Deborah Landau’s “ I Don’t Have a Pill for That” and Kurt Vonnegut’s “Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow” contrast the two possibilities for human life: mortality and immortality respectively. Landau's poem explores the reality in which people live today looking at and fearing the fragileness of the elderly. Being unable to stop aging, people become fearful of one day dying. Although, Vonnegut touches on the possibility of a product, called anti-gerosine, that prolongs human life and the possible outcomes that occur far beyond overpopulation.
In Landau’s poem, the narrator expresses her fear of death shown through a midlife crisis when she states, “This book is nearly halfway read. I don’t have a pill for that,the doctor said.”(Landau 11-13)When civilized people realize their life is halfway done, the fear of the unknown after their life leads to a reflection of how many events are left to experience such as summers, holidays, or weddings. On the contrary, Vonnegut’s short story has the issue of a realistic hierarchy that would occur with elders at the top and following generations below them. Gramps flexes his power over his family by yelling, “Get me my will. You know where it is. You kids all know where it is. Fetch, boy!” (Vonnegut 228)Informal commands dominate Gramp’s vocabulary because he has been used to being the king of the house for multiple decades. Being born in that world would have a low chance for a person being born as the oldest to live.
Having heard the two options for life, a person picking one is a difficult task because of the lifelong flaws. Yet, the choice is clear for which would allow the maximum amount of happiness, the world of mortality. A person who lives and knows one day they will die allows himself or herself to create purpose and feel accomplished. Although, would you take the risk of immortality?
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