##quality In Tom Godwin's The Cold Equations By Tom Godwin

In the short story “The Cold Equation” by Tom Godwin, the author describes the internal struggle of one pilot and what he has to do and what he wants to do but ultimately knows that he must compromise his moral to do what he must. To start off, the story begins by explaining what life is like out in the Frontier, how dangerous it is and how harsh rules have to be because it is so dangerous. The story is about a pilot of an Emergency Dispatch Ship who finds a stowaway on his ship and debates what he will do; he knows that he must kill her otherwise seven other people will die along with her, including him. He does everything he can to delay the outcome and to possibly change it but ultimately knows the girl must die.

For myself, the most exciting part to read in the short story "The Cold Equations" was in the very first part when the pilot knew that someone was hiding in the supply closet and he knew he was "not alone" the first two words of the story had me hooked. From here on he continued explaining that a tiny white hand on a gauge let him face the reality that a person who was not supposed to be on the tiny EDS ship was hiding in a supplies closet.At this point, you are as scared as the pilot as to what is in there especially with this line, "There was something in the supplies closet across the room, it was saying, some kind of a body that radiated heat." Consequently, the pilot has a dialogue with himself about the expectations of an EDS pilot and

In all of the sources there is a common theme of how a significant event has affected the protagonist and the choices they may make in the future. We see this first in THE TENT DELIVERY WOMAN’S RIDE. The women in the story has a very dark and negative outlook on life we see this when she says things like “I hated knots, and looking at the butterfly got me riled up again” we don't know a lot about their life but we can assume they had a negative upbringing because thinking about her mother made her mad and she says she ran away. This poor upbringing has possibly changed the way she views the world. At one point she thinks “I had in mind To swerve against the side and shoot on past The safety lights, another kind of tit for tat, But what’s the use in one way to die? I kept on going.” this is a crossroad she has come to, she either has a choice to move on and continue driving or just end everything. This is where she comes to the realization that there is no point of ending anything, because then what would have been the point of making it as far as she had. She figures that despite anything that may have happened in the past she needs to keep moving forward with the understanding that life isn't comfortable but we must carry on. We see this further when she says things like “I feel like that, pulled out, unraveled. But I like it fine.”

From the very beginning of In Cold Blood by Truman Capote, the Clutters' fate is sealed at the hands of Dick and Perry, but the readers are still left in suspense and waiting in anticipation. With quick transitions and a recurring theme of something being the last for the Clutters, the beginning is a rousing murder scene without even a mention of the actual violent act. The sharp juxtaposition of describing the Clutters' everyday life compared to Dick and Perry preparing for the murder is striking. While the readers know the outcome of the violence, they are left wondering how and why until later in the book. Even then, like with any intriguing crime scene, people want to feel the thrill of the chase with the slight, underlining knowledge that

The short (not very short) story, “The Cold Equations” by Tom Godwin evinced the thematic tension between selfishness and the law, with the law taking the victory over any act upon it. To summarize the story, “The Cold Equation” by Tom Godwin, you would start off in a closet inside the huge ship, Stardust, that is moving through space. A teenage young girl is caught hiding off inside that closet and doesn’t know the price she has to pay for sneaking onto that ship to see her brother just one year earlier (this action can be labeled as selfishness). Most of the story rambles on with the teenage girl and the man who finds her there with the job of eliminating the intruder according to the law of that spaceship. The tension and suspense

At the end of her novel, My Sister’s Keeper, Jodi Picoult employs the use of irony to show readers that a person cannot always escape their fate. The protagonist, Anna Fitzgerald, was conceived so her sister Kate would have a donor to help treat her cancer. However, Kate no longer wants to take donations from her sister, so she asks her no to give her the kidney she needs. When her parents insist Anna donate the kidney, Anna tries to become medically emancipated. She fights a long battle in court with her mother resisting her every step of the way, but, eventually, she manages to win the trial. However, the story doesn’t end here. On the way home from the trial, she and her lawyer get into a car accident during a thunderstorm, and Anna loses

In the short story, “The Cold Equation” by Tom Godwin, the author provides the details needed to infer that a man is working against his own emotions and lack of power, in order to help an innocent young girl; in the end, after the man makes a little gesture of care, the girl dies for what she knew wasn’t what everyone wanted, but needed to happen.

Novelist, Truman Capote, in his informative novel, "In Cold Blood," recounts the moments before the murder occurred and the aftermath of the murder. Capote's purpose is to illustrate in detail the occurrences before, during, and after the murder; as well as, to inform the reader of why the murder took place in the first place. He adopts a factual tone to emphasize the seriousness of the situations; he then shifts to a grieving tone in order to appeal to similar experiences and feelings in his adult readers.

What if there was a pilot who was afraid of heights? This is an example of situational irony. Situational irony makes an ordinary story extraordinary in unexpected ways as it can also be alarming or amusing. Authors use situational irony to provoke feelings in their readers, such as humor and pity. O. Henry uses situational irony to show humor in his story, “The Ransom Red Chief.” Guy de Maupassant also uses situational irony in his story the necklace where the reader feels pity towards the characters. By examining these two short stories, it is clear that authors utilize situational irony to affect readers’ emotions.

Turcois Ominek once said, “The worst battle you will ever have to fight is between what you feel and what you know.” This is true in Cold Equations, a short story by Tom Godwin. In the story, an Emergency Dispatch Ship (EDS) pilot, Barton, is faced with a choice when he finds a young stowaway named Marilyn. He must follow the rules he has learned, even when it doesn’t seem right in the situation. Barton realizes that sometimes in life there are hard choices, and the desired choice is not always able to be chosen.

In class we discussed the case of Marilyn as well as two other scenarios involving a transplant patient and a train that were to kill children playing in the tracks. The class agreed that the pilot did indeed do the right thing. The numbers principle states that if the number sacrificed is less than the number saved the sacrifice is permissible. We agreed with Mills and his views regarding the cold equation case. Marilyn should have not been on the plane in the first place

A short story is a work of literature that is shorter than a novel. Although some may believe the length may not be enough to develop a noble story, in these few pages an author can pack a tight punch that will leave one in awe, disgust, or utter sadness. Whether there is a moral of the story or it is simply for the reader’s enjoyment, each author has their own style of conveying a message through their work in very diverse ways. Through Flannery O’Connor and Chuck Palahniuk’s works we can see this very evidently.

The debate over fate and free will is a long going discussion among people. Some believe that their choices have been planned out for them, while others believe that their destiny is in their hands and they can forge their own path. In Tom Godwin’s “The Cold Equations” this idea is explored when a girl named Marilyn Cross stowaways on a ship. Once she is discovered, Marilyn learns that the ship she has chosen to hide out on has limited fuel and can only take a single person. This person must be the ship’s captain, Barton, who must deliver serum to a sick colony on a nearby planet and also return hom. No matter how hard either of them try, it seems the inevitable is only delayed. The cold equations that run the ship’s maintenance call for

Throughout life people face countless decisions; however, making the wrong choice may lead to a catastrophic consequence. As a woman was being brutally stabbed in Kew Gardens near Austin Street, numerous bystanders did not help or act upon calling the police. The choice of the bystanders to not phone the police lead to the death of an innocent woman. Had just one of the thirty-eight people called the police, that innocent woman would still have breath in her lungs. In the article “Thirty-Eight Who Saw Murder Didn’t Call the Police,” Martin Gansberg expresses his anger and disapproval toward those who left a poor woman to die. If the thirty-eight people took immediate action and did not make excuses, the precious life of Catherine Genovese would have been rescued.

Even out in space like in Tom Godwin’s “Cold Equations,” problems can present themselves, and characters soon figure out something significant. They open their eyes, in a way, and change because of it. The theme that someone has to open their eyes to see the bigger picture is shown in Tom Godwin’s “The Cold Equations,” Morley Callaghan’s “All the Years of Her Life,” “How Far She Went” by Mary Hood, and John Steinbeck’s Of Mice And Men.