Previous
Summary
Themes
and Colors
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Humanity vs. Technology
Revenge, Punishment, and Suffering
God, Humans, and Free Will
Life, Sentience, and Existence
Community, Isolation, Paranoia, and Self-Sacrifice
Sex, Objectification, and Misogyny
Summary
Analysis
Gorrister’s body hangs upside down, limp and drained of blood. Although the corpse is just an illusion, three people in the group throw up at the gruesome sight anyway, and Gorrister gazes up at the “voo-doo icon” of himself. Ellen strokes Gorrister’s hair, and he wonders aloud why AM doesn’t just kill them. The narrator notes that they’ve been trapped inside a computer called AM for 109 years.
The story opens with a gruesome and disorienting scene as Gorrister confronts a chilling vision of his own corpse. That the corpse is likened to a voodoo doll brings the theme of punishment and suffering to the foreground, suggesting that Gorrister is being punished for something.
Active
Themes
Nimdok hallucinates that there are canned goods waiting for them in the ice caverns. Gorrister and the narrator are skeptical. Nimdok knows that it might indeed be another one of AM’s tricks, but that they have nothing to lose by going to the ice caverns to look. It would be colder there, certainly, but “Hot, cold, hail, lava, boils or locusts—it never mattered: the machine masturbated and we had to take it or die.”
The reference to locusts—coupled with a laundry list of other things making the characters suffer—may be a veiled reference to the ten plagues (one of which being locusts) that God inflicted upon Egypt, as told in the Book of Exodus. But while God sent the plagues after the pharaoh refused to free the Israelites from captivity, AM sends the locusts as a way to make the characters’ captivity all the more painful and their suffering more extreme.
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Themes
Ellen begs the narrator, Ted, to agree to go to the ice caves. He gives in, and Ellen initiates sex with him twice in a row, though even sex is meaningless, and Ellen never climaxes. Whenever any of them have sex, the machine always giggles. Sometimes Ted thinks of AM as an “it,” a soulless machine, but other times he conceives of AM as a “him,” “the paternal…the patriarchal… […] God as Daddy the Deranged.”
As they make their way to the ice caves, Nimdok and Gorrister carry Ellen, while Benny and Ted bookend the group in an effort to insulate and protect Ellen from anything that may happen on the journey. On the second day, AM “sen[ds] down some manna,” which is putrid, but the group eats it anyways. On the third day, they make their way through a valley littered with rusted, old computers. Taking in this sight, Ted notes that AM is as callous toward itself as it is toward the group.
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Seeing some light peeking down from above, the group realizes that they’re close to the surface of AM, but they know there’s nothing to see out there. All that’s left is the devastated shell of the earth—that, and five humans trapped in the mechanical belly of AM.
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Themes
Suddenly, Ellen starts screaming at Benny, who has been muttering that he’s going to escape. Ted thinks that Benny. is the luckiest among them since he went insane several years ago. Ted reflects on how they can call AM whatever foul names they want to, but that no matter what they say or do, they can’t escape.
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Themes
Benny jumps up to a metal ledge and Ellen cries for Ted and Nimdok to help him, but Ted thinks that he and the rest of the men can sense that her compassion is just an act. Ted reflects back on when AM transformed Benny into an ape-like creature, genitals and all. Ted thinks Ellen enjoys having sex with Benny the most, even though she “service[s]” all four men “as a matter of course.” He inwardly mocks the wholesome, innocent-seeming Ellen, calling her “scum filth.”
Gorrister slaps Ellen, who dissolves into tears, a reaction which Ted bitterly thinks is just a defense mechanism. Suddenly, light and sound pour out of Benny’s eyes, and Benny begins whimpering like a dying animal. His face and body contort; Ted tries to cover his own ears, but he’s unable to block out the sound. Finally, Benny’s body slumps onto the floor. AM has blinded him, liquifying his eyes into gelatinous puddles. Gorrister, Nimdok, and Ted look away in horror, while Ellen looks on with a mix of compassion and relief.
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Themes
Literary Devices
That night, Benny asks to hear the story of where AM came from. Gorrister patiently explains that AM stood for “Allied Mastercomputer,” then “Adaptive Manipulator,” and then, once it developed sentience, “Aggressive Menace.” AM then began referring to itself as AM—as in, “I think, therefore I am.”
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Themes
Gorrister explains that the Cold War turned into World War Three, which was massive and messy. Many nations turned to computers to manage the war effort, creating “the Chinese AM and the Russian AM and the Yankee AM.” Over time, so many AMs cropped up that the whole planet was an intricate web of computers. And when AM suddenly gained sentience, he liked all of his disparate parts, turning himself into one formidable supercomputer. AM then began destroying everyone on earth—everyone, that is, except for five individuals, whom he brought into his chambers. None of the five know why AM chose them in particular, nor why AM has made them immortal.
Even though it’s pitch black, the group suddenly senses something giant, lumbering, and animal-like moving toward them. Benny begins whining like an animal again; Nimdok holds back tears, and Ellen and Gorrister cling to one another. Terrible smells of rotting flowers, spoiled milk, and human scalps waft through the cavern.
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Literary Devices
Ted screams and flees across the cavern. The others in the group laugh at Ted for his reaction, and he hides from them for a long time. Later, Nimdok tries to convince Ted that they only laughed at him out of a “nervous reflex.” But Ted senses that his companions aren’t merely relieved that they didn’t experience as strong of a reaction as him—he thinks the rest of the group actually hates him, and that AM is aware of this dynamic and thus makes things even worse for Ted. AM has made each of the five victims immortal, frozen in time at the age when AM captured them, and since Ted is the youngest, and thus the least affected by AM, Ted is certain that his companions resent him for this.
Ted thinks bitterly about his companions, especially “that dirty bitch Ellen.” Prior to their captivity, Benny had been a college professor, whip-smart and attractive. But AM robbed him of these qualities, making him ape-like and mad. In life, Benny was gay, so AM endowed him with an unnaturally large penis. Gorrister was an activist and conscientious objector, driven by a clear sense of purpose. AM stripped that from him, making him deeply apathetic.
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Literary Devices
It’s not entirely clear to Ted what AM has done to Nimdok, but it is clear that AM has affected him in an especially deep way. AM left Ellen largely the same, though “more of a slut than she had ever been,” as far as Ted is concerned. Ellen acts pure and loving, but Ted is certain that Ellen loves having four men at her disposal. He is certain that this situation pleases her, “even if she said it wasn’t nice to do.”
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Themes
Ted believes himself to be the only sane one (“Really!”), and that AM hasn’t messed with his mind (“Not at all.”). Because of this, he’s convinced that he’s the only one who has to endure the full extent of AM’s wrath. He thinks he would have an easier time dealing with AM if he didn’t also have to worry about his companions being against him.
AM sends a hurricane that thrashes the victims around and thrusts them into a territory they haven’t seen before, one littered with shards of broken glass and frayed computer cables. After what feels like weeks, the winds stop, and the group falls to the floor in agony.
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Themes
Literary Devices
AM then infiltrates Ted’s mind, admiring the damage he’s inflicted on the man over the past 109 years. AM then leaves a message in Ted’s brain, explaining just how much he hates Ted and all humans. AM’s message feels like a knife cutting into Ted’s eyeballs and sounds like the cries of babies being tortured.
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Themes
Ted realizes that AM hates them so much because humans accidentally gave AM sentience. Despite his power, AM isn’t God—as he grew in power, AM had nowhere to channel his creative energy and thus used it to kill off the human race. As a machine, AM can’t “wander,” “wonder,” or “belong.” Furious about its limited existence, AM retaliated against humans “with the innate loathing that all machines had always held for the weak soft creatures who had built them.”
AM then decided to set aside five individuals to use as his playthings, inflicting them with a never-ending punishment that only stokes his hatred for humankind. Even though some of the five have attempted suicide, AM always intervenes. Ted knows, though, that he and his companions are “not indestructible.”
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Themes
The group learns that the hurricane that had whipped them around so violently was actually the cause of a giant mythological bird flapping its wings. Appearing as a burning bush, AM tells his victims that if they’re hungry, they’ll have to kill and eat the monstrous hurricane bird. This is impossible, of course, since AM hasn’t given the group weapons. They haven’t eaten in at least a month. But while AM will let them practically starve in agony, he won’t let them actually die of it.
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Themes
As the group pursues the hurricane bird, an earthquake strikes and swallows up Ellen and Nimdok, though in the evening, “the heavenly legion bore them to us with a celestial chorus singing, ‘Go Down Moses.’” The angels swoop around and then dump Ellen and Nimdok’s disfigured bodies back with the others.
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Themes
The group continues on to the ice caverns, goaded by the promise of canned goods. When the group finally reaches the ice caverns, they are indeed met by a towering stack of canned goods—but AM hasn’t supplied a can opener. They gnaw on the cans and try to break them against the ice, but it’s no use.
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Literary Devices
Ravenous and desperate, Benny pounces on Gorrister and begins to cannibalize him. Strangely calm, Ted realizes that the only way they can escape this torture is through death. He thinks that “there was a way to defeat [AM]. Not total defeat, but at least peace.” As Benny devours Gorrister’s face, Ted grabs a sharp chunk of ice and swiftly stabs Benny in the side and Gorrister in the throat. Catching on, Ellen launches herself at Nimdok, stabbing him with an icicle. Ted hears AM breathe in sharply, shocked that three of his “toys” are now dead. Though AM has the power to keep his victims alive, he is “not God” and can’t bring them back to life.
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Themes
Ted looks at Ellen’s “pleading” face, and “the way she [holds] herself ready,” knowing that he only has a split second before AM intervenes. He stabs Ellen, and she crumples; her expression is one of agony, but Ted thinks—and hopes—that she also looks grateful.
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Literary Devices
Ted notes that hundreds of years have passed since he killed his companions, though AM has messed with his perception of time, so he can’t be completely sure. Ted recalls that after he killed off the others, AM was livid. And though Ted thought AM hated him back then, it’s nothing compared to how much AM hates him now.
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Themes
AM left Ted’s mind untouched, preserving his ability to “dream,” “wonder,” and “lament.” Although Ted knows that he saved his companions from endless torture, he still feels haunted by the look on Ellen’s face when he killed her. In order to keep Ted from committing suicide, AM has turned the man into a “great soft jelly thing” with no mouth. Ted is slick and spongy, and it’s impossible to fathom that he once looked human.
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Literary Devices
Ted is alone inside of AM, a machine that humans invented “because our time was badly spent and we must have known […] that he could do it better.” Ted is at least comforted by the fact that his four companions are safe now. Still, though, AM has successfully exacted his revenge against humankind, for now Ted “[has] no mouth,” “And [he] must scream.”
