Are Fake Memories Meaningful?

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Recommended: Applying dream interpretation to literature

In the short story, “We Can Remember It For You Wholesale” by Phillip K. Dick, the storyline takes place in a city in Chicago, Illinois. The main character, Douglas Quaid is a clerk who has a dream to visit the planet Mars before he dies. He goes to New York and visits Rekal Incorporation to test a new drug to implant false memories. Unfortunately, this product soon takes a toll after Mr. Quaid cannot separate fantasy and reality. This led to the disillusion in his memory and ultimately another visit to Rekal Incorporated. Soon after, he is caught in a predicament of either being executed or having another fabricated dream implanted in his brain. To his fortune, an unexpected subversion takes place which eventually leads to an unexpected ending. The presence of science fiction in this reading makes the storyline much more amusing instead of other texts that talk about science fiction because of how descriptive and creative. He clarifies this using near future science fiction and Spy-Fi to project the fallacies of the American Government and to make the audience appeal to the relationship that the text has with science fiction. Even though Dick uses satire, diction, and ethical appeal in this short story to imply a better awareness to the audience, making the main purpose of this text in order to expound government interference overall. For this reason, future science fiction along with diction and ethical appeal how they both can appeal to the audience.
Future science fiction is one of the few subgenres that relate to the short story. Science of the future along with technology are two things that identify a type of media to be from the future. It is shown throughout the text through various aspects such as the fabricated drug “na...

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...ion and satire both played major roles in government manipulation. Even though Dick used satire, diction, and ethical appeal in this short story to imply the message to the audience, the main accomplishment of this text was to develop the impression that the American Government has its misconceptions with the subgenres of future science fiction and Spy-Fi. In the end, it’s best to live a great memory and remember it forever instead of having one implanted which might cause unwanted and unexpected outcomes.

Works Cited

Cavallari, Dan, and Bronwyn Harris. "What Is Spy Fiction?" WiseGeek. Conjecture, 01 Jan. 2014. Web. 22 Jan. 2014.

Dick, Philip K. We Can Remember It for You Wholesale. New York, NY: Carol Pub. Group, 1990. Print.

McNeil, Hayden. The Anteater's Guide to Writing & Rhetoric. Irvine: Composition Program, Department of English, UC Irvine, 2014. Print.

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