Exploring Humanity in Dick's 'Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?'

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Throughout the novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick, there is a clear divide between what is considered to be human and what is not. When reading deeper into the novel, however, the clear divide between what is human and what is not becomes murky and blurred. Human characteristics can now be found in the androids, changing the ideas of what it means to be human. The humans throughout are becoming to desensitized to the world to be deemed human upon introduction. Dick throughout the novel uses a complex range of characters to break down the barriers between what is considered to be human and what is not. What does being human mean in the novel? Being human addresses both the physical state of being made of flesh, bones, …show more content…

When the reader is first introduced to Phil Resch he is working at a mysterious police station with androids posing as humans. Resch’s is introduced into the setting after killing his boss, Garland, who is an android. Before Garland’s death however he plants a seed in the head in Rick’s head, that Resch is an android with memories like Rachael: “He doesn’t know; he doesn’t suspect; he doesn’t have the slightest idea. Otherwise he couldn’t live out a life as a bounty hunter, a human occupation- hardly an android occupation.” (Dick 122). This statement by Garland put doubt in the narrator’s mind that Resch is a human, thereby making the reader also question Resch’s identity of human or …show more content…

it seems as if there is a clear divide between what is human and what is not. Throughout the novel, however, Philip K. Dick introduces characters such as the narrator Rick Deckard, who is the one leading the story and undergoing a dynamic change of heart. Rick points the reader in the ultimate conclusion that all lives matter not only human ones. The other two characters that play an important role in the crossing of the human/non-human line are the android Rachael Rosen and the human Phil Resch, who both are hard to distinguish between the two binaries. Dick uses this novel to show that the original ideals of what it means to be human do not always apply, and that the two are often mixed

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