Story of Your Life

by

Ted Chiang

Dr. Gary Donnelly Character Analysis

Dr. Gary Donnelly is a physicist who collaborates with Dr. Louise Banks in communicating with the heptapods (an alien species) and who eventually becomes her husband. Initially, Gary helps Louise elicit vocabulary from the heptapods by serving as her prop and acting out verbs. Later, when the humans understand the heptapods’ language well enough to communicate with them, his explanations of the kind of physics concepts the heptapods find intuitive help Louise realize that the heptapods experience time not as a sequence but as a simultaneity. While working together to communicate with the heptapods, Gary and Louise begin to date. As Louise learns the heptapods’ written language, Heptapod B, she gains their ability to remember the future and learns that she and Gary will marry, have a daughter together, and subsequently divorce. Like Louise’s relationship with her daughter, Louise’s relationship with Gary underscores the loss of free will she experiences when she begins remembering the future. Although Louise knows that she and Gary will divorce, she can neither avoid entering a relationship with him in the first place nor take action to prevent their divorce once they are married. Yet Louise does not seem to regret her relationship with Gary, suggesting that she truly loves him.

Dr. Gary Donnelly Quotes in Story of Your Life

The Story of Your Life quotes below are all either spoken by Dr. Gary Donnelly or refer to Dr. Gary Donnelly. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Language Theme Icon
).
Story of Your Life Quotes

Your father is about to ask me the question. This is the most important moment in our lives, and I want to pay attention, note every detail. Your dad and I have just come back from an evening out, dinner and a show; it’s after midnight. We came out onto the patio to look at the full moon; then I told your dad I wanted to dance, so he humors me and now we’re slow-dancing, a pair of thirtysomethings swaying back and forth in the moonlight like kids. I don’t feel the night chill at all. And then your dad says, “Do you want to make a baby?”

[…]

I’d love to tell you the story of this evening, the night you’re conceived, but the right time to do that would be when you’re ready to have children of your own, and we’ll never get that chance.

Related Characters: Dr. Louise Banks (speaker), Louise’s Daughter, Dr. Gary Donnelly
Page Number: 91
Explanation and Analysis:

Colonel Weber frowned. “You seem to be implying that no alien could have learned human languages by monitoring our broadcasts.”

“I doubt it. They’d need instructional material specifically designed to teach human languages to nonhumans. Either that, or interaction with a human. If they had either of those, they could learn a lot from TV, but otherwise, they wouldn’t have a starting point.”

The colonel clearly found this interesting; evidently his philosophy was, the less the aliens knew, the better. Gary Donnelly read the colonel’s expression too and rolled his eyes. I suppressed a smile.

Related Characters: Dr. Louise Banks (speaker), Colonel Weber (speaker), Dr. Gary Donnelly
Page Number: 94
Explanation and Analysis:

“Their script isn’t word divided; a sentence is written by joining the logograms for the constituent words. They join the logograms by rotating and modifying them. Take a look.” I showed him how the logograms were rotated.

“So they can read a word with equal ease no matter how it’s rotated,” Gary said. He turned to look at the heptapods, impressed. “I wonder if it’s a consequence of their body’s radial symmetry: their bodies have no ‘forward’ direction, so maybe their writing doesn’t either. Highly neat.”

Related Characters: Dr. Louise Banks (speaker), Dr. Gary Donnelly (speaker)
Related Symbols: Heptapod B
Page Number: 105-106
Explanation and Analysis:

“I wanna be in Hawaii now,” you’ll whine.

“Sometimes it’s good to wait,” I’ll say. “The anticipation makes it more fun when you get there.”

You’ll just pout.

Related Characters: Dr. Louise Banks (speaker), Louise’s Daughter (speaker), Dr. Gary Donnelly
Page Number: 111
Explanation and Analysis:

“I should emphasize that our relationship with the heptapods need not be adversarial. This is not a situation where every gain on their part is a loss on ours, or vice versa. If we handle ourselves correctly, both we and the heptapods can come out winners."

"You mean it’s a non-zero-sum game?” Gary said in mock incredulity. “Oh my gosh.”

Related Characters: Dr. Gary Donnelly (speaker), Hossner (speaker), Dr. Louise Banks
Page Number: 128
Explanation and Analysis:

When you are three, you’ll pull a dishtowel off the kitchen counter and bring that salad bowl down on top of you. I’ll make a grab for it, but I’ll miss. The edge of the bowl will leave you with a cut, on the upper edge of your forehead, that will require a single stitch. Your father and I will hold you, sobbing and stained with Caesar dressing, as we wait in the emergency room for hours.

I reached out and took the bowl from the shelf. The motion didn’t feel like something I was forced to do. Instead, it seemed just as urgent as my rushing to catch the bowl when it falls on you: an instinct that I felt right in following.

Related Characters: Dr. Louise Banks (speaker), Louise’s Daughter, Dr. Gary Donnelly
Related Symbols: Heptapod B
Page Number: 132-133
Explanation and Analysis:

Freedom isn’t an illusion; it’s perfectly real in the context of sequential consciousness. Within the context of simultaneous consciousness, freedom is not meaningful, but neither is coercion; it’s simply a different context, no more or less valid than the other. It’s like that famous optical illusion, the drawing of either an elegant young woman, face turned away from the viewer, or a wart-nosed crone, chin tucked down on her chest. There’s no “correct” interpretation; both are equally valid. But you can’t see both at the same time.

Related Characters: Dr. Louise Banks (speaker), Louise’s Daughter, Dr. Gary Donnelly
Related Symbols: Heptapod B
Page Number: 137
Explanation and Analysis:

Working with the heptapods changed my life. I met your father and learned Heptapod B, both of which make it possible for me to know you now, here on the patio in the moonlight. Eventually, many years from now, I’ll be without your father, and without you. All I will have left from this moment is the heptapod language. So I pay close attention, and note every detail.

From the beginning I knew my destination, and I chose my route accordingly. But am I working toward an extreme of joy, or of pain? Will I achieve a minimum, or a maximum?

Related Characters: Dr. Louise Banks (speaker), Louise’s Daughter, Dr. Gary Donnelly
Related Symbols: Heptapod B
Page Number: 144-145
Explanation and Analysis:
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Story of Your Life PDF

Dr. Gary Donnelly Quotes in Story of Your Life

The Story of Your Life quotes below are all either spoken by Dr. Gary Donnelly or refer to Dr. Gary Donnelly. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Language Theme Icon
).
Story of Your Life Quotes

Your father is about to ask me the question. This is the most important moment in our lives, and I want to pay attention, note every detail. Your dad and I have just come back from an evening out, dinner and a show; it’s after midnight. We came out onto the patio to look at the full moon; then I told your dad I wanted to dance, so he humors me and now we’re slow-dancing, a pair of thirtysomethings swaying back and forth in the moonlight like kids. I don’t feel the night chill at all. And then your dad says, “Do you want to make a baby?”

[…]

I’d love to tell you the story of this evening, the night you’re conceived, but the right time to do that would be when you’re ready to have children of your own, and we’ll never get that chance.

Related Characters: Dr. Louise Banks (speaker), Louise’s Daughter, Dr. Gary Donnelly
Page Number: 91
Explanation and Analysis:

Colonel Weber frowned. “You seem to be implying that no alien could have learned human languages by monitoring our broadcasts.”

“I doubt it. They’d need instructional material specifically designed to teach human languages to nonhumans. Either that, or interaction with a human. If they had either of those, they could learn a lot from TV, but otherwise, they wouldn’t have a starting point.”

The colonel clearly found this interesting; evidently his philosophy was, the less the aliens knew, the better. Gary Donnelly read the colonel’s expression too and rolled his eyes. I suppressed a smile.

Related Characters: Dr. Louise Banks (speaker), Colonel Weber (speaker), Dr. Gary Donnelly
Page Number: 94
Explanation and Analysis:

“Their script isn’t word divided; a sentence is written by joining the logograms for the constituent words. They join the logograms by rotating and modifying them. Take a look.” I showed him how the logograms were rotated.

“So they can read a word with equal ease no matter how it’s rotated,” Gary said. He turned to look at the heptapods, impressed. “I wonder if it’s a consequence of their body’s radial symmetry: their bodies have no ‘forward’ direction, so maybe their writing doesn’t either. Highly neat.”

Related Characters: Dr. Louise Banks (speaker), Dr. Gary Donnelly (speaker)
Related Symbols: Heptapod B
Page Number: 105-106
Explanation and Analysis:

“I wanna be in Hawaii now,” you’ll whine.

“Sometimes it’s good to wait,” I’ll say. “The anticipation makes it more fun when you get there.”

You’ll just pout.

Related Characters: Dr. Louise Banks (speaker), Louise’s Daughter (speaker), Dr. Gary Donnelly
Page Number: 111
Explanation and Analysis:

“I should emphasize that our relationship with the heptapods need not be adversarial. This is not a situation where every gain on their part is a loss on ours, or vice versa. If we handle ourselves correctly, both we and the heptapods can come out winners."

"You mean it’s a non-zero-sum game?” Gary said in mock incredulity. “Oh my gosh.”

Related Characters: Dr. Gary Donnelly (speaker), Hossner (speaker), Dr. Louise Banks
Page Number: 128
Explanation and Analysis:

When you are three, you’ll pull a dishtowel off the kitchen counter and bring that salad bowl down on top of you. I’ll make a grab for it, but I’ll miss. The edge of the bowl will leave you with a cut, on the upper edge of your forehead, that will require a single stitch. Your father and I will hold you, sobbing and stained with Caesar dressing, as we wait in the emergency room for hours.

I reached out and took the bowl from the shelf. The motion didn’t feel like something I was forced to do. Instead, it seemed just as urgent as my rushing to catch the bowl when it falls on you: an instinct that I felt right in following.

Related Characters: Dr. Louise Banks (speaker), Louise’s Daughter, Dr. Gary Donnelly
Related Symbols: Heptapod B
Page Number: 132-133
Explanation and Analysis:

Freedom isn’t an illusion; it’s perfectly real in the context of sequential consciousness. Within the context of simultaneous consciousness, freedom is not meaningful, but neither is coercion; it’s simply a different context, no more or less valid than the other. It’s like that famous optical illusion, the drawing of either an elegant young woman, face turned away from the viewer, or a wart-nosed crone, chin tucked down on her chest. There’s no “correct” interpretation; both are equally valid. But you can’t see both at the same time.

Related Characters: Dr. Louise Banks (speaker), Louise’s Daughter, Dr. Gary Donnelly
Related Symbols: Heptapod B
Page Number: 137
Explanation and Analysis:

Working with the heptapods changed my life. I met your father and learned Heptapod B, both of which make it possible for me to know you now, here on the patio in the moonlight. Eventually, many years from now, I’ll be without your father, and without you. All I will have left from this moment is the heptapod language. So I pay close attention, and note every detail.

From the beginning I knew my destination, and I chose my route accordingly. But am I working toward an extreme of joy, or of pain? Will I achieve a minimum, or a maximum?

Related Characters: Dr. Louise Banks (speaker), Louise’s Daughter, Dr. Gary Donnelly
Related Symbols: Heptapod B
Page Number: 144-145
Explanation and Analysis: