Action, Reaction, and Iteration: Newtonian Dynamics and the Creative Process in Gabrielle Zevin’s Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow

Abstract

This paper examines Gabrielle Zevin’s Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow through the interpretive lens of Newton’s Third Law of Motion: “For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.” While this principle originates in classical physics, the novel demonstrates its broader relevance to literary narrative, human relationships, creative collaboration, and emotional development. Through the evolving relationship between Sam Masur, Sadie Green, and Marx Watanabe, Zevin portrays personal and professional actions as forces that generate powerful emotional, psychological, and creative consequences. Sam’s withdrawal, Sadie’s ambition, and Marx’s mediating presence each produce reactions that shape the characters’ identities, relationships, and artistic trajectories. The novel’s depiction of video game design further reinforces this action-reaction framework, presenting creativity as an iterative process marked by experimentation, failure, feedback, and renewal. Grief, trauma, rivalry, and collaboration function as narrative forces that continually alter the direction of the characters’ lives. By linking Newtonian dynamics with literary structure, psychological response, and the creative process, this study argues that Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow presents human connection as a system of reciprocal movement, where every choice reverberates beyond the individual. Ultimately, the novel reveals how conflict, loss, and creative struggle can generate resilience, transformation, and renewed forms of emotional connection.