"All You Zombies" Short Story

The short story "All You Zombies" takes a while to get to the time travel piece of the story. But once it did, the science fiction elements came out. The thing that makes the story interesting is that the Bartender is the one who caused the Unmarried Mother’s problems. He is also the Unmarried Mother. The Bartender is basically everyone the story mentions. The title incorporates with the story because the Bartender is asking where all the copies of him come from.  All the copies are of him throughout time because he has travelled many times to the past and future. The basic plot line of the story is that a man walks into a bar, and tells the bartender about how he became a man. He started out as a girl named Jane. She was born and raised in an orphanage. No one knows who her parents are or where she came from. When she was seventeen, she fell in love with a stranger and he got her pregnant. After her C-Section, she found out that she has male parts along with her female parts and is turned into a man. She never got to see her baby because some man has stolen the baby. Jane becomes stenographer, and then a writer. That is how she got the name Unmarried Mother. The Bartender then shows her the time machine and how he was her/the young man/the baby etc. He then asks himself where did all you zombies come from because I know who I am. It then ends with him saying “I miss you dreadfully!” That is kind of an ambiguous ending because you aren’t really sure who he is talking to. The story was  confusing at first, but if you take time to think, reread, and discuss it with friends, it begins to make a little more sense. Until next time! ;D