I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream

The canned goods represent the cruelty of the hope that AM gives the survivors. Promising a small reprieve from their suffering in the form of palatable food, the group sets off on a years-long trek to seek out the ice caverns and the promised stash of preserved food. Nimdok hallucinates the existence of the canned goods, and Ellen fixates on them as a way of surviving, hoping for “peaches or Bartlett pears” (1), a concrete reminder of the pleasures of their old lives.

Once the survivors—injured, starving, and exhausted—reach the canned goods in the ice cavern, they realize that they have no way to open them. Benny, after trying and failing to bash the cans open on the rocks, succumbs to his hunger and attacks Gorrister, eating the flesh of his face. The loss of this symbol of hope shows the machine’s desire to witness their suffering. However, Ted’s unexpected attack on his fellow survivors, sparing them from AM, would not have been possible if they hadn’t journeyed to the ice caverns on AM’s promise. The canned goods, while not the saving grace they were promised to be, were still the impetus of the group’s ultimate escape from AM.