The Sirens of Titan

“Impulsively, Constant chose neither one fork nor the other, but climbed the fountain itself.”

Constant walks through Rumfoord's estate and finds a foundation with a path to either side. He is presented with a simple, binary choice of going to the right or to the left but instead rejects the choice and climbs over the fountain itself. His action is a symbolic demonstration of his relationship to fate and free will. He wants to reject the obvious choices which lie ahead of him but, in doing so, he cannot help but continue through his life as part of Rumfoord's plan. Constant revels in the illusion of free will and insistently tries to show that he is in control of his life.

“Life for a punctual person is like a roller coaster.”

The equivocation between a punctual life and a rollercoaster speaks to the deeper nature of life in a universe where people do not have free will. A punctual person does the expected thing at the expected time, moving through life as though they were on the predefined tracks of a rollercoaster. However, just like a rollercoaster, this predetermined route can still be thrilling. Even when a person knows what lies ahead in their predetermined lives, they are fully capable of enjoying the ride.

“It was a marvelous engine for doing violence to the spirit of thousands of laws without actually running afoul of so much as a city ordinance.”

Fern's major contribution to Noel Constant's company is to guide him through all the legal and tax loopholes which will allow him to exploit the capitalist system in the most efficient way possible. Fern's offer of amoral business practices is ironic in the context of Noel's business ideas. For a man who built his business empire by cross-referencing a Bible against the stock market, the opportunity to flout the law of the land is almost like tempting God to intervene. In a world of indifferent gods, however, there are no consequences to hiring Fern.

“She had proved that her husband's omniscient bullying was all a bluff—that he wasn't much better at forecasts than the United States Weather Bureau.”

Rumfoord has amazing powers of prediction, so much so that his mere existence calls into question the idea of whether humans have free will. His wife Beatrice, however, can only interpret her husband's strange existence on a personal level. The philosophical consequences of his existence are little more than "omniscient bullying" (46), a punishment from a cruel man to his long-suffering wife. Rumfoord's predictions are just another method of control that he uses to imprison Beatrice.

“The warning pain nagged in Unk's head again.”

The antennae placed inside the heads of the Martian soldiers function as an analogy for a range of human emotions. The nagging pain in Unk's head is akin to guilt, a sudden negative feeling which he associates with bad or regrettable actions. Without memories, Unk has no real context for why he should feel guilty. Instead, he only has the artificial implant which directs his emotions in whatever direction is required. This manipulation shows the level of control Rumfoord exercises over the Martians, while also revealing that a part of Unk is still resisting the total suppression of his memories and conscience.

“Boaz was an orphan who had been recruited when he was only fourteen—and he didn't have the haziest notion as to how to have a good time on Earth.”

Boaz possesses a vague jealously of Unk. He senses that he has missed out on something in life after growing up as an orphan and joining the Martian Army at a young age. He feels that Unk has enjoyed something which was denied to Boaz but Boaz lacks the knowledge or experience to truly understand what he has missed. Instead, he has a raw, panging feeling of envy toward a man he barely knows which manifests as an urgent desire to do something.

“The signature was Unk's.”

Unk reaches the end of the letter and is confronted with the reality that he is the author. Unk's signature at the end of the letter is a veiled metaphor for free will. Unk is still trying to maintain control of his life but everything around him is so vague and cloaked in forgetfulness that he cannot understand his own agency. Despite his name appearing at the end of the letter, he does not feel in control.

“Mars is a very bad place for love, a very bad place for a family man.”

The small society on Mars is built entirely by Rumfoord. If Mars is a bad place for love or a bad place to be a family man, then this is because Rumfoord has failed to make it so. Given the practical reality of his relationship with Beatrice and the degree to which she absolutely hates her husband, the failure of Mars to accommodate families is a clear extension of Rumfoord's own failures as a family man. The society is built by him and contains many of his faults. By building the society in his image, he has created a physical symbol of his own flaws. 

“But it remained the central problem of his life—probably because he himself had come from a shattered family.”

Unk tries to win Beatrice's love as a way to find atonement. Not only does he feel guilty for the way he has treated her, but he also recognizes in her the failures of his own life. He comes from a "shattered family" (79) to the extent that he can remember. Malachi Constant was the son of a hotel maid who prostituted herself to a guest and a man who lived in the same hotel room for decades. By seeking Beatrice's forgiveness and love, Unk hopes that he can heal the familial wounds which have shaped his life.

“Earth's glorious victory over Mars had been a tawdry butchery of virtually unarmed saints, saints who had waged feeble war on Earth in order to weld the peoples of that planet into a monolithic Brotherhood of Man.”

The easy victory of Earth against the Martian invaders creates an important emotional context for the post-war world. By Rumfoord's design, the Earthlings feel guilty at the nature of their victory. After killing the elderly, the women, and the children, the people of Earth sense that their victory is not great or impressive. They feel like cruel bullies and they are desperate to be told that there is meaning or consequence to their actions. By winning too easily, the people of Earth put themselves in the ideal emotional place to make themselves susceptible to a new religion.

“A real buddy could help more than anything.”

Boaz spends time trying to manipulate Unk for his own personal gratification. He wants Unk (or Malachi Constant, at least) to take him to Earth's best night clubs. When he realizes that they will be together on Mercury for some time, he thinks about taking pleasure from bullying Unk. Ultimately, however, he decides that he will be happier if the two men are friends. Boaz is struck by the revelation that his resentment and his bullying are not worth as much as the presence of a friend at a different time. This internal kind of meaning is an example of a character finding a purpose in their lives by looking inward. 

“The name Malachi Constant came to him, and he didn't know what to do with it.”

The name Malachi Constant returns to Unk but it is completely shorn of meaning. This was once Unk's identity and the framing device through which he experienced the world. To be Malachi Constant was to be a rich, party-loving celebrity who could have anything he wanted. Now, the name Malachi Constant is lost in the confusion and chaos of Rumfoord's influence. The experiences on Mars and Mercury have fundamentally shaken Unk's self-identity.

“All that saved them from death was a fully automatic emergency system that answered the explosion with another, bringing the pressure of the cabin up to normal again.”

The two men on the spaceship land on Mercury and believe that they are on Earth. They try to step outside and they nearly die, only to be saved by the spaceship's automated life support system. If Unk had died, then Rumfoord's plan would have been ruined. Instead, machinery and computers intervene to keep fate on the predestined track. The life support system does not just save Boaz and Unk, but the destiny of the universe. In this sense, Unk and Boaz do not have the free will needed to accidently kill themselves. Something will always intervene.

“Ain't he a cute little feller, Unk?”

Life on Mercury is difficult for the two men. Faced with the same situation every day, their minds begin to seek patterns and differences in the familiar world around them. Boaz insists that the harmoniums have their own unique personalities and qualities, but to Unk, they are all the same. Boaz uses these differences as a coping mechanism. He is desperate to find meaning and contrast in the world around him, even if this seems absurd to Unk. Boaz's interactions with the harmoniums are a small-scale metaphor for humanity's view of their own existence, projecting personalities and meaning onto a cold and indifferent world.

“"Don't truth me," said Boaz in his thoughts, "and I won't truth you."”

The two men stuck on Mercury enter into a pact of mutually-assured destruction. They are both aware of their fragile mental states and they agree with one another not to push too hard, for fear of causing irreparable damage. Boaz will not reveal that Constant killed Stevenson, for example, so long as Constant does not tell Boaz that the harmoniums do not love him. They would both prefer to indulge their comforting fictions than confront their harsh, unsettling realities.

“There was only one proper knot to use, and that was a hangman's knot.”

The Malachi figurines are the symbols of Rumfoord's religion. These small effigies are punished as a physical expression of condemnation against people who believe themselves to be favored by God. As such, the effigies become a focal point for the nihilism of Rumfoord's religion. Anyone who believes that they are favored by God, Rumfoord suggests, is deserving of punishment. Rather than punishing one another, the members of the religion punish the effigies instead.

“I was a victim of a series of accidents.”

The phrase Constant utters when he returns to Earth is inherently ironic. He claims to have been the "victim of a series of accidents" (111) which, to the members of the religion, confirms the indifference of God. But Constant is not the victim of a series of accidents. His misfortune has been carefully arranged by Rumfoord from the very first moment. Even if fate and destiny are not real, the very real guiding hand of Rumfoord shows that Constant's pain is in no way accidental. Constant is a victim, but of a clear campaign of revenge and punishment, orchestrated by one individual.

“Maybe he would wait for the whole show to end before he presented himself to his best and only friend from Mars.”

Constant keeps himself going with a misplaced hope. He believes that one day he can reunite with Stony Stevenson and spend time with his "best and only friend" (120). This is impossible, as Constant already executed Stevenson on Mars without realizing it. All Constant can hope for is the illusion of catharsis, which— thanks to Salo—is what he achieves at the end of the novel. Whether this artificial catharsis is good enough is left ambiguous.

“The man who had been Malachi Constant, who had been Unk, who had been the Space Wanderer, the man who was Malachi Constant again—that man felt very little upon being declared Malachi Constant again.”

Constant has passed through several identities and reinvented himself at each step. Each new identity has taught himself something about himself; by removing each layer of identity, he is left with the very core of himself. All that remains is the raw, confused fundamental part of whatever Malachi Constant once was. After the arduous journey, however, Constant is still struggling to reassemble an identity. He no longer has any idea who he really is.

“The spaceship, seemingly inviolable at the top of a shaft in sacred precincts patrolled by watchmen, had plainly been the scene of one or perhaps several wild parties.”

Constant, Beatrice, and Chrono are forced aboard the spaceship and they discover that the interior is strewn with junk as the result of a series of parties that have taken place on the vessel. The junk-strewn ship is another punishment meted out on Constant by Rumfoord. Constant, who has a reputation as a party-loving rich kid in the past, is forced to travel in the same dirty environment which he once left strewn through other people's lives. Now, he is forced to face the consequences of his actions. This junk may not directly be his own but, in a symbolic sense, it is the detritus of Constant's wasted life.

“Salo had orders, not to open the reticule and wafer until he arrived at his destination.”

Salo's message is an embodiment of the idea that the journey has as much meaning as the destination. The sealed message contains the Tralfamadorians' announcement to a distant species but the message itself is only given meaning by Salo travelling so far. His long and arduous journey makes the attempt to deliver the message even more vital, as he has suffered in order to do so. Delivering this message has indirectly caused the rise of the human species to some degree, showing how Salo's journey has left a lasting impact across the universe which goes beyond simply opening the message when he reaches the end of his journey.

“The big eye was the only audience that Earthlings really cared about.”

Rumfoord's religion insists that God is indifferent to human behavior, and so preaches that humans should live moral lives without feeling constantly scrutinized by the "big eye" (132) watching over them. However, this big eye has an alternative meaning. The phrase is also a pun, suggesting that the big “I” is just as important. “I” the pronoun focuses the search for meaning back within each person. The big “I” is the self, asking people to look within themselves for the meaning in their lives rather than to a distant, uncaring God.

“It took us that long to realize that a purpose of human life, no matter who is controlling it, is to love whoever is around to be loved.”

After decades spent loathing and avoiding each other, the relationship between Beatrice and Constant gives meaning and purpose to their lives. They are both heavily weighed down by the emotional baggage of their past but, shorn of any society or peers which might distract them, they discover that they are able to find some degree of gratification and solace in interacting with one another. The passage also suggests that the real meaning of life lies in forging meaningful connections with others, instead of seeking to dominate through wealth and power as Rumfoord has tried to do.