Tyler Linden
Ms. Higgins
AP Language and Composition
November 15, 2011
Real vs. Unreal
Philip K. Dick wrote a vast amount of science fiction books in his time. These types of
books usually consist of made-up elements which create a seemingly unreal atmosphere, causing
the reader to question what in the book is real and what is false. Dick's works, including Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, are no different. The story takes place in the year 2021, after
the world has been devastated by World War Terminus. It follows the story of Rick Deckard, an
android bounty hunter. There exists real animals, fake animals, real people, and fake people. All
of these elements combine together causing a mass confusion, greatly blurring the differences
between real and unreal for the reader and the characters. Author Philip K. Dick uses a mix of
characterization, background elements, and symbolism, to prove that the solid line between real
and unreal is nonexistent.
“Whether drugs, mental deformities, or even androids cause it, the theme of real versus
unreal and the undeterminable distinction will prevail” (Bleiler). Disorientation and illusion, either for the reader or the characters he or she is reading about, play a huge part in creating the
unreal atmosphere. Dick uses these elements in most, if not all, of his books. In an article written
by Brian M. Stableford, he analyzes all of Philip K. Dick's greatest works. He finds "the main
trends which can be followed through all Dick's major works will always be illusion and disorientation" (Stableford 337). This book follows that same trend in that Dick creatively combines
multiple elements, such as "forgery, total illusion, along with unanimous conspiracy" to keep this
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disorientation alive (Shippey). No information is given to show whether each character is an android or not, creating a confused tone which challenges the readers knowledge of what is real.
"Whether it's a drug, an alien, or even a machine," says Roger Zelazney in the book’s introduction, "the result remains the same" (Zelazney VIII).
A huge part in the confusion of real and unreal is the android. Upon reading the first few
chapters it seems that a clear understanding of the difference between real and artificial humans
exists, but once the reader moves on he or she realizes that no one has any clue how to differentiate the two. In a review on Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? along with it’s movie counterpart, Blade Runner, the author describes androids as "biologically human" (Gwaltney 95).
They possess brains which comprehend and process information the same way humans do, if not
better. These Nexus 6 brain units prove that they are closely, biologically related to humans.
Gwaltney goes on to ask, "the androids are clearly human, but are they persons?" (Gwaltney 95).
The mixup between real and unreal applies here because there is no solid basis, biological or not,
that can clearly separate an android from a human.
Some characters are not aware of whether they were born or manufactured, due to the
subtle differences between androids and humans. Rachel Rosen, the main Android of Rosen
Corporation, remains clueless about being a replicant until Rick arrives to administer the VoigtKampff to her. The Voigt-Kampff uses a system of questions to measure the presence of an empathetic response. Phil Resch, who is void of empathy, is challenged by Rick to take a test to see
if he tests out as an android. Phil Resch asks to Rick, "If I'm an android you'll tell me right?...
because I really want to know. I have to know" (Dick 139). Officer Crams experiences a situation
similar to Phil’s. Rick is arrested by Crams after a dead body is discovered in Rick’s hover car.
Rick can only "claim the body as an android," a test has to be administered to tell if the body is
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that of a human or an android (Dick 113). After Crams has taken Rick into custody for the dead
body, Crams discovers that he is an android himself. As Gwaltney states, "the more Rick gets to
know them, the less he can distinguish between androids and human persons" (Gwaltney 94).
This shows that the only way to separate real and unreal is through a test because there is no
solid proof otherwise.
The only way to convince a bounty hunter that his target is truly an android is to show
him the results of a test, which still provides no solid evidence of whether the subject is a real or
a false human. "Rick faces the same problem of identification before he retires an android,” he
must first administer the Voigt-Kampff, or as Gwaltney would put it, "a clumsy test of questionable validity" (Gwaltney 94). When Rick visits the Rosen corporation, Rick gives Rachel Rosen
the test. "The Nexus 6," he says, "I'm seeing one for the first time. And they damn near did it;
they came awfully damn close to undermining the Voigt-Kampff scale," Rick admits, barely detecting Rachel as a replicant (Dick 60). The only other method of determining androids is a bone
marrow test, called the Boneli Reflex-Arc test. If a bone marrow sample or an empathy test is the
only true way to distinct a real human from an artificial one, then differences between the two are
limited. Jill Galvan, a reviewer, does not believe empathy to be a strong basis for this separation.
Galvan states, “if on the one hand androids reveal their ability to feel compassion, the reader begins to surmise, on the other hand, that what passes for empathy among humans derives far more
from a cultural construction than from any other categorical essence” (Galvan 3). Galvan is explaining that the difference between humans and androids cannot be based on empathy due to it’s
multiple interpretations. Dick uses these two tests to show the reader that even what seems to
distinct the real elements from the unreal ones cannot be trusted, proving the line between the
two to be extinct.
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Some elements of this book, although less prominent than others, still greatly demon-
strate the confusion between what is and is not real. When the reader meets J. R. Isidore, the
character tries to explain the reason for the trashed building to Pris by using a term to describe
"useless objects like junk mail or old match folders," which he calls kipple. He believes kipple
can come alive when no one's around, then begin to reproduce itself, when it is only piles of
regular, neglected garbage (Dick 65). Almost all people, including Rick, began to follow Mercerism after World War Terminus. Buster Friendly exposed Mercerism and its creator, Mercer, as a
fake. The world refuses to believe Buster's confession at first, until Mercer admits, "I am a
fraud... I am an elderly retired bit player named Al Jerry" (Dick 214). His confession proves one
of the world's strongest beliefs to be false. The most ironic part of this is the lie behind the greatest man in the world, Buster Friendly. The whole world followed this man who turned out to be
an android all along. Real and unreal are so closely related that no one can differentiate the two,
not the world of characters in the book, nor the reader.
An android cannot experience empathy and therefore cannot be described as human. Rick
used this theory to justify his killings. In the beginning, Rick has "yet to rethink the ideology of
the juridical system that employs him," states Galvan, a reviewer (Galvan 2). Once Rick begins
to rethink, he finds empathy to be a weak way to distinguish androids from humans, making the
wall between real and unreal more transparent. Rick’s new way of thinking caused his whole
view on what is real or fake to change drastically. Another circumstance in his changing views is
his relationship with Rachel Rosen. Before he met her he thought that real humans and artificial
types could not feel for each other, but all of that changed when Rachel came around. Rick admits that he, being a legitimate human being, is "capable of feeling empathy for at least specific
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certain androids" (Dick 142). Rick's experiences prove his wall of justification between real and
unreal to be fictitious.
Used on animals and on people, empathy could be considered the most reliable method
for determining whether something is real or unreal. Rick's guidelines consist of the fact that
humans are capable of empathy, where as androids are not. All this is destroyed through the
characters of Rachel Rosen and Phil Resch. When Rick meets Rachel he realizes he feels something between them, but he doesn’t believe Rachel can feel anything back because she is an android. The hotel scene ends with the two sleeping together because of Rachel's suggestion. Rick
admits that "going to bed with Rachel was where he went wrong," also mentioning that "it did
change him" (Dick 235). Rick has no way of determining if the lifeforms surrounding him are
true lifeforms or replicants of them because both are capable of empathy. Without empathy, there
is no other way to prove that real people and replicants are even any different.
Dick shows that some humans are not capable of empathy with the character Phil Resch.
The bounty hunter shows multiple instances through out the book where he shows his lack of
feelings toward androids, and sometimes people. Phil tells Rick to "sleep with her - and then kill
her," after Ricks admits his feelings for Rachel (Dick 144). The statement further proves his empathetic absence even after having relations with a replicant. When Rick is riding the elevator
along with Phil and a captured android, Phil constantly mentions that he would like to finish it
off now, but Rick refuses to let him. Rick then points out a "pattern in the way he kills." "You
don't kill the way I do," Rick utters, "you like to kill" (Dick 137). Greatly blurring Rick's separation between androids and humans, this proves the nonexistence of the solid line separating real
from unreal.
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Dick's unique mix of illusion along with disorientation doesn’t just throw the characters
off, but it also catches the reader and confuses him or her with the conflict of the androids and
the interesting characters to help the reader better understand the confusion between what is real
and what is a lie. When the characters are analyzed, such as Rachel or Rick with their identity
crisis', the reader begins to wonder how and if he or she can tell what is and what is not fake. The
reader then learns about kipple, Buster Friendly, or Mercerism, all of which are lies. The reader
then begins to wonder if the rest of the world can tell the difference. In the end, Mercer has been
exposed, Rick has slept with Rachel, and his views have been totally torn apart and rearranged,
the reader realizes the struggle of differentiating the two. There is no emotion, no element, and
no test that can differentiate the actual from the invalid because the differences are too subtle to
create a logical separation between the two as proved by Phil K. Dick’s Do Androids Dream of
Electric Sheep?
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Tyler Linden
Friday, January 13, 2012 10:11:48 AM ET
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Works Cited
Bleiler, Richard, editor. “Science Fiction Writers. 2nd ed.” Charles Scribner's Sons, 1999.
<http://galenet.galegroup.com/servlet/Scribner/sSfw00025.sgm>.
Dick, Philip K. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? New York: Random House Publishing Group, 1996.
Galvan, Jill. "Entering the Posthuman Collective in Philip K. Dick's Do Androids Dream of
Electric Sheep?" Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep. SF-TH Inc., 18.
Gwaltney, Marilyn. "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" Novels for Students. Vol. 5. Gale Cengage Learning, Web. 25 Nov. 2011. 94-97
Shippey, T. A. "Philip K. Dick." Critical Survey of Long Fiction. Ed. Carl Rollyson, 4th ed. 10
vols. Salem Press, 2010. Salem Literature Web. 08 Nov. 2011.
http://literature.salempresscom/doi/full/10.3331/CSLF_11710140000113?prevSearch=Ph
ilip%2BK.%2BDick&searchHistoryKey=&queryHash=21d118636cb3f0ac5418e267bc6
69084>.
Stableford, Brian M. "The Science Fiction Novel." Charles Schribner's Sons, 1982.
<http://galenet.galegroup.com/servlet/Scribner/s0202>.
Zelazney, Roger. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (Introduction). New York: Norstrilia Press, 1996.
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Tyler Linden
Friday, January 13, 2012 10:11:48 AM ET
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