I do think that Roy's compulsion to enter the Unknown, while understandable, does leave a heavy moral burden on his shoulders, i.e., his wife and kids still love him, even though they think he's gone psychotic. When Roy stepped aboard the ship, he crossed a line of no return. While he's in space - perhaps for years of "earth time" - he will have likely undergone colossal mental and perhaps physical changes. He can only return to his family - IF he does return - an aged and "mutated" person. "Aged" would be bad enough, but perhaps deep space flight keeps one young, in which case, it might be Roy who has stayed young, while his wife has aged and his children become adults with lives of their own. So...Roy's decision was in a sense noble, fulfilling, and glorious - but with possibly lasting traumatic effects on those he left behind... in a strange way analogous to The Exorcist, wherein Damien Karras follows the Glory at the expense of his impoverished, isolated, sick mother... Great decisions sometimes cause great pain and may not show great responsibility.
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spookyrat1
8 years ago
Great decisions sometimes cause great pain and may not show great responsibility.
Very true. I find Roy's situation and compulsions analogous to that of the early European naval explorers who may have been gone for years at a time from their families and who indeed frequently perished in pursuit of their dreams of discovery.
So...Roy's decision was in a sense noble, fulfilling, and glorious - but with possibly lasting traumatic effects on those he left behind ...
Yes, but in this seminal tale of an ordinary man placed somewhat unforgivingly in extraordinary circumstances, a man definitely has to do, what a man has to do.🐭
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