#10-2. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?

Empathy is the main theme of the novel and is the crux on which Dick's metaphysical reflection on the meaning of life hangs. Each character in the novel must deal with what it means to be empathetic and whether that allows someone to be valued as a living thing. Rick hates his electric sheep precisely because he believes it cannot feel any love for him, even though he cares for it. This feeling allows Rick to perform his work as a bounty hunter because he believes that androids, like his sheep, are incapable of true human emotion and therefore not worthy of life in a society in which life is the highest ideal. Rick notes early on that herbivores or omnivores are the only creatures with the empathetic impulse and that empathy is what allows humanity to survive.

Yet, Rick soon learns that androids may be capable of empathy and humans may be able to be devoid of empathy; this in turn causes a extreme shift in Rick's understanding of himself. Suddenly, Rick finds that the lines between what one can call living or what one can call not-living are blurred. Androids find their empathetic abilities with each other just as humans find the ability to be empathetic in a collective group. Humans, also, are capable of a loss of empathy. This is demonstrated through the character of Phil Resch who, Rick finds, enjoys killing simply for killing's sake.

Maybe famous more for its movie title, "Blade Runner", "Do Androids Dream of Electric Ship?" is one of the most well-known works of Philip K. Dickson. The novel takes place in the bleak landscape of San Francisco in 2021, severely damaged by a radioactive dust. Most of the Earth's residents relocate to a new colony on Mars. The dust killed many forms of living creatures, and thus life had become extremely important and valuable.

There are two kinds of life in the world of "Do Androids Dream of Electric Ship?". One is the "real" life of real humans and animals, and the other is the "fake" life of androids. Rick Deckard, the protagonist of the novel, is a bounty hunter of the San Francisco police department who "retire" androids who have escaped to earth from Mars. To distinguish the two types of life, Deckard uses a test called the Voigt-Kampff Test which assesses for empathy by asking a serious of questions that are supposed to illicit emphathetic responses. Only humans can pass this test, the developer claimed.

Throughout the story, Rick finds out that androids may be capable of empathy and humans may be devoid of empathy. Phil Resch, for example, is a "human ... who enjoys killing just for the sake of killing". Pris, Roy and Irmgaard are the representative androids who feel emotions toward each other, emphathizing their own fear of being hunted by bounty hunters, their wish to escape from their discriminatory life on Mars, etc.

Therefore, Rick finds out that the lines between the "real" life and the "fake" life are blurred. His enlightenment is represented via his treatment of toad -- when he finds out that the toad he discovered is an android, he does not disappoint, but instead, feel with his true sense of empathy that he could maybe love the toad just as if it were real.

In today's world, where computers, artificial intelligence, and robots start to take more important stance, the question of whether the "fake", human-made, artificial creatures can feel emotion continues arising. "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" is one of the most prominent science-fictions that answers to this question; for sure, androids can also feel empathy, and humans can sometimes lack empathy -- the distinguishment between androids and humans just get harder and harder.

#9-2. The Lottery

To almost the end of the story, the writer does not mention about the real truth about 'the lottery'. The townspeople seem to be longing for the event, enjoying it, with such a certainty that even young children possesses. At the climax, the readers are shocked to learn that the purpose of the lottery was for choosing a person to kill, and then they can truly understand some mysterious details appeared previously -- why Mrs. Hutchinson seemed so frightened when she was selected, and why the nearby towns abandoned the lottery tradition one by one.

This story shows the power of tradition. According to the old man Warner, the lottery has been held for at least seventy-seven times. Now this tradition is regarded as such a crucial part of the townspeople's  lives that they believe abolition of the lottery would lead to "living in caves, work any more, live hat way for a while". It is unquestionable that the lottery is a barbaric, gruesome practice that cannot be held among normal people; still, this nonsense is happening in this town. What is more surprising, the villagers don't really know much about the lottery's origin, nevertheless keep performing because they've always held it. Such practice of lottery, without no reasonable reason or even the root, emphasizes that tradition has power to make the most irrational event happen.

To suggest the possible origins of the lottery tradition, first guess is unity, and the second is wish for good luck. Because tradition is what almost every members of a society keeps, it is an effective means to bring together the entire community. For example, hajj, the Islamic tradition of traveling to Mecca, allows the Muslims to unite during the pilgrimage. In "The Lottery", the tradition allows "the people of the village ... gather in the square", the children "talking among themselves", the men "speaking of planting and rain, tractors and taxes", the women "greeting one another and exchanging bits of gossip". Although the tradition itself is cruel and meaningless, the process of the lottery allows the townspeople gather, communicate, and share a sense of unity.

Another possible reason of the lottery's origin is praying for happy occasions  Thanksgiving, for example, is a traditional holiday which gratitude for a good harvest. In The Lottery, Old Man Warner claimed, "Used to be a saying about 'Lottery in June, corn be heavy soon.' First thing you know, we'd all be eating stewed chickweed and acorns." This reference shows that the townspeople perceive the lottery to accompany a heavy harvest. Considering that the story takes place in a small ("only about three hundred people"), suburban town, where farming accounts for major tasks, the lottery promising a successful agricultural life would be heavily counted and rarely doubted -- which means it would continue on, without any significant change.

Shirley Jackson, in her short novel "The Lottery", demonstrated the power of tradition via illustrating the townspeople's participation in a gruesome ritual. The story emphasizes the potency of tradition by suggesting no clear reason or origin. However, Jackson leaves slight hints about the possible sources of how tradition started -- unity, and praying. The tradition itself seems so horrible and irrational, still the procedures of performing that tradition serve the function of unity and pray. This is why the villagers first started the lottery, and maybe, why they are still preserving this tradition.

#12-2. Fish Cheeks

Fish Cheeks, a reflective essay written by Amy Tan, is one of the top-notch examples of 

well-written reflections. Even with its short length – only 500 words – it conveys a lot of contents, including Tan’s emotions (when she felt ashamed in front of the boy she was crushed on), a life lesson that Tan’s mother wanted to give Tan (“You must be proud you are different”), etc.
There are several factors that make this essay so attractive: first, vivid descriptions; second, honest tone; third, irony of the last sentence.

First, Amy Tan vividly describes the Christmas food, the people’s actions, and words, even though this event happened when she was only 14 and more than 10 years have passed. It is evident that Tan would not be remembering all the details of her 14th Christmas; nevertheless, she described things vividly – “The kitchen was littered with appalling mounds of raw food”, for example. This makes the reader forget that this event happened a very long time ago, thus focus into the story much more.

Secondly, Tan’s tone throughout the essay attracts the readers. Tan is being very honest about her emotions to the readers. From the very first paragraph, she confessed that she was crushed on a boy – which is, definitely, a “secret” for a fourteen-years-old girl. Also, throughout the essay, she speaks honestly about the embarrassment she had experienced ("Dinner threw me deeper into despair," or "I wanted to disappear," for example). This honesty about her personal feelings bestows such an intimacy to the readers that they feel close to Tan – as if they are teenage friends of Tan, sympathizing to her embarrassment in front of her crush – therefore focus much on her story.

Third, the irony of the last sentence is what makes this essay different from ordinary diaries of teenage girls. The irony is that her mother "had chosen all [Tan's] favorite foods", but Tan did not enjoy it because she was ashamed of her culture different from the American's. This sentence shows that Tan's embarrassment of her own culture had been serious – so that she refuses even her favorite menus – and at the same time infers that the mother indistinctly predicted Tan would be shamed, and thus tried to reduce her humiliation by providing Tan's best menus. Therefore, this sentence underlines the mother's love which tried to protect her daughter from indiscreet embarrassment of being "different", deeply moving the readers.

Via Tan's effective use of vivid descriptions, honest tones, and ironical last sentence, Fish Cheeks makes its readers to focus and to be moved. Hope I can be a writer like her, whose works capture the readers' mind and convey message emphatically. :D

#9-1. The Lottery

To almost the end of the story, the writer does not mention about the real truth about 'the lottery'. The townspeople seem to be longing for the event, enjoying it, with such a certainty that even young children possesses. At the climax, the readers are shocked to learn that the purpose of the lottery was for choosing a person to kill, and then they can truly understand some mysterious details appeared previously -- why Mrs. Hutchinson seemed so frightened when she was selected, and why the nearby towns abandoned the lottery tradition one by one.

This story shows the power of tradition. According to the old man Warner, the lottery has been held for at least seventy-seven times. Now this tradition is regarded as such a crucial part of the townspeople's lives that they believe abolition of the lottery would lead to "living in caves, work any more, live hat way for a while". It is unquestionable that the lottery is a barbaric, gruesome practice that cannot be held among normal people. Still, this nonsense is happening in this town, emphasizing that tradition has power to even make the most irrational event happen.

The power of tradition is even more emphasized from the writer's setting of "commonness". The town is very common, the townspeople are very normal -- they are nothing like past-criminals -- everything seems not that different from an ordinary rural American town. Why the author appointed such a fragrant event happen in a normal place is answered by observing her childhood; .......


Comments

Rhee Ji Yoon: You write fastly and your writings are good! Your thesis is clear throughout the essay and I think this is one of your strong points (or abilities?) in writing.
 People fear new things. People feared TV when they were first invented and argued that people would go dumb because of the box. People also feared genetic science; they thought that too much of the technology would eventually devalue the importance of themselves. I think that fear of changing tradition can be understood in the same context.

Hyejoon Lee: I liked how you emphasized the importance, or the influence, of "tradition". I also believe that "tradition", once settled into the lives of common people, loses its original purpose and becomes one of the things that they always do, regardless of whether it is a cruel tradition or not. While tradition may be the means of defining a culture, it might also be a dangerous weapon against the culture and the inhabitants themselves.

Nuri Kim: The power of tradition may be one aspect Shirley Jackson used to portray what she wanted to say throughout the story -- however I don't think the story itself 'shows' the power of tradition. While mentioning the power of tradition, I think it would be better to put in ideas like "because of tradition, the townspeople failed to object to the horrible ritual practice". Also you might want to point out why they were so indifferent of the tradition (except for the child's family).

Soho Shim: I really like your opinion about the reason why the townspeople do a lottery. Yes, tradition is so entrenched to people's lives that it becomes necessary. however, I personally think that maybe they are simply doing that act because it is a "tradition". Rather than it is crucial or not, people might commit that without any apparent reasons. Well... this is just my point of view, and thinking about the other possible reasons can help you to enrich your reflection!

InHee Ho: I like how you jumped right to the story. The point about vagueness of lottery -- I totally agree with it. I also like how you linked tradition to lottery and barbarity. But it would be better if you reveal a little more about the 'tradition' (such as the reason why it can be tradition, how it changes and unnoticeably adapt to new societal trends, how it can exist forever, etc.)

#11-2. Sarah Cole: A Type of Love Story

"Hey, I got accepted in the band club!"
"Umm... I did quite well in this test."
"Have you never heard of 'Daft Punk'? They play really good electronic musics."

It was my first semester in KMLA. I was suffering from the sense of inferiority, among numbers of friends who seemed much smarter than me. My roommate was one of them; whenever she said something, I gazed at her in jealousy and envy. She was a member of a popular school club, she was often considered as one of the most good-looking girls in our wave, she did well in her classes, she knew lot more about music than I did. Every single act of her made me feel nervous; the feeling, soon, started to be expressed at my attitude toward her. Whenever she talked about her band club -- when is her debut stage, what music she is going to play, who praises her that her guitar play improved a lot -- I pretended I was busy, and didn't have time to talk with her. When she was chatting with boys, I disturbed her on purpose.

Looking back, I was just so childish and immature. But what that experience taught me is that balance is a crucial factor in human relationship. If one person is too superior, the other feels restless -- "Is this the right place for me?" "What is so superior of her?" "Why am I thinking these things? -- she's my nice friend!" all those complicated, mingled thoughts. This, exactly, is what is happening between Ron and Sarah, in "Sarah Cole: A Type of Love Story".

Ron and Sarah are very different; Ron is "effortlessly attractive, a genetic wonder, tall, slender, symmetrical, and clean". Sarah, in contrast, has "ugly face, like a wart hog's, thick, rapid voice, dumpy, off-center wreck of a body", and there are "a few women who were more unattractive than Sarah". Ron is a young, somehow-rich lawyer divorced with a beautiful fashion designer wife, whereas Sarah is a Rumford Press worker, recently divorced with "husband who was a bastard and stupid". There is nothing in common between these two characters except they both experienced unsuccessful relationships. Yet, amazingly, these two becomes lover.

Their relationship, however, is unstable from the start. When Ron invites her to his house, and asks her to sleep with him, Sarah hesitates and answers, "I don't know ... You and me... we're real different. ... I gotta go. I gotta leave now." Ron also "won't go out in public" with Sarah, in embarrassment to admit that such a good-looking-man is going out with an unattractive woman. At the end of their relationship, Ron cruelly abandons their relationship, cursing "Go on and leave, you ugly bitch".

To anyone, it is clear that Ron's stance in their relationship was superior, while Sarah's was inferior. Throughout their relationship, however, it is mostly Sarah who approached to Ron first. It was her, for example, who starts the relation by sitting next to Ron at the bar and initiates a conversation. Though Ron is interested in knowing someone different from him, and responds to Sarah's approach, he rarely acts first; it is, again, Sarah who starts their second conversation, who quibbles over their relationship (inquiring Ron about not going out with her in public, for example), etc. During such of her active approach, Sarah must have felt anxious about Ron's passive response -- she must have suffered from numerous questions, such as "Why isn't he showing stronger response?" "Do I love him more than he loves me?" "Am I not his lover -- just someone who follows and irritates him?". All these questions drives Sarah to be impatient, nervous to Ron, which creates more and more conflicts so that it ends their relationship at last.


"The Most Beautiful Woman in Town" also deals with similar topic; Cass, the most beuatiful woman in town, goes out with the narrator, one of the ugliest men. Although this story ends with Cass's death -- another "end" of relationship -- it is evident that the relation between Cass and the narrator is more stable than that of Ron and Sarah. To suggest a possible cause, Cass, the superior, is the one who approaches first to the narrator, the inferior. Compared to Ron and Sarah's relation, which the inferior approaches the superior first and therefore felt all more inferiority that she alone is expressing too much attention to the superior, Cass the superior allows the narrator opportunity to see that the superior also has weak points and needs to lean over the inferior.


"Balance", without doubt, is an important factor in human relationship. Once one starts to feel inferior to the other, the questions arise endlessly so that one cannot stare the other without envy or nervousness any more. This is what happens in "Sarah Cole: A Type of Love Story". To minimize the effect of unbalance, it is important for the superior to show that he/she also has inferior points that needs to be comforted by other -- as Cass did in "The Most Beautiful Woman in Town".