60 pages • 2 hours read
Naomi AldermanThe Future
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2023A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Part 1Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Part 1: “The Essential Problem”
Part 1, Chapter 1 Summary: “North California, November: Action Now! Ecological Convention: Lenk”
Content Warning: The novel and this guide contain depictions of death by suicide and substance misuse.
Lenk Sketlish is the CEO of a social media enterprise named Fantail. He is taking a meditation class to help manage his angry outbursts. However, the teacher’s nose keeps whistling as she guides the class, distracting from his relaxation. His ability to meditate is also hampered by his own belief that if he lives only in the present, then he will miss the next big opportunity. After founding and running Fantail, Lenk knows that living in the moment will not do; one must push and strive for the future. Now that the world is coming to an end, Lenk wonders what might actually be next.
Part 1, Chapter 2 Summary: “Zimri”
Zimri Nommick is the CEO of a purchasing and distribution company, also deeply invested in technology, called Anvil. He is attending an environmental conference with his wife, Selah. He missed the news that the world is ending because he and Selah were having sex—a rare event; Zimri has already drawn up divorce papers. He is interested in amassing more success and more sexual conquests, but the news that the apocalypse commenced leaves him no time; Selah will have to be the one to come to the bunker with him. He will have to leave the environmental conference with Lenk (whom he emphatically does not like) and Ellen; Selah has already left. He tells her to meet him at the Scottish bunker.
Part 1, Chapter 3 Summary: “Ellen”
Ellen Bywater is the CEO of a personal computing giant, Medlar Technologies. She has replaced the ousted founder, Albert Dabrowski. When she is informed of the impending end of the world, she carries on a conversation with her deceased husband, Will. Ellen is concerned about what will happen; she asks her SmartPin app whether her children have been informed. She is particularly worried about her youngest child, Badger, whose radical tendencies often put them at odds with their family. She calls Badger to ensure that they will come to the New Zealand bunker with the rest of the family. Once assured, Ellen packs a couple of personal items and wonders what has triggered these apocalyptic events.
Part 1, Chapter 4 Summary: “Lenk”
Lenk feels vindicated: He has planned for exactly such a moment as this. He reluctantly boards the plane with Zimri and Ellen, neither of whom he particularly likes. The private plane will not be tracked; they do not want anyone to know of their secret bunkers. Lenk is not worried about the end of the world. For people like him, the apocalypse is a minor inconvenience. Once everything is sorted out, he will return to the world and rebuild it.
Part 1 Analysis
The beginning of the novel introduces a key theme, The Problem of Defining the Future. The future is portrayed as a slippery entity, constantly changing and eluding the characters’ efforts to control it. The three CEOs believe that they are uniquely positioned to conquer the future. As multi-billionaires, they are prepared for anything, even the end of the world—this is merely “a minor apocalypse, at least for them” (18). In just a few years, they will be back in charge. However, they fail to appreciate how unpredictable and uncontrollable the future really is.
Lenk Sketlish only thinks of the future—the next big breakthrough—and cannot stay focused on the present. As the meditation instructor encourages him to live in the moment in Chapter 1, Lenk dismisses this as nonsense: “There could be no prize and no possession there. It was the glimmering he needed, the beckoning force of time, the wave gathering in the distant ocean” (5). Lenk’s power and privilege make him feel confident that he can survive the apocalypse and even thrive when it is over: “There’d be […] no more neuroses of abundance. There would be a simpler, purer life” (18). However, Lenk’s power is precisely what makes him susceptible to Martha’s apocalypse hoax.
Zimri, too, prides himself on his ability to predict—and therefore control—the future. His business acumen and personal success, as measured by wealth and influence, attest to his abilities: “He knew what he was doing in business so perfectly that it looked like prophecy” (9). He has also gleaned that it is better to forge ahead alone: “He’d learned that there was no certainty to be found in others. The only safety was to be independent enough to survive” (10). These two beliefs rely on an understanding of the world as it is, however, rather than the world that faces the apocalypse. Events are decidedly not in Zimri’s control, and relying on others may be the only way to survive in such unprecedented times.
In contrast to Lenk’s aggressive tactics and Zimri’s preternatural business sense, Ellen has become successful through patience and manipulation. She continues to carry on meaningful conversations with her dead husband, giving her the air of someone living in the past rather than prepared for the future. She is also uncertain, not merely about the immediate present but also about her own sense of self. She has a conflicted relationship with her nonbinary and politically progressive youngest child, Badger, who reminds her of her lost ideals.
All of these narratives testify to the assumption that money buys security—or so it would seem. Ellen barely packs anything to take with her on the plane, just “her topaz sweater and the gold necklace that always looked so good against it” (15). This passage indicates that Ellen, like the others, believes that there is always more to be had or bought elsewhere. However, no amount of privilege or wealth can insulate them from the future.
