Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep ----------------------------------------------------------- by Heather Ferguson __The main theme in Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, in my eyes, is a human's self-realization of his loss of humanity. The story is often seen by readers to be non-empathetic androids clashing with empathetic humans. In my view, the book shows humans as having lost the capacity to empathize and they are searching for it. These humans used their natural ability of denial to delude themselves that as a race they had not changed and it was okay to kill their non-empathetic creations. Rick Deckard is paid to kill the androids. __With technology, humans found ways of controlling their emotions increasingly. Rick and Iran Deckard's discussion at the beginning of the book over their use of a mood organ is one example of this. Having a piece of machinery guiding their emotions causes them to give up what it is that defines them as human beings. They along with many others are in essence becoming more robotic. Yet, these guilt ridden, self-loathing humans are able to delude themselves that they have retained their "humanity" by believing in Mercerism. They will use their empathy boxes and be close to others that are also jacked in. This is the only time "normal" people will get close to specials (those that have failed the IQ test. However, outside of the empathy boxes humans do not have any emotional contact. __It seems that all the actions of these future humans are to live the illusion that they have not lost their humanity. The characters buy electric animals, feel guilty because they are not real and spend all their time working to purchase a real one. This cycle gives humans a shallow sense of purpose and pride. Owning an animal has become Deckard's main goal in life simply to impress his neighbors. In fact, Rick's incentive for everything is for praise from others. __Humans have become willingly docile to the machines they have created yet demonize those creations which most closely resemble them. They try to distance themselves from realizing they are no better than the androids. Rick Deckard realizes this throughout the book. When describing Replicants he often seems to be describing himself. "The humanoid robot constituted a solitary predator" (p. 27) and this in essence was also Deckard. I believe when Deckard says to himself that everything about him has become unnatural and he feels defeated, it is due to finally having to deal with reality. He, along with most other humans, has been living an unnatural existence controlled by machines and has come to terms with it. When he is alone climbing the hill, there are no more ways of denying the truth to himself anymore. As he reaches the top of the hill and thinks he sees Mercer, it scares him to find that it is only a shadow of himself. He is alone and with nothing to prove to anyone but himself. Deckard runs down the hill, trying not to come to terms with his changing view of Mercerism and himself. He continues to want to talk to Dave Holden to brag about his retiring of the six Replicants. It is as if he needs the reassurance that what he did was good and right. Deckard only knows to do things for recognition and without thought. __After going back to the car, Deckard returns to the reward system and the need to please Mercer. He finds a toad and immediately imagines all the Kudos he will receive for finding an animal so precious to Mercer. After taking the toad home, Iran finds the control panel on its stomach. Deckard fell for another illusion but this time he prefers knowing the truth rather than living under a false pretext. Iran's first response is to tell Rick that she will set the mood organ for long deserved peace, and he readily agrees. She realizes though that he has already found peace and does not set the mood organ to give it to him.