When someone faces difficulties, we all have our go-to hobbies to comfort us. Some people write. Some people paint. Some people play video games. However, these aren’t merely a way to endure, they shape our identity, loss, and our connections with other people.
In Gabrielle Zevin’s “Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow,” the games are more than entertainment, reflecting agony, admiration, and longing. Through the main characters’ journey, Zevin explores how outlets of creativity can be a way to deeply process.
This novel spans 30 years and is from the point of view of Sam Masur and Sadie Green, two individuals who reconnect after their childhoods because of their shared passion for video games. Their relationship, unwavering and complicated, changes with their failures and successes.
Zevin utilizes the gaming industry as a vehicle to examine important themes like sexism, disability, pain, loss, grief, second chances, and reinvention. Additionally, the novel examines the societal importance of games, accentuating their role as forms of art that explore different realities and convey pressing concerns.
Goodreads describes “Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow” as “a dazzling and intricately imagined novel that examines the multifarious nature of identity, disability, failure, the redemptive possibilities in play, and above all, our need to connect: to be loved and to love.” Zevin nailed how storytelling can help us heal.
Escapism is often depicted as hiding from problems. Some people argue that escapism is a pure distraction and a sign of weakness. But can some forms of escape be more than just avoidance?
In “Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow,” the games aren’t meaningless amusement; they are tapestries of emotions and storytelling. Storytelling, too, has weight. We utilize these stories to create a sense of the world, to experiment with aftermaths, to question “What is truly possible?”
In creating storylines, a person also reconstructs themselves. Identity becomes narrative. Every idea Sadie and Sam imagine demonstrates hidden emotions like anguish, remorse, yearning, and attachments. Their video games become emotional frameworks. The games are spaces built not only to be played, but filled with deeper emotions.
In the book, Sadie and Sam do not have the words to interpret what they are going through. However, they have an escape. They construct. They invent. With this imagination, they process. The act of inventing becomes their way of letting go and truly coping with hardship. Many of us, going through hardship, can utilize a creative outlet. “Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow” demonstrates how everyone processes hardship differently.
That’s the genius of the creative outlet in the novel. They’re symbols for the scars the characters have gone through. And after players step into those worlds, they’re not just playing; they’re empathizing with the creators. They can feel the pain, control, and forgiveness through fun.
Their method of working closely resembles that of Mihaly Csíkszentmihályi’s concept of “flow.” According to Positive Psychology, Flow is a state “when we are entirely focused and engaged in the present moment, we are in a state of flow and, therefore, intrinsically motivated.”
Flow is a state of complete immersion, when time passes quickly because someone truly loves what they are doing. Sadie and Sam enter “flow” by coding these apps about their personal lives and showing the ups and downs of life.
Throughout life, a person will experience countless hardships. Failures, losses, and rejections are guaranteed to happen. But “Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow” reminds us that we can heal even through the darkest times. Sam and Sadie reflected on their personal lives through their creations. Their games are the maps for their healing. For people going through a tough time, Gabrielle Zevin reminds us that we can always use creativity to bring a little joy into our lives.
