Challenging The Status Quo in Repent, Harlequin! Said the Ticktockman Essay

Challenging the Status Quo

Authors write stories that present characters attempting to rebel against societal expectations in order to challenge readers to question their own tendencies to conform to different situations. Repent, Harlequin! Said the Ticktockman by Harlan Ellison is one such story. In Repent, Harlequin! Said the Ticktockman one of the main characters, Everett C. Marm, is the rebel. Often referred to as the Harlequin, Everett C. Marm rebels against the status quo. He challenges the accepted societal norm of punctuality and its importance to the smooth functioning of society. The author is telling the reader to examine the importance of time and conformity in his or her life rather than to simply accept the role of time in life and just do what society expects him or her to do.

The story takes place in the future the year 2389 to be exact. In this futuristic society, everything revolves around time and being punctual. The Ticktockman has control of the length of the lives of the people. Everyones lives rely on a cardioplate which the Ticktockman is in charge of. When someone is late, the Ticktockman reduces the length of their life by an equal amount of time using the cardioplate. The people are notified when their time is up by a message from the Ticktockman. There is nothing they can do about it. Society conforms to this control of their lives and the expectations of punctuality. The daily life of the people is akin to that of robots. They do the same thing at the same time every day. There is no individuality, improvisation, or fluctuation from the norm. In fact, regarding a seven minute delay caused by the Harlequin, the author tells us It was a tiny matter, one hardly worthy of note, but in a society where the single driving force was order and unity and equality and promptness and clocklike precision and attention to the clock, reverence of the gods of the passage of time, it was a disaster of major importance (Ellison 432) indicating that for this society timeliness is of utmost importance.

The Harlequin, however, rebels against this robotic society and in particular the Ticktockman. He attempts to disrupt the punctuality and normal flow of everyday life. Wearing a costume resembling that of a joker, he pulls various pranks which are designed to get society to question the importance of time in their lives. The seven minute delay he caused was a result of a prank he pulled when he flew over a shift of workers who had just boarded the slidewalks and dropped one hundred and fifty thousand dollars worth of jelly beans on them. The shift workers laughed and laughed as the jelly beans worked their way into the mechanisms of the slidewalks causing them to come to a stop. The shift workers fell every which way still laughing and enjoying the whole situation. However, the slidewalks stopping caused the seven minute delay which then had a ripple effect on the Master Schedule. The Harlequin had succeeded in disrupting the normal flow of everyday life and although the shift workers thoroughly enjoyed the whole thing, it was not enough to cause them to rebel against the status quo.

The Harlequin continued pulling pranks challenging the status quo. When he appears on the still-being-constructed shell of the new Efficiency Shopping Center he uses a bullhorn to convey his message. Why let them order you about? Why let them tell you to hurry and scurry like ants or maggots? Take your time!...Dont be slaves of timedown with the Ticktockman! (Ellison 436). He wants them to rebel against the importance of time and in particular the Ticktockman rather than just accepting things the way they are and the control the Ticktockman has over their lives.

The author also dramatizes his message by disregarding narrative conventions and disrupting the chronology of the story. He describes how the story will be told. Now begin in the middle, and later learn the beginning; the end will take care of itself (Ellison 429). He is challenging the normal chronology of storytelling just as the Harlequin challenged the norm of timeliness in society. By doing this the author is not only reinforcing his message, but also following his own advice.

Using not only the events and characters of Repent Harlequin! Said the Ticktockman but also the order he relates the events in the story, Harlan Ellison very clearly conveys the theme of the story. He sends the message that the reader needs to question the importance of time in his or her life as well as his or her willingness to conform to societal norms. He encourages the reader to challenge the status quo.

Works Cited

Ellison, Harlan. Repent Harlequin! Said the Ticktockman. Literature: The Human Experience. 9th ed. Richard Abcarian and Marvin Klotz eds. Boston. Bedford/St. Martins, 2006.