Story of Your Life Themes

“Story of Your Life” suggests that language is not only a means of communicating our thoughts—language also determines the kind of thoughts we can think and constitutes a form of action in its own right. The story centers on Dr. Louise Banks, a linguist recruited by the U.S. government to learn the language of aliens called heptapods. The heptapods have deposited mysterious screens called “looking glasses” at various places on Earth, which Louise and…

“Story of Your Life” critiques the notion of free will by depicting aliens, called heptapods, who experience their entire life simultaneously rather than sequentially from birth to death. Because the heptapods already know what they are going to do, they do not have the ability to make choices. The heptapods’ deterministic viewpoint is embedded in their written language, Heptapod B. In Heptapod B, sentences and even paragraphs can be read instantaneously and in any…

“Story of Your Life” suggests that prejudice is antithetical to communication. The story depicts the first contact between humanity and an alien species called heptapods. Throughout the story, the human military and government officials’ intolerant attitude toward the aliens contrasts with human researchers’ open, communicative attitude. When Colonel Weber approaches the story’s narrator, the linguist Dr. Louise Banks, to get her opinion on a recording of the heptapods’ speech, he’s immediately aggressive and suspicious…

“Story of Your Life” depicts parenthood as an overwhelming instinct, something humans feel drawn to do despite knowing that it may turn out badly in various ways. In “The Story of Your Life,” the linguist Dr. Louise Banks is assigned to research heptapods, an alien species that has decided to observe and communicate with earthlings. She learns Heptapod B, the heptapods’ written language, and in doing so finds out that the aliens experience their…