AMX, Semester One, Buddenhagen

Discussion Questions, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?

Arranged by theme

TECHNOLOGY

  • How does the Penfield mood organ work? What is it’s purpose? What is the possible message that Dick is attempting to convey?
  • What is the “electric sheep” in the novel? Why do people own electric animals? Why do they own real animals? What purpose do they serve? Why are they such “prestige” items? What is the intended message?
  • What is the empathy box? How do people interact with it? Is it real? Who can, and cannot use the empathy box? Explain why some characters can utilize it, but others cannot. What’s the intended message?
  • What is the Voight-Kampf Test intended to measure? How does it work? What are its dangers? Is it reliable? Is it valid? What’s the intended message.
  • What are the characteristics of androids that separate them from humans? What do they want? Why do the humans seek to retire them? What moral questions do they present to us?
  • Synthesize these five technologies—what kind of conclusion should we draw from Androids and Dick? Where do the messages intersect? What, overall, is this novel about?

CHARACTERIZATION and MOTIVATION

  • List all of the characters in the novel (android and human). Rank them, from top-to-bottom, according to their humanity. Why did you rank them this way?
  • What is possible evidence of one being an android? What is irrefutable proof that one is a human? Which characters create doubt? Why do they make Dick’s characters question themselves? What questions do they present to us?
  • Who is Phil Resch, and why does Dick include him in the novel? Why does Deckard despise him?
  • Who stated, “Kill only the killers?” Who are the killers in Androids? What separates them from the prey? What message is Dick attempting to convey?
  • Why does Dick have Pris Stratton and Rachel Rosen be of a single model? What quandaries does this present? What does it show about Deckard that he can retire Pris, but not Rachel?
  • Are the androids human? Explain.
  • Why isn’t Deckard upset that the goat died?
  • If Roy Baty were human, who would he be? What would he do? What kind of role would he fulfill?

LITERARY TECHNIQUE and AUTHOR’S PURPOSE

  • What is “kipple,” and how does Dick use it to establish mood in Androids? What mood DOES it create? What’s the message?
  • What does the toad symbolize?
  • In what ways are the androids an allegory?
  • Why does Dick make Buster Friendly an android, and Mercer a drunken actor on a sound stage? Why does he cause Mercer to continue to manifest himself after he’s proven to be a fraud?

THOUGHT-PROVOKING QUESTONS

  • Are John Isidore and Mercer the same person?
  • Is J.R. Isidore’s spider the same that the androids dismembered?
  • Did Deckard’s experience at the Mission Street police headquarters really happen?
  • Is Deckard an android?