a person knows all integers as the odd integers cannot be known. However, Murray states that knowing the infinite amount of even integers will enable someone to figure out the infinite amount of odd integers. Likely, with the knowledge and power it has, it is evident that the Voice could have used what it already knows to figure to what it did not know. The Voice lacked purpose in its own life for a finite amount of time and thus could not bring an end to itself because it sought for a purpose that was enough for all discovery and thought to be ended. Rather than bringing a clear closure to its own life, The Voice extends its life with the amusement of the world when it could attain all things if it abandoned its surface level want for leisure. This reflects the thoughts of our current society as people are able to live a life where leisure is possible and are made comfortable through technology. Such a way of living may cause people to not realize what must be accomplished for long-lasting happiness and in search for short-living moments.
When Murray dies after his heart attack he felt pain and heard the cries of the people in his laboratory. However, when he was dead he felt no pain and felt relieved. In an article titled “Meaning and Purpose in Life and Well-being: a Life-span Perspective” in the Journal of Gerontology people, “Significant age differences were found on five life attitude dimensions: life purpose (LP), death acceptance (DA), goal seeking (GS), future meaning (FM), and Existential Vacuum (EV). LP and DA increased with age; GS and FM decreased with age; EV showed a curvilinear relationship with age” (Recker). As people age, they sought for a purpose in their lives and began to accept their end. On the other hand, the young people of the study sought to build up a future that gave their lives a meaning. This shows that death isn’t particularly something to fear if one’s life was full of purpose. Likewise, for Murray death was a blessing that relieved him from a worldly pain. Murray also stated, “To feel the satisfaction of accomplishment knowing that I had only a short time allowed me for the purpose” (Asimov). With no end, there is no motivation and reason to do anything. If we have no death, then we have nothing to lose, and then life has no meaning. Although Murray was offered eternal life by the Voice he was not content and even sought out a purpose for living an eternity which was to end eternity or figure out a way to break the nexus that enables him and the Voice to live forever. With no motivation for an end, Murray seems to have no purpose in going on as there is an infinite amount of time for that task to be accomplished. Rather than living a long surface level life with no purpose, Asimov uses Murray to represent the importance of using death as a tool to motivate ourselves to live better with the time given to us as we are alive.
Throughout these science fiction short stories about immortality, the perception of death in the character’s societies led to their perception of life. Death and life are not interchangeable but they work alongside one another. Life is full of spontaneous moments which immortality may cease. These scientific advancements in these stories enabled for people to not fear death but without death, they lost the purpose that death brought. People in media may spread the idea on “you only live once” and see the idea of death as a way of erasing your past life. However, Dahl, Vonnegut, and Asimov present death as a way of building up your past life. The characters in these short stories came to terms with death when William realized his end when he met his wife, Wehling took his own life to make room for his children, and Murray sought to end his immortality by ending the life of the Voice. During these moments, these characters were able to achieve peace in their immortal lives.