Tag: provocation

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?

Rick – A Relatable Character

If you read the end of this book, you would know the Rick found and retired the remaining nexus 6 androids he set out to retire. Upon doing this, he had completed his mission that was given to him in the beginning. Beforehand, he had begun to feel empathy toward retiring these machines. But his empathy was not totally personified until he met Rachel, and had his moment with her. The simpliest way to live in this world would be best for everyone to have what Iran describes as “long deserved peace” (Dick 243). Rick does begin to feel empathy and care for Rachel, but he cares for his goat so much more. He was devastated when Rachel pushed his goat off a roof. This proved Rick can feel the same human emotions as humans today do everyday.

Have you ever had something or someone in your life you would be devastated if you lost? How relatable of a human is Rick to you? How relatable of a character in a fictional story is he?

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?

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?

Rick’s Reality

While in pursuit of Luba Luft, Rick attempts to use the Voight-Kampff test on her. Luft is continuously able to deflect each question with another question and gains the upper hand against Rick. Her wire falls off and Rick comes in to reattach it but is instead confronted by a laser tube. He is accused of being a “sexual deviant” and Luft calls the police. When arriving Rick is not recognized by the officer and is taken another “Hall of Justice”. During the car ride, the officer he states ““Maybe you’re an android” [….] “with a false memory, like they give them.”” (Dick 103). Ricks statements overtime have slowly changed with his character, at first he kills without a second thought but in the case of Luft he decides to give her a chance. The empathy he feels for another being in general seems to have changed and if that is so what say that he isn’t just an android like Rachael but has reached the level in which he is able to fool an empathy test?

Is Rick human? Why or why not would he qualify as one? how does this relate to his character development over time?

Being Special is Good

John Isidore being special has always been described as a disability. I think that even though his intellect might not be as high, he is able to reach a level of emotional intelligence that no other character can. Isidore is the only character who cares animals, humans, and androids. When Isidore is made to call the owners of the cat who died he seemed to feel genuinely sad for its death and for the grief the death caused the owner. His colleague was only concerned about the business dealings and what to do with the cat. This was a small scene but it showed just how Isidore cared about people who didn’t treat him as an equal.

John demonstrates his ability to care later on when he learns the that Pris and her friends are androids. Isidore doesn’t care that they are androids and volunteers to help and protect him. The androids are surprised by his willingness to help them and he earns their admiration. Pris says, “You’re a great man, Isidore, you’re a credit to your race.” (Dick 151). I found it interesting that John wishes to be more like the androids because of the intelligence and the androids liked Isidore for his ability to care and empathize. They both were able to see what they are unable to do in the other.

The question I had was John being special actually a blessing? Is his ability to care make him more human than any other character in the book?

 

What Is (If Anything) Real?

Many pieces of literature have touched upon this idea: Is the personal perceived reality shared amongst all in a population? In other words, is what you see, feel, touch, and believe the same for everyone else, or is it all make believe?

In the novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, the existentialist question regarding the validity of reality arises.  After the androids split into separate rooms, and Isidore shows Pris to his room, Pris mentions how “It’s a dream.” She continues by saying, “Our trip was between a mental hospital on the East Coast and here. We’re all schizophrenic, with defective emotional lives…” (Dick 148).  During this scene, Pris is insinuating that the fleeing from the government, and by default, her entire life, is merely a construction developed by a mental sickness.  Her quote suggests that the events of one’s life can be a construction of the mind and the transgressions that one thinks he or she undertakes could never have actually happened.

The existential question that Phillip K. Dick wants the reader to ponder at this moment is: Can one definitively and empirically prove that the existence he or she considers undeniable reality, actually exists and is not just a figment of the mind?

Being an Android

When Rick went to test Luba he made a mistake and let her get in control. She then called the police and officer Crams ended up arresting him and taking him into the Mission Street Hall of Justice building. It was weird because he had never heard of the police office headquarters where he was taken, and he knew something was up. When he was being interrogated, he was confronted because on his list to retire was Garland(The official interrogating him). At this time Resch was out of the room getting his testing equipment in order to see if Rick was an android or not. During the talk with Garland, Rick realized that Garland was an android and then was told that Resch was an android as well. He was talking to Rick about Resch not knowing he was an android and Rick asked what he will do if he finds out the truth. Then Garland said “He may kill me, kill himself; maybe you, too. He may kill everyone he can, human and android alike” (Dick 122). Even though we later find out Resch isn’t an android it still makes me think of what if he was? How would he react?

This leads into my question. If you thought you were a human your whole existence and suddenly found out you were an android, how would you react?

Personally, if I found out today that I was an android I would think that’s pretty cool, I wouldn’t start murdering everyone around me.