Short Response 4 English

“We cannot predict it! God plays dice with the world! So it is beautifully demonstrated that if you desire certainty, any certainty, you must create it yourself!” (Le Guin 308-309).

The above quote from “Schrodinger’s Cat” by the genius writer, Ursula K. Le Guin emphasizes how people are always in search of the meaning of life and truth, and uncertainty, that you never know what’s going to happen. Life is confusing, chaotic, and unexplainable. The quote suggests that if you want answers, you need to create your own answers because humans will never be able to obtain the knowledge that tells them how the universe works, why things happen the way they do, or the future. Le Guin makes it her goal to leave the story uncertain, lacking answers in itself.

Confusion and nonsensicalness are a theme of the short story from the very beginning, starting with a married couple who were splitting apart, except they were literally falling apart into pieces, with the husband commenting his wife “has great legs” (Le Guin 304). The narrator is interrupted from their story by a cat who they quickly make friends with.

Nothing much is revealed about the narrator at all, neither the gender, or family, causing readers to start the story scratching their heads, almost as confused at the narrator. The narrator randomly states they have a condition called “Adam’s Disease,” then instantly jump to dreams and dreaming. At one point they are struck with a great urge to grieve and find themself unsure of what they’re grieving over, whether it was their wife, husband, children, or themself, they didn’t know. Music only made it worse, expressing “some note keeps playing that makes me want to cry; but what for? I am not certain” (Le Guin 305). Again, displaying this idea of uncertainty.

Suddenly, the narrator begins recounting about the world growing very hot, everything becoming too hot to touch, from utensils to cars to children’s hair. Perhaps Le Guin is alluding to global warming? However, the cat is still cool, “a very cool cat” (Le Guin 306). The narrator mentions they heard of some “failures of gravity” just before they left their old town (Le Guin 307). All these instances of the strange happenings in the world add to the uncertainty of everything.

The narrator is greeted by a mysterious visitor, a creature that could speak English, but looked human and dog-like until they decided he was a small, yappy dog, another unclear part to the story. They name him Rover, and Rover is very interested in the narrator’s cat because the cat is “Schrodinger’s cat” (Le Guin 307). Rover thinks the cat can bring them more answers about the world using a box that, depending on the outcome, has a different meaning. Rover explains they “cannot predict the behavior of the photon, and thus, once it has behaved, we cannot predict the state of the system it has determined,” which also implies they can’t predict what the future will be (Le Guin 308). They are “creating” their own answers by making some silly experiment that is supposed to provide them answers about God and the universe. However, the narrator knows this is unlikely true because there are many problems with the experiment that make it fallible. The narrator refused to continue with the experiment causing Rover to cry out he “can’t stand this terrible uncertainty,” emphasizing people’s need to know things. The cat finally jumps into the box, Rover stating, “All I want is certainty. To know for sure that God does play dice with the world” (Le Guin 310). When they opened the box lid, the cat had disappeared and almost immediately thereafter, the roof of the house began to lift, which leaves the two of them and the readers even more uncertain about the meaning of anything.

Source:

1. “Schrodinger’s Cat” by Ursula K. Le Guin. 1982.