Sometimes it is hard for people to understand the importance of individual life choices. Other times, people decide on a choice and later regret the decision they have chosen. They are left wondering about other possibilities that could have been. The short story “Echoes” by Alan Brennart, on the surface, seems to be about a story a girl who lives a life of difficulty due to her unusual genetic makeup. However, at a deeper level, the story explores the theme of choices and the importance of its consequences.
Katherine like everyone else, make choices everyday, however the consequences of these choices are not always immediately apparent despite Katherine's ability to see “Echoes”.
While the story explores the importance of choices, the theme of choices and decisions itself often come in the form of echoes throughout the story. The protagonist, Katherine is born genetically enhanced with a natural talent in music, particularly in piano. However, being genetically enhanced also…show more content… The encounter of these two echoes foreshadows and symbolizes the importance of choices and decisions to be seen in the rest of the story. The first echo, Robert, at a glance, seems to be just another genetically enhanced child, but the ensuing conversation between Katherine and Robert indicates that Robert may be an alternate male version of Katherine. During the encounter between the two, Katherine noted that Robert seemed extremely familiar. Robert was described by Katherine as “about my (her) age...like me(her), he(Robert) had fair skin and dark hair”. While Katherine is gifted in piano playing, Robert is gifted in sketching. After Katherine’s encounter with echo Robert, she returned home only to find another echo of a girl who looks exactly like her, albeit this echo is gifted in the area of intelligence rather than musical; she too is an alternate version of
