I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream

“I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream” begins in medias res, startling the reader as much as the characters with the sudden image of Gorrister’s brutally-murdered corpse. Situating the beginning of the story in this horrible moment without any preamble or setup underlines the relentless torment of the five survivors. Every moment, to them, constitutes a new horror, and AM’s twisting of their consciousnesses removes their abilities to fully understand or situate themselves in time and space. Ellison’s choice to throw the reader into the story in the middle of a moment allies the reader with the characters and creates a tone of disjointed, paranoid terror.

Ted, the sole narrator, provides the only point of view that the reader can access. Throughout the story, it becomes clear that his point of view is twisted and unreliable. Through his actions, Ted shows concern and care for his fellow survivors, though in his head, he often succumbs to paranoid hatred. Ted insists that AM has manipulated the minds and bodies of his friends but not his. He believes that he is the only objective observer left among his group, but the reader realizes through the course of the story that Ted’s observations often contradict each other, or he steadfastly believes in his own understanding despite being confronted with evidence to the contrary.