The Cold Equations

Godwin mostly employs third-person limited perspective so that the reader only sees events and characters through the perspective of one character, the pilot. An anonymous, indistinctly described male who is familiar with the conventions of the space frontier, the pilot is an optimal guide for Godwin’s male readership, who might identify with him and trust his authority.

This means that while readers can guess at what Marilyn feels through her speech and behavior, the information is mediated through the pilot. For example, after Marilyn speaks to Gerry for the last time via the communicator, the pilot sees that “she sat motionless in the hush that followed” and conjectures that it is “as though listening to the shadow-echoes of the words as they died away” (Location 8991). The “as though” simile reveals that the pilot is at one remove from Marilyn, who he proposes to understand. The narrative’s refusal to follow Marilyn’s perspective directly puts her heroism at a distance and imbues her with the sentimentality of sacrificed young women from classic literature.