The story is told in a fractured timeline style, beginning with Carey's exposure to radiation and then shifting between his minuscule form trapped in the cellar of his home and looking for food while battling the spider and the time and events leading up to his finding himself there. He is forced to engage in a victorious battle with a black widow spider that towers over him, which Carey ultimately kills.Īs Carey continues shrinking, he realizes that his original fear that he would shrink into non-existence is incorrect that he will continue to shrink, but will not disappear as he originally feared, his epiphanic thought being, "If nature existed on endless levels, so also might intelligence." A cat goes after him when he is about 4⁄ 7 inch (15 mm) tall. At one point he has to try and jump to reach a hanging spar of wood one-half inch (13 mm) away-a leap whose distance seems over four feet (1.2 m) away to him. He has to survive on tiny scraps of food and bits of water. Ultimately, as the shrinking continues, it begins to threaten Carey's life as well at seven inches (18 cm) tall, he is driven outdoors, where he is attacked by a sparrow in his garden the conflict drives him through a window into the cellar of his house. The abnormal size decrease of his body initially brings teases and taunting from local youths, then causes friction in his marriage and family life, because he loses the respect his family has for him because of his diminishing physical stature. A few weeks later, Carey can no longer deny the truth: not only is he losing weight, he is also shorter than he was and deduces, to his dismay, that his body will continue to shrink.
The radioactivity acts as a catalyst for the bug spray, causing his body to shrink at a rate of approximately 1⁄ 7 inch (3.6 mm) per day. While on holiday, Scott Carey is exposed to a cloud of radioactive spray shortly after he accidentally ingests insecticide.
In 2012 it was included (under the original title) in the Library of America two-volume boxed set American Science Fiction: Nine Classic Novels of the 1950s, edited by Gary K. The novel was retitled The Incredible Shrinking Man in some later editions. It has been adapted into a motion picture twice, called The Incredible Shrinking Man in 1957 and The Incredible Shrinking Woman in 1981, both by Universal Pictures. The Shrinking Man is a science fiction novel by American writer Richard Matheson, published in 1956.