Life, Sentience, and Existence Theme Analysis

In Harlan Ellison’s “I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream,” AM’s five human victims are suspended in a gruesome version of immortality: their bodies are maintained by AM, but none of them are fully “living” as they were on Earth’s surface. Even AM leads a pitiful and agonizing existence, as AM isn’t truly “alive,” but its existence as a sentient supercomputer complicates the notion of what actually constitutes a living being. While AM has an immense capability for intelligent thought, it doesn’t have the ability to engage in any of the meaningful connections or activities that define the human experience. Ellison’s story suggests that existence—as AM and those trapped inside the computer experience it—is meaningless and agonizing without spirituality, community, and freedom.

With AM’s newfound sentience, it lashes out in pain and anger at those responsible for its creation. However, AM’s existence as a feeling, thinking machine is at odds with humanity’s more vulnerable, mortal existence. Human lives are saturated with meaning: relationships, purposeful activities, and spirituality all imbue the human experience with its value. By torturing the group of five trapped inside its chambers, AM doesn’t get any closer to imbuing its own existence with meaning. The narrator, Ted, comes to the conclusion that humanity is responsible for AM’s sentience, “but there was nothing it could do with that creativity.” Unlike humans, AM can’t “wander,” “wonder,” or “belong.” AM doesn’t have access to the abstract concepts that are so integral to what it means to be human. AM’s revenge, therefore, isn’t just about its anguish at having been created: it loathes humanity for dooming it to an existence lacking meaning, fated to spend forever as “the all-mind soulless world he had become.”

In attempt to make up for its own pitiful existence, AM reduces the group members’ lives to mere shadows of who they were before, removing more and more of what made them human. The story begins with Gorrister’s corpse hanging “from the pink palette” above the group, “attached […] by the sole of its right foot.” But this horror show isn’t just for the other group members: Gorrister joins them, staring up at his own dead body. Even when Ted relays this image, Gorrister’s foot isn’t “his”—the foot belongs to “its,” or rather Gorrister’s, corpse. After over 100 years of torture, the group’s connection to their tormented bodies becomes more removed. While they can still feel the pain of what is happening to their bodies, additional torment comes from the psychological trauma of seeing each other and themselves torn to bits. So immediately, the story begins with the issue of what it means to be “alive” within the machine. Benny was once a renowned theorist and professor, but AM took what was most integral to who Benny was: his intelligence. Turning Benny into barely more than a beast, the high-level topics that once gave his life meaning are far beyond his comprehension. Now, Benny’s thoughts revolve around meeting basic needs: food, sex, and the potential for escape. However, it is arguable that “Benny was the luckiest of the five of us,” because sanity under these circumstances makes the others’ existences worse. Later, to punish Ted for killing off his companions, AM removes Ted’s physical resemblance to humans, turning him into “a thing whose shape is so alien a travesty that humanity becomes more obscene for the vague resemblance.”

Even though AM isn’t “alive,” it did learn something from its mistake with Benny. The machine chooses to preserve Ted’s mind, leaving him the clarity to “dream,” “wonder,” “lament,” and even “wish.” These are distinctively human abilities, relating to the emotional and spiritual aspects of humanity that AM can’t perform. By maintaining Ted’s ability to “dream” and “wish” while robbing him of all agency, AM exposes Ted to new, agonizing forms of psychological torture that correlate to AM’s own inability to do those same things. The story highlights that what actually constitutes existence is complicated, so while AM is sentient, ultimately it is missing the interpersonal connection, purpose, and spirituality necessary to be truly considered alive.