Stories of Your Life and Others

Renee is one of two central characters in the story “Division by Zero.” The story begins with Renee in a psychiatric ward after a failed suicide attempt. The author immediately creates a sense of vulnerability and fragility when it comes to her character, and as the story goes back in time to explore what drove Renee to such a drastic act, her motivation is revealed to be very complex.

A natural-born mathematician, Renee always conceived of the world through the lens of mathematics: its certainty, solidity, and the ultimate beauty of its order. This is how she understands reality, and her existence is inextricably linked to her professional work. However, once she discovers a formalism that proves mathematics is essentially inconsistent, the world no longer makes sense to Renee. There is no more sense of security for her in such a world. Her new inability to define both herself and everything around her through the safety of mathematical order creates a profound feeling of despair. Her suicide attempt is the ultimate proof that everything else in her life, including her husband Carl, ceases to have meaning because mathematics no longer holds meaning for her. The fact that she is the one to prove its inconsistency is a further blow, because she is sure of her findings and certain that she made no mistakes.

By the story’s end, Renee begins to develop a tentative, fragile sense of reality. However, this might shatter because her husband stops loving her since he cannot empathize with her crisis. The story’s ending is tragic for Renee because, even if she never realized it before, she counts on her husband in the way she previously counted on science, but the author makes it clear that Carl will let her down, too. 

Louise Banks is the first-person narrator of the title story, “Story of Your Life.” A linguist of repute, Louise is hired by the military and the government to communicate with the newly arrived aliens in hopes of learning their language. The author portrays Louise as dedicated to her job; she sees the opportunity to communicate with the aliens as a once-in-a-lifetime chance to learn about a language that is crucially different from human languages. Chiang further positions her character so she is able to change profoundly throughout the story; readers follow her journey as she discovers just how different the aliens’ language is, and this knowledge transforms Louise’s life forever.

The fact that the language is two-dimensional, and that the aliens’ understanding of the world is radically different from human understanding, allows Louise to achieve a state where she is able to experience the past, present and future all at once. She gains “memories” of her future as she begins to think in the alien language. This is an essential plot point, because through this Louise learns that she will give birth to a daughter who will die in a rock-climbing accident in her twenties. Nevertheless, even knowing the pain that the future holds, Louise decides to live out her future without attempting to change it, because she wishes to experience every emotion that love, marriage, and motherhood will bring into her life. She is also unable to share her knowledge with anyone, and this makes her character a solitary figure, the only one able to grasp the full significance of the alien way of experiencing things. 

Robert Stratton is the protagonist of the story “Seventy-Two Letters.” He is a scientist living in an alternate Victorian era who designs automata animated through the use of nomenclature, the ancient Hebrew ritual of naming. Importantly, Stratton invents a highly developed automaton with articulated joints that is potentially able to replicate itself. He is a socialist at heart: He believes in the possibility that automata will become affordable for even the poorest families, where they could use them to help with chores and everyday work, thus improving overall production while allowing poorer people to have more free time. However, as with many scientists, Stratton does not take into account the fact that self-replicating automata would mean loss of many jobs for sculptors and workers in numerous factories that produce automata now.

Additionally, Stratton faces the exciting opportunity to create humans by using nomenclature. At first he is somewhat concerned with the ethics of such an endeavor, until he understands that the future of the human race might depend on it. He dedicates his time to coming up with ways to animate the human fetus so that humans can reproduce beyond just one generation. His foil—and later his antagonist—is Lord Fieldhurst. After his initial excitement to receive help and protection form a well-known figure like Fieldhurst, Stratton realizes the man intends to use their discoveries for further advancement of the aristocracy and to prevent other classes and races from reproducing. This provokes a change in Stratton that allows him to see beyond his scientific enthusiasm and into the realities of real-life ethical concerns, which makes him determined to help the disenfranchised.

Neil Fisk is the central character of the story “Hell is the Absence of God.” His agony over losing his wife to an angel visitation and his attempt to fool God into entering Heaven forms the thematic and narrative through-line of the story. He is an ordinary man, made remarkable through his profound love for his wife and his antagonistic attitude towards God, who is a real presence in his reality. The pain Neil feels is so deep because he is aware that, since Sarah ascended to Heaven, they will spend eternity apart. His rage against God for taking Sarah is profound because Sarah has always been a devout believer, and Neil has no way to achieve his ultimate goal of spending eternity with his wife—whether in Heaven or Hell. Neil is fully aware of the selfishness of his love. He always assumed he would go to Hell, and he accepted that fact until the moment of Sarah’s death. The change in him occurs once his anger passes and he realizes there might be a loophole allowing him to enter Heaven despite not being able to feel love or even respect for God. Thus, Neil joins the pilgrims called “light-chasers,” who follow the visiting angels in an attempt to witness the Divine Light, which ensures one a place in Heaven.

God ultimately punishes Neil severely. Even though he witnesses the light, and even though in his dying moments he finds true love for God, he still descends to Hell, where he will suffer forever the absence of God for eternity. Through Neil’s fate, Chiang shows that belief must be unconditional. Accepting true faith means accepting whatever comes one’s way, unlike Neil who searches for loopholes around his fate.