Comparing and Contrasting Zoo and the Rumm
The science fiction stories entertain us and teach lessons about life. Within that purpose, authors write science fiction stories with elements of science fiction. This essay will be comparing and contrasting three elements of science fiction, which are technology, imaginary characters, and surprise ending by two stories, “Zoo” written by Edward D. Hoch and “The Ruum” written by Arthur Porges. The first element that will be discussed is technology. Technology that the story “Zoo” uses is spaceship, and the story “The Ruum” uses are spaceship and robotic predator. Although “Zoo” and “The Ruum” both have spaceships as a technology, a spaceship in “Zoo” was active while a spaceship in “The Ruum” was destroyed. The next element that will be discussed is imaginary characters. The imaginary characters in “Zoo” were aliens which were a mixture between a horse and a spider from Kaan, and the imaginary character in “The Ruum” was the ruum, a robotic predator. Similarly, the imaginary characters in both stories were aliens, but the aliens in “Zoo” were organisms unlike in “The Ruum” which was a non-living thing. Last element of science fiction will be discussed is surprise ending. The surprise ending in “Zoo” was when the creatures of Kaan thought that the people of Earth were in the zoo. Also, the surprise ending in “The Ruum” was when Jim Irwin lost ten pounds during the chase, which put him down below the ruum’s weight criterion. These two stories’ endings were unexpected, but “The Ruum” was more intense than “Zoo”. All in all, this essay was comparing and contrasting three elements of science fiction which were technology, imaginary characters, and surprise endings. Since, the authors write science fiction stories with the elements of scientific fiction, the stories teaches us the lessons about life. Lesson about life in “Zoo” was everyone has a different perspective, and the lessons about life in “The Ruum” were things aren’t simple as they seem and one thing