Tom Godwin’s “Cold Equations” demonstrates the idea that a person may be forced to make a decision that may go against their morals in order to better help the majority, and therefore it is important for a person to live life with no regrets. “Cold Equations” begins with the introduction of the new, space oriented future, where people can travel to separate planets and galaxies and explore space. In order to conserve fuel, computers calculate the amount of resources needed for the journey, which means that there is no possible room for any factors that have been unaccounted for. A rescue pilot is traveling to a far off planet to deliver desperately needed supplies to an exploration team when he discovers a stowaway on his ship. This stowaway is a …show more content…
Before she dies, Marilyn reflects on her life, and all the regrets that she has. To begin with, the pilot must decide to either save Marilyn and risk sacrificing everyone involved, including the explorers, or to kill her and insure the safety of the explorers and himself. When the pilot discovers Marilyn stowing away in the ship, he accounts that his lack of an answer was “making the smile fade into the meek and guilty expression of a pup that has been caught in mischief and knows it must be punished,” (3) and “The men of the frontier knew—but how was a girl from Earth to fully understand? H amount of fuel will not power an EDS with a mass of m plus x safely to its destination. To himself and her brother and parents she was a sweet-faced girl in her teens; to the laws of nature she was x, the unwanted factor in a cold equation,” (11). The author uses figurative language to show that the pilot saw Marilyn as an innocent child who did not truly deserve to