History Literature / Contact

* FirstContactMath: The reason the signal is considered a signal of intelligence is because it transmits a long series of prime numbers. As it turns out, it was only a way to attract our attention, as the message is hidden underneath it (and the really important message is hidden underneath the original message). They also use prime numbers to codify images and video (each number codifies the coordinates of a black point as a product of primes).

* SciFiWritersHaveNoSenseOfScale: Naturally averted. (He's a scientist, after all.) The vast cosmic distances are a continual plot point and one major puzzle for the characters is how life could be ''on'' Vega, as the system has a lifespan of millions rather than billions[[note]]and billions[[/note]] of years. The question of how they would get anywhere with the limitation of lightspeed is another.

* [[WickedStepmother Wicked Stepfather]]: Ellie's father died when she was in sixth grade, and her mother remarried two years later - a college professor named John Staughton who disdained her father for being a mere shopkeeper. He also believed that [[StayInTheKitchen women had no talent for science]], if Ellie pursued a scientific career [[NeverASelfMadeWoman she would be unable to attract a husband]], and refused to pay for Ellie's college. The only reason Ellie went to Harvard was because she made a large number of lucky guesses on a test. Once Ellie becomes a success, he ends up spending all of Ellie's adult life wracked with guilt at having dismissed her talents - especially as Ellie despises him for his dismissals, though [[ParentWithNewParamour not being Ted Arroway]] didn't help either. [[spoiler:However, in a rare twist, he ''is'' Ellie's biological father and fully aware of this, but choose not to reveal this at the request of Ellie's mother, as both of them knew that Ellie wouldn't forgive her for cheating on Ted Arroway over a decade before, let alone seeking John out once the man Ellie adored was dead.]]

* [[WickedStepmother Wicked Stepfather]]: Ellie's father died when she was in sixth grade, and her mother remarried two years later - a college professor named John Staughton who disdained her father for being a mere shopkeeper. He also believed that [[StayInTheKitchen women had no talent for science]], if Ellie pursued a scientific career [[NeverASelfMadeWoman she would be unable to attract a husband]], and refused to pay for Ellie's college. The only reason Ellie went to Harvard was because she made a large number of lucky guesses on a test. Once Ellie becomes a success, he ends up spending all of Ellie's adult life wracked with guilt at having dismissed her talents - especially as Ellie despises him for his dismissals, though [[ParentWithNewParamour not being Ted Arroway]] didn't help either. [[spoiler:However, in a rare twist, he is Ellie's biological father and fully aware thus, but chooses not to reveal this at the request of Ellie's mother, as both of them know that Ellie wouldn't forgive her for cheating on Ted Arroway over a decade before, let alone seeking John out once the man Ellie adored was dead.]]

* SufficientlyAdvancedAlien: The FirstContact aliens, the Precursors, and [[spoiler: ''maybe'' the creator of the Universe.]] The journey is to an artificial world where the aliens are researching physical constants looking for messages written into reality itself -- ''[[ThatsNoMoon a church the size of a planet]]''. And once they return, the main character is able to find one of these messages herself. Thus, Sufficiently Advanced Science is indistinguishable from '''religion'''[[note]]Very interestingly, this is more or less how human science ''itself'' got started. Early "Natural Philosophers" were trying to find clues to the nature of God in the world around them, and so started studying early versions of biology, chemistry, and physics, trying to identify what parts of the natural world were, for lack of a better term, "natural" and did not require supernatural explanations. The more they looked, the more they couldn't really find anything that ''didn't'' work just fine on its own (or, at the very least, could not be explicitly identified as supernatural, as opposed to just not understood yet), and as they looked deeper and deeper, the modern Scientific Method, along with distinct branches of study, took shape from there[[/note]].

* SufficientlyAdvancedAlien: The FirstContact aliens, the Precursors, and [[spoiler: ''maybe'' the creator of the Universe.]] The journey is to an artificial world where the aliens are researching physical constants looking for messages written into reality itself -- ''[[ThatsNoMoon a church the size of a planet]]''. And once they return, the main character is able to find one of these messages herself. Thus, Sufficiently Advanced Science is indistinguishable from '''religion'''.

* ScienceMarchesOn: In this setting it's believed that living in zero gravity with limited oxygen extends the lives of mammals and makes cancers less likely to form, so it's become common for wealthy elderly people to go up into orbit and comfortably live out their lives in specially-built stations. The only downsides are the expense and that a loss in bone mass means that reentry into Earth's gravity would be fatal for a long-term spacer. Since the book was written it's been proven that prolonged weightlessness has [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Effect_of_spaceflight_on_the_human_body massively deleterious effects]] on the human body - radiation poisoning, accelerated Alzheimer's, cataracts, redistribution of bodily fluids, blurred vision, and much much more. Plus everything stinks and food doesn't taste as good.

* TheGreatPoliticsMessUp: The USSR is still around in the book's version of 1999, although a more united humanity has put the UsefulNotes/ColdWar on hold.

* AFormYouAreComfortableWith: Near the end of the novel, [[spoiler: the humans are greeted by aliens who look like familiar humans in order to make the experience less frightening. Ellie sees her late father, Devi Sukhavati her late husband, Vaygay Lunacharsky his niece, Abonnema Eda his wife, and Xi Qiaomu [[TheLastOfTheseIsNotLikeTheOthers his favorite historical figure]], the first emperor of a unified China. Ellie wonders about this last and asks Xi, and finds that his family was all killed horribly and their lives covered up; one reason he loves Emperor Chin is that it's just not possible for his place in history to be removed.]]

* FirstContact: Aborted realistically. There are no little green men coming in impossibly quick metallic ships, but a radio signal just like the ones we do send into space as well.

** Similarly, another of the people chosen to go into the Machine was ''disowned'' by her fundamentalist Hindu family; she was born a Brahmin, but chose to marry a Dalit. He died soon after they married, but MalignedMixedMarriage remained her BerserkButton unto the present day. On the other world, [[spoiler:she meets an alien who's taken on the form and voice of her deceased husband, and comes to believe that their personalities were incompatible; that if he hadn't died they would have ended up divorcing. Consequently she declares that she no longer feels grief over his death, only keen regret for "giving up" her family for him, purposefully forgetting that ''they'' disowned ''her'']].

* BurialInSpace: Hadden's final fate is to have his preserved body launched into space where it will potentially last for millions of years, in a last desperate attempt at immortality.
* CluelessAesop: A subplot that didn't make it into the movie was Ellie's rocky relationship with her mother and [[StayInTheKitchen chauvinist]] stepfather, John Staughton - especially as her mother [[ParentWithNewParamour remarried]] just two years after her doting father, Ted Arroway, died. [[spoiler:Turns out that her mother ''cheated'' on him with said future stepfather, resulting in Ellie's conception. Sagan describes this as a massive shock to Ellie's worldview - that she had spurned her "real" father in favor of a "fake" - but when one considers how Ted did all he could to encourage Ellie to enrich herself and John ''refused to pay for Ellie's college because he thought women were too stupid to be scientists'', many adoptees would think that Ellie was completely justified in adoring the man they betrayed and giving the GlorifiedSpermDonor the cold shoulder. That her mother was too ashamed to admit it while she was alive just makes both of them even more despicable]].
** Similarly, Devi - another of the people chosen to go into the Machine - was disowned by her family years ago for marrying someone they didn't approve of. She was a Brahmin, he was a Dalit, it was not acceptable. However he died at a young age. MalignedMixedMarriage still makes her furious in the present day. In the other world, [[spoiler: Devi meets an alien who's taken on the form and voice of her young man, and realizes that their personalities were incompatible and that if he hadn't died they would have ended up divorcing.]] Consequently she declares that she no longer feels grief for his loss, but only keen regret for losing her family for him - her family, who ''disowned her''.

** Similarly, Devi - another of the people chosen to go into the Machine - was disowned by her family years ago for marrying someone they didn't approve of. She was a Brahmin, he was a Dalit, it was not acceptable. However he died at a young age. Race or class-based opposition to mixed marriages still makes her furious in the present day. In the other world, [[spoiler: Devi meets an alien who's taken on the form and voice of her young man, and realizes that their personalities were incompatible and that if he hadn't died they would have ended up divorcing.]] Consequently she declares that she no longer feels grief for his loss, but only keen regret for losing her family for him - her family, who ''disowned her''.

* AliensSpeakingEnglish: Averted, at least in the most common sense. The idea that a different civilization, with different history and technological level, would be transmitting in binary in the same fashion as we do, though, is a very close call. However, they do take on the form of humans and speak in Earth languages when they meet the Five.

* AlternativeNumberSystem: Apparently someone [[spoiler:capable of messing with the values of mathematical constants]] likes base 11.

* [[WickedStepmother Wicked Stepfather]]: Ellie's father died when she was in sixth grade, and her mother remarried two years later - a college professor named John Staughton who believed that [[StayInTheKitchen women had no talent for science]], if Ellie pursued a scientific career [[NeverASelfMadeWoman she would be unable to attract a husband]], and refused to pay for Ellie's college. The only reason Ellie went to Harvard was because she made a large number of lucky guesses on a test. Once Ellie becomes a success, he ends up spending all of Ellie's adult life wracked with guilt at having dismissed her talents - especially as Ellie despises him for his dismissals, though [[ParentWithNewParamour not being Ted Arroway]] didn't help either. [[spoiler:However, in a rare twist, he is Ellie's biological father and fully aware thus, but chooses not to reveal this at the request of Ellie's mother, as both of them know that Ellie wouldn't forgive her for cheating on Ted Arroway over a decade before, let alone seeking John out once the man Ellie adored was dead.]]

* [[YoureNotMyFather You're Not My Parents]]: Never outright said, but Ellie is rather cold to her mother and [[WickedStepmother stepfather]]; her mother because Ellie believes [[ParentWithNewParamour she remarried suspiciously quickly]], her stepfather because [[StayInTheKitchen he held her interest in science in disdain]]. Once she deciphers the Message, both attempt to re-connect with her, but she sees it as fair-weather parenting and steps up to ignoring them completely, even as her stepfather becomes increasingly apologetic and her mother begins deteriorating into senile dementia, insisting to everyone at the old folk's home that her "famous daughter" will come by soon. [[spoiler:After Ellie returns from her interstellar voyage, she discovers that her mother died while she was away... and left her a message that shatters her world; the kind and doting Ted Arroway who died when she was a child and nurtured her love of science ''wasn't her biological father'' - her mother cheated on him with her cold, distant, demeaning eventual '''stepfather.''' Ted was aware of this, but never failed to cherish Ellie - and her mother was so ashamed she only could only admit all of this in her will]].

* ReligionIsRight: A subtle variation of this trope occurs at the end of the novel. Ellie discovers [[spoiler: a "signature" of sorts of the creator of the Universe hidden inside Pi. At the ''same time'' she discovers the other thing mentioned above.]]

* AFormYouAreComfortableWith: Near the end of the novel, [[spoiler: the humans are greeted by aliens who look like familiar humans in order to make the experience less frightening. Ellie sees her late father.]]

* HigherTechSpecies: The FirstContact aliens.

* OurPresidentsAreDifferent: President Minority as she's a woman, but otherwise she's a fairly ordinary presidential figure. Her party affiliation is never mentioned and she's not PresidentEvil or President Personable; she makes decisions that are to the project's benefit and against it.

Ellie Arroway, a radioastronomer working in Socorro, New Mexico, discovers a steady and clear signal coming from a point in space that corresponds to the distant star Vega. The signal is confirmed to be legitimate, and soon a worldwide effort is made to receive the message whole (due to the impossibility of monitoring the same spot in the sky as the Earth revolves) and then to decipher it, while religious and political uproar rises all around.

* AliensSpeakingEnglish: Averted, at least in the most common sense. The idea that a different civilization, with different history and technological level, would be transmitting in binary in the same fashion as we do, though, is a very close call.

* TechnologyMarchesOn: Sagan lampshades this in the "Author's Note" section.
-->My fondest hope for this book is that it will be made obsolete by the pace of real scientific discovery.

* HeroicBastard: [[spoiler:Ellie, the protagonist,]] finds out in the very last chapter that [[spoiler:her deceased father, whom she idolized, is not her father. Her (not actually "step-") stepfather, with whom she's had a [[WickedStepmother vitriolic relationship]] with since she was a ''sixth grader'', [[GlorifiedSpermDonor is]]. This shocks her ''more'' than the message from God (?) inside Pi]]. This subplot is completely absent from [[{{Film/Contact}} The Movie]].

* HeroicBastard: [[spoiler:Ellie, the protagonist,]] finds out in the very last chapter that [[spoiler:her deceased father, whom she idolized, is not her father. Her (not actually "step-") stepfather, with whom she's had a [[WickedStepmother vitriolic relationship]] with since she was ''fifteen'', [[GlorifiedSpermDonor is]]. This shocks her ''more'' than the message from God (?) inside Pi]]. This subplot is completely absent from [[{{Film/Contact}} The Movie]].

* Zeerust: The novel takes place during TheNineties...as seen from TheEighties. No internet, space access is simple enough that Hadden owning his own space station isn't much different from billionaires owning islands, and all communications are 3D - not only television, but photographs have been replaced with holographic cards.