The Immortals

I think that this story doesn’t stay on the fiction, it goes deeper. It is a fictive story, but it also makes us think about some philosophical problems, as for example our aspiration to immortality, our fear of death and loneliness, our will to have a purpose in life.

The story is a bit contradictory because, as Caitlyn mentioned, the main character is immortal and yet, he has a lot of human characteristics: he feels pain, loneliness and boredom. As a consequence, we can see that the author wanted to stress on the human’s fear of loneliness. We can observe that the sentence “Soon the people will all be gone and I will be alone forever” is repeated several times throughout the story. Also, I found interesting that the main character of the story is supposed to be the only immortal existing in the world, however, the title is “The Immortals”, this can also refer to the fact that humans fear to be left alone. It also leaves us in suspense, wondering if maybe he will find people like him at the end of the story.

It is a very depressing story because the immortal never found a purpose in life; he spent a lot of time doing useless things, only caring about himself. Although the author inserted a humorous tone in the description of how the immortal spent several years; at the end, it makes us think about it on a more serious way. It stresses on human’s selfishness. It makes us wonder what our purpose in life should be. If we aren’t immortals and we’re going to leave this world someday, we would like to stay at least in other people’s memories. In the end, what counts is what we did for others, not what we did for ourselves. But what did the immortal do for others? Nothing, at the beginning, he was just caring about his self-survival, and at the end, he just watched everyone else die. Although he speaks about global warming and other current issues, he never did anything to help humans survive. He had the power to be immortal but never helped the mortals.

I found Jason’s interpretation very interesting, maybe the immortal is just one of many humans who believe himself to be eternal, who wants to rise beyond mediocrity, and doesn’t want to be left alone and be forgotten by everyone else after dying. Maybe the immortal is just one of us. If we think about it, we all want to be immortals in our own way. We can either believe in re-incarnation or in a paradise after death, but we all humans question ourselves about what will happen after we die. We can’t just think that there is an end, that after we die we become nothing. This is probably what the author wanted to stress on: the humans’ will of eternity.

I felt like the main character was kind of blaming humanity for damaging the world, this is why the reader feels kind of guilty and responsible for all the atrocities mentioned in the story. “There is no weather now. Days are just a mask of fire. (…) I saw what you were doing to the place. What was the matter? Was it too nice for you or something? Jesus Christ, you were only here for ten minutes. And look what you did.” He speaks like a god blaming humanity. For him, a human’s life lasts only for ten minutes, and yet, he speaks of it as if having a huge power to damage or save the world.

By blaming us, he makes us think about important issues as global warming, and the consequences that it can have on next generations. It threatens us by saying that if we keep damaging the world, this is how it will end. I think the story is a human parody.

I also like that the author managed to begin his story with the creation of the world, continue with several historical facts, going through classical antiquity, the Renaissance and the Middle Ages, and finally imagine the end of humanity, all in a four-page story. He also mentions countries, such as Africa, China, Thailand and New Zealand; famous people, such as Shakespeare, the Queen of Sheba and Marie Antoinette; and historical events, such as wars. All this makes the fictive story seem more realistic.

Overall, I liked this story because it didn’t just please me with its fictive and imaginative side, but it also made me think about real issues that currently affect humanity.

Here’s my question: How does the author manages to create an Immortal that seems human?