Science Fiction Novel Philip K. Dick Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep

science fiction novel: Philip K. Dick, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?

The most interesting facet of Philip Dick's novel, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, is its depiction of humanity and several crucial tenets that help to define it. Within the novel, humanity is akin to empathy, since one of the primary distinctions between the people and androids in it is that the former are capable of and the latter incapable of empathy. Yet what the novel ultimately alludes to is that human need to feel and express a range of emotions, something that most of the humans are not able to do, choosing to substitute honest emotion with pre-determined, synthesized ones.

This conflict of attempting to transcend limited emotions to the full range of emotions, which is the ultimate expression of humanity, is demonstrated by the characterization of Rick Deckard. Deckard -- whose job is to hunt androids posing as humans and kill them -- has an antagonistic, ambivalent relationship with his emotions as they relate to his personal life and his job. The author chooses to demonstrate this fact most eminently during some of the early interactions between the bounty hunter and his wife Iran, in which the pair utilize artificial means to alter their moods and their attitudes. Although such alteration is fairly standard for humans in the novel, Deckard's unhappiness with this process is integral for his search to actually get in tune with his feelings and to come to terms with them.

The principle means by which Deckard is able to come to terms with the full range of his emotions, and his humanity, is via his interaction with Rachael, an android. It is due to his romantic relationship with her (whom he initially believes to be a human) that Deckard is able to contextualize the ambivalence he feels regarding killing androids which, although unable to empathize and to react to things in the same capacity as people, are otherwise human. His frustration, his desire, and his understanding of the degree of "humanity" that most of the androids possess allow him access to wide range of feelings. Ultimately, his exposure to these feelings helps to reinforce his own humanity and to provide a definition of what humanity actually is. It is the ability to know anger, elation, disappointment, melancholy, and a host of other sentiments -- and not just for oneself, but for others, as well.

Understanding and actually sharing the emotions of another is the true definition of empathy, and Dick makes it quite clear that this ability to empathize is one of humanity's determining characteristics. The fact that Deckard learns to empathize with robots, creatures that are not even human, shows the full extent of his own humanity. The author proves to the reader that Deckard is able to access the wide range of emotions that help to define humanity by setting up a comparison to one of the novel's earlier scenes between the bounty hunter and his wife. Whereas earlier Deckard relied upon artificial means of accessing moods and attitudes, towards the conclusion of the novel he is able to forge this process and still sleep quite comfortably beside his wife, because he has completed his own figurative journey of becoming attuned towards his emotions and his humanity.