The Egg — Textual Analysis

For this week’s assignment, I chose to do a world cloud/textual analysis of “The Egg” by Andy Weir. For those who are who haven’t read it, I highly recommend you do before continuing this analysis. “The Egg” is a short story following a man’s experience with the afterlife upon his death. A being that the man identifies as god explains to him how he died in a car accident. This being then goes on to explain how the man will be reincarnated, losing his memories in the process. This, of course, wouldn’t be the first time, as he has been reincarnated many times according to the entity. Upon realizing that his next incarnation will be a Chinese peasant girl in 540 A.D., our protagonist questions the possibility of multiple incarnations of himself existing at the same time, and whether or not he may have interacted with himself before. The god finally admits to the man that it’s more common than he thinks; Not only is everyone he’s ever interacted with an incarnation of him, but so is every human that has ever existed. Once he has experienced every human life there is to live, then he will finally be able to join this god in the next stage of existence. The universe is simply our egg.

Upon first glance, the biggest word in this word cloud is “said.” This shows how the primary concern of our main character is what he said to others in his past lives. Did he ever say anything that hurt himself? How many times did he say something that made him happy? A close second in terms of sheer size is the word “time.” Humans have existed for a very long time. The only thing that separates our birth and death is time. Everyone alive today is alive at the same time. Time clearly has a very big role to play in our lives. A couple other words that stand out are “You’re” and “I’m.” These words’ abundance make sense when you consider that the only two entities in this universe are the man and the god. There is no “them” here, only you and me. Other words that have a prominent presence include “human,” “point,” and “universe.” Simply put, these reflect a question: “What is the point of humans existing in this universe?” According to the deity, it’s so we can learn and grow. Every reincarnation is another step towards understanding who we truly are, and once every life has been lived, only then will we finally emerge from “The Egg.”