Fate and the Future

The author uses the arrival of the mysterious boxes and strings at the start of the novel to inspire her explorations concerning fate and the future. In the untitled, opening section of the novel, the narrator says that “There was something both comforting and unsettling about the fact that every adult on earth suddenly seemed to be sharing the same surreal experience, the ubiquity of the boxes both a terror and a relief” (2). However, the longer the box recipients have to confront and consider their boxes, the more the boxes' contents compromise their relationship with the future. Indeed, each box contains “a single string,” and each string measures “a different length” (2). The lengths of the strings predict how long each individual will live. In so doing, the strings are delivering each character’s fate to her. The strings therefore determine the duration and...