Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep - Essay Example

Slaughterhouse-Five vis-à-vis Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? This paper presents a comparative analysis of Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five in relation to Philip Dick’s Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? These stories present dramatic incidences of death and anguish that occurs between warring characters in different contexts. Kurt Vonnegut narrates the horrors of World War II in Dresden. Germany was at the time on the receiving end during the orgy of violence that procured the deaths of 130000 civilians. On the other hand, Philip Dick recounts the tale of bounty hunters that make a living by killing androids. Determined to collect a $1000 bounty, the bounty goes on the charm offensive to retire as many androids as possible. Richard Deckard, the lead bounty hunter experiences a paradox when he bemoans the killing of Luba Luft, the android impersonating opera singer against the backdrop of previous killing of androids. Death is the overriding theme that dominates the narration of the two stories. These stories draw feelings of depression and sadness that engulf readers as they come to terms with the realities of pain and anguish. It is impossible to ignore the destructive consequences of war in Slaughterhouse-Five. The devastating bombing of the town of Dresden in Germany is at the height of world war situates seemingly random events. Throughout the time of suffering in Dresden, Billy Pilgrin shifts in and out of the meat locker. Luckily, he survives incineration that characterizes every aspect of life in the city. Billy’s ascendancy to become the president of Lion Club takes the efforts of his father-in-law. In the post war era, he works as a prosperous optometrist. Vonnegut injects the aspect of Tralfamadorians to underscore the devastating consequence of war. Billy seems not to understand his world. He hallucinates about his moments with the Tralfamadorians in order to evade a world destroyed by the war. Traumatized by the destructiveness of the war, Billy fails to come to terms with the consequences of the war. Vonnegut’s description of the events in Dresden during war reflects the kind of destruction that is seen in Dick’s world. Dick develops a world in his imagination. This world is in a state of decay due to the dust of nuclear fallout that covers the whole landscape. He uses Kipple to represent a metaphysical decay of the world. A destruction that takes place in Dick’s world is constantly evolving. At the same time, Dick posits that the decaying world has a way of surviving itself through decay. The animals that appear when the novel comes to the end confirm this claim. John Isidore’s spider reflects the ability of new life to renew itself through regeneration while the mechanical toad of Rick Deckard manifests the ability of all forms of life to discover how they can exist in decaying world. Dick represents an element of individualism and collectivism. This presents a set of opposing principles that he tears down the novel. The desire by Rick own areal animal relates to the Rosen Association to develop an android that is distinct from human beings is an indication of individualistic maneuvers and manifest capitalism. The selfishness of Rick leads hi m to develop a misplaced sense of empathy. In a desperate zeal and glutton appetite for social world, Rick fails to show concern for the perceived decay of humanity. His focus is fixated desire for a real animal. Consequently, he fails to show any empathy towards electric animals or androids. He kills them to earn money and casts his image as a harbinger of death. The thirst for economic survival or Rosen Association highlights the greatest mark of selfishness. This corporation, in a bid, to survive can go the extent of causing harm to bounty hunters that retire their androids. The corporation’s preoccupation with gain far overwhelms the necessity of life. The individualistic maneuvers are sharply contrasted with collectivism. The collective spirit of mankind is a requisite requirement for man to survive the decay of the world. The process by which is achieved is Mercerism. Sharing of one another’s empathy is seen as a way through which collectivism can be achieved. In this regard, it can be concluded that Dick advances socialist ideals by being critical of the prevailing capitalist tendencies. On the other hand, Vonnegut tackles the illusion of free will in manner that is critical of Bill. The philosophical question about the existence of free will pervades the story. Here, the knowledge of fourth dimension is the prevailing philosophy. It is believed that the fourth dimension contains all moments of time that occur and reoccur endlessly and simultaneously. Due to the repetition of all moments, Tralfamadorians have an attitude regarding their plight and are unlikely to influence them. The concept of free will seems to exist only on earth according to Tralfamadorians. They believe that human beings only regard time as linear regression. Billy spends much of his time running against forces that seek to counter his free will. His childhood days are marked by inductions into swimming. While Vonnegut reminds us about the inevitability of death, in the presence or absence of war, he tells us that he has not ordered his sons to take part in war nor participate in the manufacture of war propagating machinery. The prevailing incidences of war in the stories represent a unique convergence that prompts the reader to think if the stories took place in a similar setting. While empathy is the main theme of Dick’s novel, the destructiveness of war dominates the Vonnegut’s piece of literature. Dick’s leaves a hanging metaphorical reflection on the meaning of life. Every character in the novel has to deal with what it means to be empathetic. The reason Rick hates his sheep is due to the failure of the sheep to feel any love for him due to its inability to have feelings of empathy. This inability makes him to carry with his work as a bounty hunter because android, like sheep, do not have human feelings. Thus, they are incapable of developing true human emotions. According to him, empathy is the basic core of human survival. However, Dick represents androids as having unique empathetic abilities towards each other. This makes it difficult to reconfigure a line of separation between what is living and what is not living. If the androids behave like human beings and have empathetic abilities, then determining the line of separation becomes an elusive affair. Dick’s representation of the androids is similar to Vonnegut’s representation of Tralfamadorians. The ability of these stories to relate human life to life non living presents a unique convergence. Work Cited Philips, D. Do Androids Dream of electric sheep? Vonnegut, K. The Slaughterhouse-Five. Read More