The central time paradox in Robert A. Heinlein's short story "—All You Zombies—" is that the protagonist is, incredibly, his own mother and father, a result of an intricate and self-contained time loop.
This mind-bending scenario unfolds through a series of temporal manipulations that ensure the protagonist is the sole progenitor of himself. It's a classic example of a "bootstrap paradox" or "ontological paradox," where an object or information exists without an external origin, seemingly creating itself.
Unraveling the Paradoxical Loop
The intricate chain of events that leads to this ultimate self-creation can be broken down as follows:
- The Beginning (and End): A young man, who is intersex and later undergoes sexual reassignment surgery, is taken back in time by a mysterious figure known as the "Temporal Agent."
- The Deception: The agent manipulates events, tricking the younger, female self of the protagonist (prior to the surgery) into a romantic encounter.
- The Conception: The protagonist, in his "male" identity, unknowingly impregnates his younger, "female" self.
- The Birth: From this union, the protagonist himself is born. This means the individual who served as the father is also the child born to the mother, who is also himself.
- The Cycle Continues: The agent then takes the newborn (the protagonist as an infant) and the protagonist's "female" self through time, eventually guiding them to become the very people involved in the loop—the agent himself, and the intersex individual who travels back in time.
The Nature of the Paradox
This complex narrative creates a closed causal loop, where the protagonist's existence is entirely self-contained within the timeline. There is no external point of origin for the protagonist; he simply is, because he caused his own birth.
The key paradoxical identities can be summarized in the following table:
| Character Identity | Paradoxical Role |
|---|---|
| The Protagonist | Is his own mother |
| The Protagonist | Is his own father |
| The Protagonist | Is his own offspring |
This loop ensures that the future self creates the past self, which then grows up to become the future self, perpetuating the cycle endlessly. It's a profound exploration of identity, destiny, and the potential implications of unchecked time travel.
