Finish/review "Cold Equations" and write/post a journal identifying and explaining either a conflict in the story or a theme of the story.

-- Anonymous, January 05, 2005

Answers

One theme is "Suffering is not a punishment for wrongdoing; the innocent suffer as often as the guilty." (taken from the Edith Hamilton reading)

The girl was obviously not guilty (clearly indicated by her white gypsy sandals and curly brown hair). She had to suffer the penalty of death not because she meant to harm someone, but because she didn't know. Poor kid. =o(

-- Anonymous, January 05, 2005

I hate stories like this where you are left hanging and with a sad ending, but I guess it is just a book. The main conflict within this book was nothing to be seen externally, but enternally within the characters. The pilot has do deal with the fact that he is, essentially, killing an innocent person guilty only of the crime of ignorance. The girl has to deal with the fact that she is going to have to die and there is nothing that she can do about it. Both of these conflicts cannot be resolved by any means available and end only with the end of the girl's life and the end of the book. In this sense, the book does not really have a climax; that is there is no turning point or resolution. You could say that the climax is where the girl learns of her fate, and the resolution is where she dies, just as you could say that the climax is where the pilot finds the girl on board and the resolution is where he has to kill her. "Cold Fusion" strikes me as a book written to display a message to those who read it, "Life isn't fair.", a message that I'm sure your parents have told you at some point. Unfortunately, this is the just the way things turn out sometimes.

-- Anonymous, January 05, 2005

A conflict is Reality vs. Desire. As said multiple times by the EDS' captain, no one wanted to kill the girl. But the truth was, if she was not killed, she would die anyway, and kill others too. So the reality that was her certain death, despite the desires of others, couldn't be changed.

As for the story... it's quite sad, but also philosophical. I've been thinking about it and the topic of discussion we had before reading it. I still can't make up my mind just how much control over life people have. Obviously it varies... which is why it's hard to come to a conclusion.

-- Anonymous, January 05, 2005

As Garrett said "she died beacuse of her ignorance of the law". Wow, that just goes to prove how life is so unjust to the wrong people. How depressing! Although while reading the story your constantly wishing for a new occuring solution to their predicament. You do not only pity this innocent young guirl but you also want to hurt the captin for doing this to her, which is an all antural human emotion anyways. Overall the punishment of the innocent and guilty is dependend upon which unbias side of the story your looking upon.

-- Anonymous, January 05, 2005

I think I would have to say that one of the most important yet not as prominent themes of this story is to let those around you that you care for know just how much you care for them. This young girl, Marilyn, of just 18 has found that by sneaking onto the EDS she must die. She says something to Barton about it, about how she wished she could have gone back and said all these things to her parents and friends, taking back all the bad or mean things she said. Most of all, she wants to be able to tell them she loves them; she (according to what she said) never told them for fear of being sentimental or silly. She gets the chance to write a letter, more than one actually, telling them this, but it's not the same as telling them in person. She does manage to be brave though, and simply accepts her fate, knowing that there is nothing anyone can do. Talking to her brother, Gerry, she gets to tell him this, but she only talks to him for a little while.

Reading this story makes me think about the philosophical question we discussed in class, also: "Are our lives controlled by the decisions we make, or by fate?" The story seems shed some new light on the topic. I believe that it is a combination of fate and our decisions...that it's a both/and world out there (BOTH fate AND our decisions).

-- Anonymous, January 05, 2005

One conflict is the space captain’s thoughts of saving a seemingly innocent life versus his thoughts of keeping her alive and all of them eventually dying on lack of fuel. This was important because he knows she did not mean to cause any harm, but what she did was a serious crime in space laws. Unfortunately, the girl had to die because of her own ignorance. If she wasn't jettisoned, everyone would have died, so in the big picture this was the best option.

-- Anonymous, January 05, 2005

The major theme of the story is that whenever you make a decision, the consequences can be extreme, and you must deal with them. The girl made a choice to go onto the EDS, and in doing so, gave up up her life. She didn't know the law, but that is no excuse; if you go into intergalactic travel, it should be known to everyone the rules and regulations. She failed to learn the rules, and she was ultimately responsible for her own death. Other minor themes could be "ignorance causes destruction" and "life isn't fair."

-- Anonymous, January 05, 2005

What a sad story! I knew she would die, though; as soon as she came into the story I figured she was doomed.

Anyway, one theme of the story is that individual life is more important than "the cold equations;" that is, science and society, or the Frontier of space. A related theme is that reality tends to beat down humanity if humanity doesn't stand up for itself.

"There is nothing anyone can do..."

In this story the "Cold Equations" are the enemy, but humans would have come up with those equations, and humans were the ones who didn't allow for EDS stowaways. So, another theme is that humanity often contributes to its own downfall, for the killing of Marilyn Lee Cross is surely a step backward for a feeling, breathing society.

-- Anonymous, January 05, 2005

An important theme of the story is: What is necessary is often hard to do. The pilot knew he had to kill the young girl, but still, he always attempted to put it off hoping he wouldn’t have to. He knew the results would be seven times more catastrophic if he failed to jettison her, but when he saw the actual task that he was required to do at the beginning, he did everything in his power to avoid doing what was of vital importance. I summarize: "what is necessary is not often justified by the emotions of man."

-- Anonymous, January 05, 2005

In all these stories we read, why couldn't one not be about communism or have a crushingly depressing ending? Its really kind of morbid and unamerican. Anyway in "Cold Equations", a major unifying theme that governed the entire story was ignorance is not an excuse in the eyes of the law; whether its nature's law or man's. The innocent little girl had no idea of the severity of her actions but she was prosecuted according to the crime, not the intent, in a cold manor that is almost inhuman. Its sad that this the moral instead of a cheerful something like do not run with scissors on the space ship but alas the author needed to create a story in which a woman is executed as part of balancing a 'cold equation'.

-- Anonymous, January 05, 2005

A theme of this story is that rules are rules and should not be broken. I know this makes me sound up tight but it's the truth. If Marilyn obeyyed the sign telling unauthorized personnel to keep out then the whole situation would have been avoided. But, as we know, she disobeyed the sign and unknowingly submitted herself to certain death.

This theme should be realized in our society. Many people now live by the saying that rules are made to be broken wich is could harm both those people's live as well as others. A good example is speed limits, every year people drive faster and faster and cause more accidents each year. These accidents often harm people who were following the rules. Therefore, I think the theme of this story is a very important one, rules are rules and should not be broken.

-- Anonymous, January 05, 2005

There are many themes to this story, but I want to focus on only one of them. When people are young, and not yet exposed to the hardships of life(or in this case, the dangers of space), they believe themselves immortal, and that consequences are things that happen to other people, never to them. They believe any action they do can be undone, or at least changed. The rude awakening comes when the hardships of life rain down upon them like hail, and they are not prepared for it. They think these new obstacles can merely be "undone," and that they won't affect their lives in the slightest. The truth is, things can not be simply "undone." Every action has consequences, and those ignorant of them may end up in a situation that cannot be rewound or changed. They are doomed to their own benightedness.

-- Anonymous, January 05, 2005

I think that one of the major conflicts in the story is the emotional struggle that the pilot has to go through. He dosen't want to eject the girl into deep space because he knows that she didn't know the rule of the frontier, that everything comes down to a cold equation, and because of her innocence. He also dosen't want to let the girl live because he knows that the men on Woden won't get their medicine, so they will die, and because the girl and himself will die during entry, again because of the cold equation. No matter what the choice this was a lose-lose situation, but the loss was greater if the cold equation wasn't obeyed.

-- Anonymous, January 05, 2005

Stories like these seem pointless to me. Dragging out a long event like a girl's death to a story is kind of strange...

OK, so a theme or conflict you want, eh? I got your conflict here. Probably the second biggest one, but it's still a conflict. Barton must vie with his helpless state that he can't do anything to save this girl. As he says, he tries everything possible, but to no avail. So even though he can't do anything to save Marilyn, he struggles to accept her fate and move on, even after she's been departed.

-- Anonymous, January 05, 2005

A major conflict in this story woulld be the EDS trying to explain to the girl that she was going to die and that he and no one else could do anything to help her. All that goes through her head is why isn't anyone helping her. But in the end she understands how it has to be and accepts that shes going to die.

-- Anonymous, January 05, 2005

There was a definite conflict between what is required by law and what is actually right. The EDS must kill stowaways, because he needs to deliver the supplies to the colony, but he still has morals. No one wants to kill someone. It even mentioned that he was thinking about all the sleepless nights he is going to have dreaming about this girl he had to kill. It also mentioned that on earth you were not allowed to kill pretty young girls. This girl can understand why she needs to be killed, but she is so accustomed to earth ways, that she cannot fully comprehend it. I think this was the biggest conflict in the whole story.

-- Anonymous, January 06, 2005

I think the main theme in the story is, it is possible that someday one could face certain death, and when you feel like you love someone, you should tell them because some day you wont be able to tell them, and you will feel sad because they might never know how you loved them and the feelings you had for them. Fortunately, Marilyn was able to write a letter and call her brother to tell them both, but she felt guilty for never telling them how she truly felt as much as she would have liked to.

-- Anonymous, January 06, 2005