Odinger's Cat example essay topic

Readers that try to impose categories on fiction only create logical traps for themselves-this box for "hard science" stories, that box for "new wave" stories. Schr " odinger's Cat strips the lid off the box, and categorizes are caught inside it, or outside it. Beginning with the first long paragraph and the line" As things appear to be coming to some sort of climax" (Norton) it appears that the narrator is in some sort of limbo and uncertainty. Two possibilities come to mind as the paragraph unfolds.

One thought is that she has died and is in the process of going into the afterlife. Her association with the married couple who have "pretty well gone to pieces" (Norton) suggest the aftermath of an accident or event. The wife is described as dismembered. The husband's pieces trotted around bouncing and cheeping like little chicks. The fact that he "had no hormones of any kind" (Norton), would indicate a loss of manhood and her insistence on trying to express herself perhaps is an indication it was a volatile ending for the couple.

When the narrator states, "just before I left" (Norton), it would also indicate her spirit was in limbo and she was in some type of altered state. Another theory would be the narrator is simply dreaming and has entered the world of the subconscious. The lines "Now here I am, lying here. Hard at it". and.

".. Most dreams are forgotten... ". (Norton) give the reader a sense of surrealism and fantasy as the events flash and change at a dream-like, unearthly pace. As the story continues, the tone seems dark, dreamy and uncertain. The narrator's constant reference to grief is evidence of this.

"Yet later music strikes the note... ". (Norton) suggests a subconscious comparison between the music and of unspoken emotion. Whenever she hears specific music, the emotion of the music is profound and brings about subconscious emotion. Taking on a symbolic and very significant role in the events of the story is the cat. As he dreams, the narrator tries to see inside the cat and tries to connect with him", Maybe in his silences he will suggest to me what it is that I have lost, what I am grieving for" (Norton).

She compares the cat to noisy cats and dogs which, although make more noise on the surface, don't exude the emotion and purpose that the yellow tabby does. The reference to heat takes the story into a weird twist. Everything is increasingly hot and might suggest that Armageddon has begun. (Perhaps the "Democrats" have pushed N. Korea a little too far? ). Possibly Le Guin was making a statement to the blindness of society and its conformist tendencies.

"And then finally of course there were the people who did not try to do or think anything about it at all" (Norton). As everything else continues to get hotter, the narrator finds comfort in the coolness of the cat. As the rest of the world goes about it's frenzied pace, the cat as well as the narrator remove themselves into their altered state of consciousness. As the cat wakes (a re-occurring symbol), the mailman arrives.

Asking her "How did you get here" (Norton) again suggests that they are in a state of limbo or surreal unconsciousness. As the story flows the narrator fictionally characterizes the mailman as a dog, the arch enemy of the cat, and he oddly exhibits both canine and human traits. This could be seen as Le Guin's attempt to cast aside human utopian beliefs pertaining to the universe. Setting up "A rather silly experiment in quantum physics" (Phone), things appear to be happening in a deliberate, decisive progression as the mailman sets up Schr " odinger's experiment.

"He and the cat finished their operations simultaneously" (Norton). The narrator comes to grips with her feelings about the impending experiment and her participation in the events unfolding around her as she states" I hoped it was not myself"; perhaps a reference pertaining to the patterns of the ordinary world, her inner feelings towards the cat and her place in the pattern of things. As the Schr " odinger's experiment is conducted, Le Guin explores the randomness of the universe and alludes to the facts that try as we may; humans (or canine mailmen) have but a small part in the way life's patterns are played out. When finishing the story, readers need to embrace the moment when intuition speaks and the world, as they see it, makes sense. Let the art, with all traditional and conformist expectations cast aside, stand on its own.

I believe she is trying to convey to her readers to" think outside the box" and not try to categorize fiction. Is it "hard" science? Is it "new wave"? Try not to answer.