The Differences between Humans and Androids in Philip K. Dick's "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?"

Studienarbeit aus dem Jahr 2014 im Fachbereich Didaktik für das Fach Englisch - Literatur, Werke, Note: 2,0, Universität Trier, Sprache: Deutsch, Abstract: The characters in Philip K. Dick s novel "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" are either humans or androids, these androids are inferior to human beings and among the humans there are bounty hunters whose task it is to kill the androids. The androids intend to be like human beings by the way the live and by behaving like humans. It is interesting to examine what distinguishes the androids in the novel from human beings and if these distinctions are clear or if there are some contradictions or problems when it comes to distinguishing between androids and humans.

First of all, this paper will investigate the differences between androids and human beings according to Dick s novel in general and then it will focus on empathy which plays an important role in the story. It will be dealt with general definitions of empathy and the question if empathy is really a distinguishing factor or if androids are also able to feel empathy to a certain extent. Furthermore, the paper will concentrate on the role of animals for human beings in general and on the role animals play for the human beings in the novel.