Summary and Thmes of Holdout by Robert Scheckley
Summary and Thmes of "Holdout" by Robert Scheckley
The short story, “Holdout”, but Robert Scheckley, is a story about racism and how it affects everything around it. On a spaceship, captain Sven discovers that his radioman, Forbes, will not serve with a new replacement four-hours before take off. This in turn will affect how the crew run and act on the ship. Captain Sven then goes on to ask different people why his radioman might not want to work with this new replacement. Every single crewmember he asks say it is nothing personal, but it is only racial grounds and therefore, Forbes will not work with the new man. The Captain then wonders how this can be, for the whole crew is racially different. There is an Israeli, a Venusian, Chinese, some Russians, New Yorkers, Melanesians, Africans, and so many other races that the captain could not see why Forbes would not work with this one member. After talking with Vilkin, the Israeli, Sven discovers he hasn’t read or know any about Forbes race, Mountain-Georgian. Vilkin suggests that Sven read two books. Sven ends up taking the advice, but comes to no conclusion about the matter. While this is going on, Sven finds out he must blastoff at the time when scheduled, which makes him very concerned. He decides to go to Forbes himself and find out what the problem is. By talking to Forbes, he finds out that Mountain-Georgians don’t get along with each other. He then tries and reasons with Forbes, telling him a story to make him see things in a big picture. He then asks for Forbes to give the new man, Blake, a shot. Forbes agrees, but after the meeting the man, he has trouble keeping his word. The two Mountain-Georgians stood next to each other in silence when Forbes blurts out “You all white?” By doing this, he finds that Blake is one-eighth Cherokee. This in turn doesn’t make Blake a full Mountain-Georgian and Forbes becomes real friendly with the guy, like he was someone new. The crew then gets along and the ship is able to takeoff on time.
In the story “Holdout”, the author, Robert Sheckley, tells of a racial world and all the problems that it holds. He uses the...