The Shrinking Man by Richard Matheson
"The Shrinking Man" tells the story of Scott Carey, who experiences a gradual reduction in height due to a negative balance of essential nutrients caused by accidental radiation and insecticide exposure. As he diminishes in size, Scott faces profound emotional and existential challenges reminiscent of someone grappling with a terminal illness, even as his personal and physical needs remain unchanged. His shrinking stature leads to embarrassment and isolation, forcing him to hide in the cellar, away from family and friends. The deterioration of his relationship with his wife, Louise, unfolds against a backdrop of survival instincts, as Scott confronts increasingly dangerous encounters, including threats from a black widow spider. The narrative explores themes of vulnerability, fear, and the human will to survive despite overwhelming odds. Ultimately, Scott's journey culminates in a philosophical revelation about existence beyond physical form, emphasizing resilience even in the face of inevitable demise. The story blends elements of science fiction with profound psychological insights, inviting readers to contemplate the nature of survival and the essence of being.
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The Shrinking Man
First published: 1956
Type of work: Novel
Type of plot: Science fiction—evolutionary fantasy
Time of work: The 1950’s
Locale: The vicinity of New York City
The Plot
The Shrinking Man relates the plight of Scott Carey, a man who finds himself diminishing in height by one inch per week. After exhaustive testing, a doctor at Columbia Presbyterian Hospital explains this condition as a negative balance of nitrogen, calcium, and phosphorus in Carey’s body. This imbalance was caused by accidental exposures to radiation and insecticides on separate occasions.
Although Carey’s emotional reactions to this condition can be compared to those of a person who has received a diagnosis of a terminal illness, his personality and his physical and sexual needs do not change as he shrinks. His condition creates chaos not only in his own life but also in the lives of other family members. His size becomes an embarrassment that prompts him to hide in the cellar to avoid being seen by other people, including his daughter’s baby-sitter. As he becomes smaller and more vulnerable, his relationship with his wife Louise deteriorates, despite her efforts to protect him from dangers such as the formerly harmless household cat.
At the opening of the novel, Carey is one inch tall. A series of flashbacks reveals his experiences over several months. Readers see that survival becomes his preoccupation even though his mind comprehends the futility of his attempts to save himself from the hazards that loom as he shrinks in a world that does not. He devises numerous ingenious ways to keep himself alive as his world becomes increasingly less familiar and more dangerous. Eventually, he comes to live in a cracker box and sleep on a sponge.
Much of the action takes place in the cellar, where Carey finds himself trapped after he becomes so small that Louise cannot see him and assumes that he is lost. There he must struggle to find basic necessities such as water and food, which he discovers in the form of stale crackers. A black widow spider threatens his life, and he struggles heroically to defend himself against the spider with makeshift weapons such as a straight pin and shards of stone.
Carey knows that he faces inevitable physical demise and questions whether survival is worth the struggle. As his isolation and vulnerability increase, he asks himself why he struggles to survive from moment to moment, knowing that soon he will disappear. He never gives up and knows that survival depends on using his mind; his mind is both his salvation and his damnation as he experiences such terrors as being menaced by the spider. The spider becomes the emblematic specter of death whose blackness “blotted out the world.”
When the inevitable happens, Carey’s body disappears, but amazingly his personality survives. He survives in the “universe within” and realizes that existence goes on in “endless cycles.” Even in this new dimension, he is challenged to find ways to survive: “There was food to be found, water, clothing, shelter.” Survival is not only the preoccupation of the novel but also the point of its ending: “He would never disappear, because there was no point of non-existence in the universe.”