In the short story, “The Egg” by Andy Weir, The first person speaker tells the person being spoken to that the universe that they have been continually living in is “an egg”. The person being spoken to is simply a fetus waiting and growing in order to be fully born. Much like a creature in an egg. An egg is a common symbol for life; but, it has the potential to mean so much more than that. Throughout a variety of cultures all over history the egg has been considered a strong metaphor of deeper existence.
It was customary in ancient Scandinavian and Russian culture to put clay eggs in tombs to ensure that the deceased had a life after death. This is interesting because the goal the first person speaker was talking about was eventually living a life as a god after having lived every life in a given universe; and…show more content… The universe in the story is the cultivative place for the person being spoken to. The idea of the “spiritual egg” being dropped into the universe to create life is common in many cultures. Chinese, Egyptian, Hindu, and even European cultures use the idea of a sacred bird bringing life. Such as “Seb, the Egyptian chicken who gave birth to the egg of Ra, the sun”1, or the Stork who was believed to bring babies to families. These vessels tend to lead to the culture’s interpretation of the meaning of life. Many believed that the egg was a manifestation of the Word of their Lord, and therefore the ultimate goal. The meaning of life is something the person being spoken to in the story ventures to question when they begin to question the cycle of life and death.
When the first person speaker refers to the universe as an egg, they are using a very deep but subtle allusion that the person being spoken to would understand because they had and will have lived every life and therefore would have lived in all of the cultures that use the egg symbolically. The egg is a vessel which both brings life and meaning to
