Repent Harlequin, said the Tik Tok Man, by Harlan Ellison - Essay Example

The masked Harlequin is the person that is making people late by destructing them on their way to work. He uses bullhorns and jellybeans to confuse people going to work. The behaviour of the Harlequin is just to cause mischief and disrupt the rigid society governed by the need to keep time. The effect of the disruption of people to manage their time is economic problems. The story then goes back to the beginning and talks about life as it is today. People value time although they do not give it so much power (Ellison & Berry Pp. 27). This makes the authority and power of the time in the future world understandable, as one understands its origin.

The book brings out clearly the theme of nonconformance. This is seen when the author uses the Harlequin to initiate havoc that disrupts the order and organization of the future society (Westfahl Pp.139). The society started to manage their time and avoid all instances of being late. Those who did not keep the societal obligation of time management faced the wrath of the Ticktockman. However, Harlequin does not keep time, moreover, he engaged in activities that make other people not to conform to the laws of the society.

The author also tells the story in a no conformational way. He starts the story in the middle and then goes to the beginning then to the end. The quotes that the author uses in the poem are important as they emphasize better the information that the author is bringing out. The author uses a quote in the beginning of the play, “Repent, Harlequin!" Said the Ticktockman”, to explain further the book (Ellison & Berry Pp. 27). The quote although short is very expressive and gives readers an idea of what the book is about.

The use of the quotes makes the novel even more interesting by breaking the monotony of storytelling. The book brings out the thoughts of the author concerning the way the world is moving. He is thus able to express his thought about how different things in the society have changed (Burgess Pp. 72). However, how time controls what people do does not change. In the future, the time becomes a powerful tool and people stop being the master of their time and become slaves. People become slaves of time and they are thus forced to lose their humanity.

They no longer use their conscience. They do the same things daily and at the same time. The Harlequin is the only person that is using his conscience. He sees that the routine and time keeping is not good and goes out of his way to do what he wants (Burgess Pp. 72). He is not controlled by the time and contradicts the norm everyone in the new world. This way the book shows the contradictions that come into a system that has controlled all the activities that people do. I believe that the author did not clearly show why and how the present world transitioned to the future world that was ruled by monotony.

The book does not have historical processes that bring continuity from this present world to the future world. This is because the author uses some imagery in the book from the future world. The author depicts well how bad the society has become because of putting so much emphasis on time. However, he does not put the events properly into historic events that follow a sequence and develop over time. The characteristics of the bad society just prop up without any origin or event that influences its creation.

From the book, the events in the future