Though not nearly of complex a read as As I Lay Dying by Faulkner, Phillip K. Dick does try to create a little bit of his own version of stream-of-conciousness narration in a more relaxed way. This story is told in third person narration (limited omniscient) about the two main characters the reader is following around for the day, describing the goings on about Rick Deckard and John Isidore and their existence in two very different lives. Some of the sentences are choppy and resemble that of internal, individual thought, like one of the final sentences of chapter 9, “And, helplessly, waited for what came next. Whatever the androids had planned, now that they had physical possession of him.” (111). The narrative technique gives us a little unrestricted view into the day in the life of Rick Deckard.
Like we discussed in class, this is one of those novels you can easily immerse yourself into it deeply, without really working at beautiful language or tough characterization like some sentences of Giovanni’s Room or the tough characters in Invisible man but we can appreciate Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep for what it’s worth: a science fiction novel. However, one narrative effect that Phillip K. Dick uses is the creation of tone by the speech of the characters. The author writes the dialogue like that of two people actually having a conversation, making it both understandable for the reader even if the characters are not real. Yet, the characterization and the tone each character portrays (especially the two main characters) still pose bigger questions or concerns throughout the novel.
Even with the easy reading style and the use of some kind of a stream of conscious narration, the author leaves a good reader with the feeling that this novel is trying to tell us something about ourselves, about human kind. Through all of the complicated technological jargon and the action packed scenes of human vs. android, we begin to wonder what it really means to be human. Even though the situation of an almost post-apocalyptic world and the undistinguishable androids walking around is far fetched, the reader should be able to draw similarities from the text and apply it to our present day global scale situation.
It really comes down to the small details throughout the text, and the narrative techniques, that create a novel that seems like an easy, every day read but truly comes down to the hard question of human-ness and our ability to live our lives daily without wondering about these things.
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