Coping with reality

In the very last paragraph of Chapter 20, Rick decides he wants to go somewhere where he can see the stars. He gets in his car and leaves San Francisco and ends up in a deserted place where no other living beings reside.  At this point he has a few things going through his mind. He wonders how would Dave  feel about him now that he is the greatest bounty hunter. Rick seemed to be looking for some sort of confirmation from Dave, but when he could not get a hold of him all of his other emotions and feelings began to take over. He felt hungry and hot, and with these two combined he felt some sort of defeat overcome him.

This is where I related to Rick the most throughout the book. Usually when I have a lot on my mind after something major happens to me, I try to get away as far as I can. Eventually I am alone and lost within my thoughts so I really did not get away from it all. When reality hits and I have to process what happened I may sometimes feel defeat. My question for you all is how do you cope with life altering events?

Can we Live Together?

At the end of chapter 19, Rick finds the three remaining nexus-6 androids and kills them. He first kills Pris, possibly the hardest one to kill because she looks exactly like Rachel. Then he kills Irmgard. This causes Roy to give up and Rick kills him last. Before Rick kills Roy he says, “Okay, you loved her. . . And I loved Rachel. And the special one loved the other Rachel” (Dick 205-206). Rick suggests here that it was possible to love an android.

Humans built nuclear weapons before we learned how to live together, love one another, and be peaceful towards each other. Instead of learning to live together we have to kill each other for “peace and harmony.” These androids were very close to being human, so do you think human and android could ever learn how to live together, love one another, and be peaceful towards each other? Do you think we as humans can figure out how to live together, love one another, and be peaceful before we end up in a nuclear apocalypse trying to figure out who is an android and who is a human?

Empathy

So far, as we’ve read the common theme in this novel has been empathy. We have had various discussions regarding empathy and how it can help to decipher what is human and what is android. One of the main points that are being questioned throughout this story is whether or not empathy is what makes us human. The author has consistently made the line unclear when it comes to androids and their empathy. In this last section of the book it is revealed that androids do not have the same empathy for life that the humans in this story do. That is shown with Pris, cutting off a spider’s legs essentially torturing it to John’s distress. This is also shown with Racheal Rosen, being taught to sleep with and gain the affection of men to prevent them from being able to hunt her kind effectively. This lack of basic empathy is also shown when she murders the goat rather brutally by throwing it off of a roof in vengeance. To me, these last chapters of the book finally draw a clear line between android and human. The androids finally display a pure lack of emotion in these instances.

Is empathy what makes us human after all? In the end, does Rick seem more “human” than the androids at last?

Wilbur Mercer

Rick decides to climb up a wall in chapter 21. But he soon comes to realization that after climbing up, the hill had changed him making him feel a certain kind of way that he never felt before. Even though Inspector Bryant was unavailable at the time, Rick talks to Miss Marsten about the feeling that he felt during his trip up/down the hill by stating that he felt “permanently fused with him.”

“But if I’m Mercer, he thought, I can never die, not in ten thousand years. Mercer is immortal.” (Chapter 21)

In chapter 21, you can see Rick go through a transformation after he returns from climbing up the hill. My question is, how did that particular experience on the hill change him?

Emotional Manipulation

Rick Deckard calls Racheal Rosen in order for her to help him retire the remaining 3 Androids. She becomes distressed when she realizes that Pris Stratton is the same model Android as her. Racheal becomes drunk on bourbon, and plans to sleep with him and change the way he thinks about Androids. In her two years of “life” she has slept with about 8 bounty hunters and manipulated them into quitting their job. She successfully seduces Rick after making a deal with him. If he sleeps with her, then she will retire Pris while Rick retires the Batys. Rick becomes conflicted and sad. He knows that he must retire the remaining androids but feels grief.

Rachel bragged about her ability to manipulate men. She states, “no bounty hunter ever has gone on … after being with me” suggesting, that her main function is to sleep with men in order to stop them from killing Android refugees (Dick 198).

How does sexual activity change the way people feel about each other? Androids are machines, although the Nexus-6 Androids are close to human. Why can’t Rick, or any other person sleep with an Android and remain disconnected emotionally?

Not all living things are valued.

After being ordered by Pris to go retrieve the rest of her belongings, John Isadore finds a spider, which was a big deal to him because they’re supposed to be extinct. He become extremely excited and decides to capture it with a bottle so he can show it to his new friends. Once at his apartment, he tries to show Pris and the rest of the androids, but only Pris shows interest. She then asks Isadore why the spider needs so many legs and he explains that that’s just how spiders are.

Irmgard, one of Pris’ friends, suggests that they should cut four of the legs off, which sends Isadore into a panic. Without hesitation, Pris searches through her purse to find scissors so she can begin cutting the legs off. The process is painful for Isadore to watch since the spider is so rare, but Pris seems to really enjoy it. After cutting off the legs, the spider “crept about miserably on the kitchen table, seeking a way out…” (Dick 207).

Since in class we always discuss today’s society, how do you think this part of the book relates to our society? Also, would you be like Isadore and just sit back and let something like this happen or would you take action and try to stop it?