Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep

Do Androids
Dream of Electric
Sheep?
Study Guide by Course Hero
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? is written in past tense.

What's Inside
ABOUT THE TITLE
The main character of Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? is
j Book Basics ................................................................................................. 1 human Rick Deckard, who has an artificial sheep but wishes he
had a real one. The title asks the reader to consider whether
d In Context ..................................................................................................... 1 androids (robots in human form), too, wish to see themselves
reflected in the world around them. The original setting of the
a Author Biography ..................................................................................... 3
novel was 1992, but recently published versions have updated
h Characters .................................................................................................. 4 that date to 2021. The novel was loosely adapted in 1982 as
the film Blade Runner.
k Plot Summary ............................................................................................. 8
c Chapter Summaries .............................................................................. 15
g Quotes ........................................................................................................ 29 d In Context

l Symbols ..................................................................................................... 32 In Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? Philip K. Dick blends
his lifelong interest in the nature of reality with influences from
m Themes ...................................................................................................... 33
the political sphere.
e Suggested Reading ............................................................................. 34
World War II
j Book Basics Philip K. Dick had researched Nazi Germany for his 1962
alternate history novel, The Man in the High Castle. The Nazi
Party (a shortened form of the name National Socialist German
AUTHOR
Workers' Party) came to power in Germany in 1933 under the
Philip K. Dick
leadership of Chancellor Adolf Hitler. Hitler remained in control
YEAR PUBLISHED until his death in 1945. During Hitler's totalitarian regime, the
1968 Nazi Party murdered millions of "undesirables" who included
Jews, gay people, and nomadic Roma or gypsies. Dick had
GENRE read accounts of Nazis who served in the concentration camps
Science Fiction where the party's targets were confined and killed en masse,
and who complained that crying children were keeping them
PERSPECTIVE AND NARRATOR
awake at night. Their lack of empathy struck Dick on a
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? is written from a third-
profound level: these men seemed no longer human.
person limited omniscient point of view, focusing on the
experiences of Rick Deckard and John Isidore.
TENSE
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? Study Guide In Context 2
The Cold War Science Fiction

Dick was 16 when American forces dropped atomic bombs on Early science fiction novels such as H.G. Wells's The Time
two cities in Japan—Hiroshima and Nagasaki—on August 6 and Machine (1895) usually began in the known world and
9, 1945. While the mass destruction caused by these bombs introduced a new or alien reality. However, by the time Dick
brought an end to World War II, it also opened the possibility of was writing, science fiction was a much more mature genre
world war with nuclear weapons. The Soviet Union tested its with an established market made up of loyal and sophisticated
first atomic bomb four years later in 1949, making the nuclear readers. In contrast to the standards of early science fiction,
arms race an integral part of the "Cold War." The nonviolent Dick launches into his future reality immediately, creating a fast
Cold War was a state of political hostility and threats waged pace and changing reality in multiple ways. This style allows
between the Soviet Union and the United States after World Dick to set the novel in a postapocalyptic world with
War II. Its height was 1948–53, but tensions between the interstellar travel, lifelike androids, and a bounty hunter with a
factions remained into the 1960s. laser pistol.
Philip K. Dick published his first story in 1952, and his writing Dick's brand of science fiction often incorporated two themes.
career paralleled the Cold War's nuclear arms race between First, he used fiction to work out his complicated views on the
the Soviet Union and the United States. Throughout the 1950s nature of reality, humanity, and knowledge. Second, his fiction
and 1960s, many science fiction writers wrote works set during commented on the world around him, often in profound ways.
a nuclear war or in the aftermath of one. Do Androids Dream of Renowned Polish science fiction author Stanislaw Lem called
Electric Sheep? is one of these, and readers can see it as part Dick "a visionary among the charlatans." Although Lem didn't
of a larger cultural anxiety over nuclear war. In the novel, excuse Dick's pulp style of quickly written, sensational prose,
nuclear war is the reason so many species in the novel are he did see profound philosophical importance in his work and
extinct and the world is so depopulated: World War Terminus drew parallels between Dick and Franz Kafka (1883–1924), a
killed many people and gave others the incentive to migrate to German-language novelist and short story writer of visionary
other planets. fiction.
The Vietnam War Robotics and Cybernetics

When Dick wrote this novel, the United States was fighting the Robots and robotics—the technology of constructing and
Vietnam War (1954–75). North Vietnam's communist operating robots—have been a key element of science fiction
government and its allies fought South Vietnam's government, for decades. Philip K. Dick was aware of this tradition, and his
which was aligned with Western politics and backed by the writing was partially a response to it. The tradition includes
United States and other countries. Coverage of the stories about love affairs between humans and robots or
controversial war and its high number of casualties dominated androids, such as Lester del Rey's well-known 1938 short
the news and tarnished America's self-image as a wholesome, story, "Helen O'Loy," in which a female robot falls in love with
ethical nation. Dick claimed that American action in the her creator. By the time Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
Vietnam War left him wondering about the differences was published, many works had speculated on robot
between good and evil, and the ability to distinguish between psychology, human–robot relations, and on whether robots
the two. In the novel, the character Rick Deckard embodies could—or should—be considered human. Isaac Asimov, for
this concern. His job involves distinguishing who is human and example, had published nine short stories during the 1940s
who isn't and terminating those who aren't. that were collected in one volume in 1950 as I, Robot. Asimov's
"Three Laws of Robotics" helped shape other science fiction
that featured robots. The three laws are as follows:
1. A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction,

allow a human being to come to harm.
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Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? Study Guide Author Biography 3
2. A robot must obey orders given it by human beings except the idea that reality is illusory or can't be fully known.
where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
3. A robot must protect its own existence as long as such
protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law. Career
Dick drew on a wider array of influences in addressing the
In 1952 Dick published his first short story, "Beyond Lies the
possibilities and implications of cybernetics, the science that
Wub," which marked the beginning of an extremely productive
compares human automatic control systems (such as the
career. He often wrote a story every two weeks. Dick
nervous system and brain) to those in machines. Readers can
published his first novel, Solar Lottery, in 1955, and followed it
see this in his 1972 lecture, The Android and The Human. In the
with a string of stories, collections, and other novels. He
lecture Dick discusses writings by thinkers such as Benedict
finished 36 novels and more than 100 short stories, along with
de Spinoza (1632–77), a Dutch-Jewish philosopher who
five collections, between 1952 and his death in 1982.
believed God existed within nature; and Norbert Wiener
(1894–1964), the American mathematician who invented the Dick published almost all his work in science fiction magazines.
term cybernetics,a scientific field concerned with the These magazines paid poorly, so the author had to write fast to
regulatory systems and communications of machines and living make a living. As a result, some of his work was sloppy, and
things. He argues that as technology advances, the human and despite the number of works he published, Dick remained poor
the machine will become more like one another. Machines will through much of his life. However, some of Dick's works were
become more human, and humans more machine-like. This highly influential and earned the author great praise. His 1962
concept is at the heart of the conflict in Do Androids Dream of novel, The Man in the High Castle, won the Nebula Award
Electric Sheep? (given by science fiction writers) in 1963. Other novels won the
John W. Campbell Award in 1975 (Flow My Tears, the
Policeman Said), the British Science Fiction Award in 1978 (A
a Author Biography Scanner Darkly), and major awards for science fiction in France
and Germany. The Science Fiction Encyclopedia ranks Dick as
one of the most important science fiction writers of the 20th
century. The Philip K. Dick Award is a juried award given
Early Life annually to the best original work of science fiction in
paperback form.
Philip K. Dick and his twin sister, Jane, were born in Chicago,
Illinois, on December 16, 1928. Jane died around six weeks Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (1968) was nominated
later. Dick felt his twin's absence throughout his life, feeling as for a Nebula Award and drew praise and attention. In 1998 the
if her spirit accompanied him everywhere. He repeatedly wrote science fiction news magazine Locus organized a poll of the
about characters who had an inexplicable twin or a phantom 100 greatest science fiction novels, and the book ranked 51st.
twin. Dick's family moved to San Francisco when he was quite However, given the high profile of some of Dick's other works
young. His father, Joseph, worked for the Department of and his productivity, this novel was not considered a milestone
Agriculture and was transferred to Reno when Dick was five. in Dick's career until director Ridley Scott used it as inspiration
His mother, Dorothy, refused to go, and the couple divorced. for his 1982 movie, Blade Runner.
Both wanted custody of their son, but the court awarded it to
Dick's mother. She moved with Philip to Washington, DC, for
work and then moved back to California in 1938. Film Adaptations
From that point on, Dick grew up in California. He graduated
The movie Blade Runner kept true to the character Rick
from Berkeley High School in 1947 and, after working briefly in
Deckard's job as a bounty hunter and his mission of identifying
radio, attended the University of California at Berkeley for one
and decommissioning rogue androids. However, it radically
year. While at UC Berkeley, Dick read widely in philosophy. He
simplified many of Dick's themes to make the story accessible
was fond of Plato, and early in his adult life, he began to
to a wider audience. Blade Runner won the Hugo Award and
develop a view that would appear in his fiction in various ways:

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? Study Guide Characters 4
the London Critics Circle Film Award, both in 1983. Following

this initial success, Dick's works inspired a series of movie Illness and Death
adaptations, including Total Recall, Minority Report, The
Adjustment Bureau, and the sequel to Blade Runner, titled Dick's mental health issues came to a head in 1974. In February
Blade Runner 2049. of that year, Dick was at home after dental surgery. A woman
came to his home to deliver pain medication, and Dick's reality
ruptured. He had a series of visions that he claimed revealed
Changing Realities the underlying truth of the universe to him. These visions,
which can be understood either as part of a psychotic break or
as divine inspiration, continued for months, distorting his
Many of Dick's works explore multilayered and changing
relationship with reality. He saw figures from history
realities. Characters often wrestle with questions of what is
(specifically Rome) and intuited what he saw as hidden truths.
real, or deal with shifting realities without being given an
When the visions stopped, Dick tried to kill himself. He later
explanation as to why reality changes as it does. Dick uses
recorded his vision of this experience in his 1981 novel Valis
different approaches to address this theme. For example, in
and in a journal of 8,000 pages. Dick died in poverty at age 53
the short story "We Can Remember It For You Wholesale"
on March 2, 1982, after suffering a series of strokes and not
(1966), human characters have artificial memories implanted.
long after Valis was published.
The Man in the High Castle is an alternative history novel in
which Germany has won World War II. Flow My Tears, the
Policeman Said (1974) includes drugs that don't just change
perceptions of reality: they change reality itself. In Valis (1981), h Characters
the lead character receives visions from another entity that
reveal the true nature of reality.
Rick Deckard
Factors That Shaped Dick's Deckard is the novel's main character. The book revolves
around one extended case in which he hunts down six
Life especially advanced androids. He is an everyman figure. Late in
the book another character, John Isidore, describes Deckard
Beyond his work, Philip K. Dick lived a complicated life. He
as a forgettable bureaucrat. Despite this description, Deckard
married five times and had three children. Dick himself wrote
is very much the hard-boiled detective of film noir. He works
and spoke about his unhealthy attraction toward a certain type
alone in an ethically complex situation. He continually risks his
of woman he called the "dark-haired girl." Two other factors
life but no longer believes in his cause. He is married but
shaped much of Dick's life: his drug use and his mental health.
cheats on his wife with the wrong woman (Rachael Rosen). He
These influences intersected with one another, and all appear
succeeds at the almost impossible task of killing six advanced
in his fiction. Dick used drugs extensively and indiscriminately
androids in a single day but gets nowhere. At the end of the
for decades. There are reports of his using LSD, marijuana,
day, he is right back where he started, and all the bounty
mescaline, and PCP. He most often used methamphetamines
money he earned is gone.
to enhance his productivity. Some sources say he took as
many as 1,000 amphetamine pills a week. His extensive drug
use did not help his mental health issues, which were varied
and longstanding. Dick blamed his mother for his sister's death;
Rachael Rosen
his mother kept a tombstone with Dick's name carved on it
Rachael Rosen is the same kind of android Deckard is
while he was growing up, which colored his worldview. He
assigned to track down. She is also the physical template for
suffered from eating disorders that he traced to his sister's
one of the female androids, so she and Pris Stratton are
early untimely death. He was also agoraphobic—fearing the
physically interchangeable. Rosen is an example of the "femme
outdoors and public places.
fatale" common to detective fiction. The hero finds this sort of

woman extremely attractive, but she betrays him. In this case, people experience sharing with him were created on a movie
Rosen betrays Deckard when they sleep together: he assumes set, and a minor actor named Al Jarry played Mercer. Despite
their connection is genuine, while for her it is tactical. She this revelation, Mercer appears to both Isidore and Deckard
sleeps with Deckard so he won't be able to hunt androids late in the novel.
anymore. Rosen is also an example of the "dark-haired girl"
Dick found attractive, a physical type who shows up in a few of
his other fictional works.
John Isidore
John Isidore exemplifies a lot of what is wrong with human
society and the world after the nuclear war. Radiation has
damaged his genes, so he can't leave for another planet. He is
also mentally limited, so he is considered "special." He can only
work at manual labor (driving a truck). Despite his limitations,
Isidore is compassionate and empathetic. When he hears
another person in his empty apartment building, he
immediately goes to see who it is. He makes overtures, and
tries to make friends. Later, he shelters the androids even
when he learns they are androids—and even when he realizes
they are taking advantage of him.
Iran Deckard
Early in the novel, Iran is characterized shallowly, but vividly.
She is clearly unhappy with Deckard's job and their life
together. She uses their "mood organ" to shape her emotional
responses to the world, and often to punish both Deckard and
herself. She is almost a genre cliché, not from science fiction
but from pulp or detective fiction: the shrill wife the hero
escapes by going to work. However, Iran deepens as the novel
progresses. She becomes much more compassionate toward
her husband and actively takes care of him in the book's final
pages.
Wilbur Mercer
Wilbur Mercer, the main figure in Mercerism, is a complex and
contradictory character. Throughout the novel he suffers in a
Christ-like fashion. People persecute him, throwing stones
much like they did to Christ before his crucifixion. Around the
world people use their "empathy boxes" to fuse with Mercer
and share his suffering. However, late in the novel it is revealed
that Mercerism was a fabricated movement. The visions

Character Map
John Isidore
Limited human
Acquaintances
Rachael Rosen Betrayer Rick Deckard Iran Deckard

Manipulative android Bounty hunter Spouses Conflicted woman
Temporarily becomes
Wilbur Mercer
Central religious figure
Main Character
Other Major Character
Minor Character

Full Character List Miss French

Miss French is an office worker at
the fake Hall of Justice.
Character Description Buster Friendly is an extremely

popular media figure and android
Buster Friendly
who exposes Wilbur Mercer as a
Rick Deckard is a human bounty
fake.
Rick Deckard hunter who makes his living hunting
rogue androids.
Garland is a plainclothes policeman
Garland at the fake Hall of Justice where
Rachael Rosen is an android who
Rachael Rosen Deckard is taken.
becomes Deckard's lover.
The Happy Dog Pet Shop salesman

John Isidore is a mentally limited Happy Dog Pet
works at the store selling an ostrich
John Isidore human who protects the rogue Shop salesman
Deckard wants.
androids.
Dave Holden had been the top

Iran Deckard Iran Deckard is Rick Deckard's wife.
Dave Holden bounty hunter in Deckard's office
until androids injured him.
Wilbur Mercer is the main figure in
Wilbur Mercer
the Mercerism religion or movement.
Mrs. Maggie Klugman is an
Mrs. Maggie immigrant to Mars who calls in to a
Mr. Ackers is the personnel manager Klugman TV show Isidore has on while he is
Mr. Ackers at Bay Area Scavengers Company, preparing for work.
where Polokov works.
Luba Luft is a rogue android posing
Luba Luft
The TV announcer appears on a as an opera singer.
Announcer program Isidore is watching while he
is preparing for work.
Ann Marsten Ann Marsten is Deckard's secretary.
Bill Barbour is Deckard's neighbor

Bill Barbour Mrs. Pilsen owned the cat Isidore
who owns a horse. Mrs. Pilsen
found.
Irmgard Baty is one of the rogue

An unnamed police sergeant works
Irmgard Baty Nexus-6 androids and is married to Police sergeant
at the fake Hall of Justice.
Roy Baty.
Max Polokov is a rogue android who

Roy Baty is the leader of the rogue
Polokov pretends to be Soviet cop Sandor
Roy Baty Nexus-6 androids and is married to Kadalyi.
Irmgard Baty.
Phil Resch is a bounty hunter at the

Milt Borogrove is Isidore's coworker Phil Resch
Milt Borogrove fake Hall of Justice.
at the Van Ness Pet Hospital.
An executive at the Rosen

Harry Bryant is a police inspector Eldon Rosen Association, Eldon Rosen claims to
Harry Bryant
and Deckard's boss. be Rachael Rosen's uncle.
Officer Crams is a police officer who Hannibal Sloat is Isidore's elderly

Officer Crams takes Deckard in when Luft calls Hannibal Sloat
boss at the Van Ness Pet Hospital.
him.

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? Study Guide Plot Summary 8
Stagehand
A stagehand at the opera house
speaks to Deckard briefly when
Dawn of a New Case
Deckard is chasing Luft.
When Deckard gets to work, his boss informs him about a
challenging new case. Six rogue androids are loose. They
Rachael Rosen is the physical
template for one of the female managed to injure the senior bounty hunter in the office.
Pris Stratton
androids, so she and Pris Stratton Deckard's boss worries they may be too hard for Deckard to
are physically interchangeable.
detect because they are more advanced than other androids
he has destroyed. He sends Deckard to visit the Rosen
The switchboard operator is a Association—the company that built the androids—so he can
Switchboard
woman who works at Bay Area
operator test what they use to identify androids and make sure it works.
Scavengers Company.
When Deckard flies to Seattle to visit the company, a young

Amanda Werner is one of several
woman, Rachael Rosen, meets him. Her uncle asks Deckard to
Amanda Werner attractive sidekicks on Buster
Friendly's show. test Rachael. When Deckard does, he concludes she is an
android. Rachael's uncle says she was raised on a spaceship,
and this accounts for her odd answers. This seems to render
Deckard's test useless; then he realizes Rachael is acting
k Plot Summary oddly. He asks her one more question, and confirms she is an
android—specifically, a Nexus-6, like the rogue androids.
Back in the apartment building, Isidore introduces himself to

Morning the other person living in his building, a young woman named
Pris Stratton. After introducing himself, Isidore goes to work.
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? takes place over the He picks up what he thinks is a malfunctioning artificial cat, but
course of one very long day: January 3, 2021. (The year was the cat stops working as he drives to the office. Isidore's boss
1992 in earlier editions of the novel.) The book is set after recognizes the cat was real and makes him call the cat's owner
World War Terminus. Most of humanity has either been killed as punishment for not realizing this.
or migrated to other planets, and animals are scarce because
of the war. Deckard returns to San Francisco. His boss tells him which
android to go after first, and that a Soviet cop will be joining
The novel opens when bounty hunter Rick Deckard wakes up him in the hunt. Deckard is studying the background
on January 3. Deckard and his wife, Iran, argue about the information on the androids when Rachael Rosen calls. She
"mood organ" that wakes them and about his job as a bounty offers to help him catch the androids, saying they are too tricky
hunter. As Deckard leaves to go to work, he talks with his for him.
neighbor and admires the man's horse. Deckard only owns an
artificial sheep. The Soviet cop gets out of a hovercar taxi and joins him. He
seems friendly until Deckard suddenly realizes this supposed
That same morning, John Isidore gets ready for work in cop is the rogue android he was looking for. The android tries
another apartment building. Isidore has limited intelligence and to kill him, but Deckard kills him instead.
has suffered genetic damage from radiation. Before he goes to
work, he uses his "empathy box" to share a vision with others. Deckard next goes after Luba Luft, an android pretending to
He then realizes he hears someone else in the building, when be a human opera singer. Deckard goes to the opera house
he thought he was the only one living there. and watches a rehearsal before going to Luft's dressing room.
He tries to test her humanity using his standardized test, but
Luft confuses him, then draws a laser on him. She calls the
police on Deckard.
The cop arrives but doesn't know Deckard or his boss. He

takes Deckard to a police station, but not the one Deckard

knows. When Deckard asks about this, the cop says that was Night
the old station, and they are going to the new one. Once there,
the cop checks him in and turns Deckard over to an officer. Deckard leaves to go after them but pauses to call Rachael
The officer recognizes he is on Deckard's list of suspected Rosen to ask for her help. When she refuses, he asks if she will
androids. The officer calls a bounty hunter to help them sort come down and spend the night with him. She agrees and they
through the situation. Deckard and the other bounty hunter check into a hotel room. They talk about the remaining
decide they'll have to run their respective screening tests on androids, and Rachael shares the fact that she and Pris are the
one another to determine who is human. same model. They talk about the nature of androids and their
conflicting agendas, then Rachael gives Deckard a weapon he
When the bounty hunter leaves to get the gear for the test, the can use against the androids. Then they sleep together.
officer pulls a laser on Deckard. When the bounty hunter
returns, the officer points at him, and the bounty hunter shoots After Deckard and Rachael have sex, they eat and talk, then fly
him in return. They leave handcuffed together, so Deckard can away to pursue the androids. Deckard tells Rachael he would
get out of a building the bounty hunter claims is full of marry her if he could. She says he won't be able to kill the
androids. androids now that they've had sex, because none of the other
nine bounty hunters she has slept with have been able to.
Working together, the pair track Luft to a local museum. When Deckard is stunned to learn that he is just one of many, but
they capture her, she accuses the other bounty hunter of being insists he will be able to kill the androids—and will kill her. He
an android. The bounty hunter kills her, and the two men leave pulls a weapon on her, but doesn't kill her.
the museum. Deckard tests the bounty hunter and finds him
human. Deckard then has the other man test him and finds Isidore moves the rest of Pris's belongings into his apartment.
that, while he, too, is human, Deckard now empathizes with As he is doing so, he finds a spider. When he shows it to the
female androids. androids, they begin to torture it, cutting off its legs to see if it
will still be able to walk. While they're doing this, the "Buster
Friendly" show comes on. The show exposes the
Evening religion/movement of Mercerism as fake.
Troubled, Isidore has a vision that seems to disrupt the entire

After his day at work, Isidore flies home with expensive apartment. He then uses the empathy box and has a vision of
groceries to share with Pris. She lets him in and tells him Mercer. Isidore asks Mercer if the claims are true. Mercer says
stories about who she is. Some are real and some aren't. Two they are, and when he returns the spider to Isidore, its legs are
more rogue androids show up at her door. They come in and miraculously healed. An alarm sounds: there is a bounty hunter
explain to Pris what has happened since they last saw one outside.
another. Roy, the male android, sets an alarm so they'll know if
a bounty hunter finds them. Pris stays with Isidore, and the Isidore opens the door. No one is there. He walks down to the
androids accept Isidore's offer to help. building's dead garden and releases the spider. Deckard
approaches him, asking for help in retiring the androids. Isidore
On his way home from work, Deckard stops by a pet store refuses. Deckard goes to destroy them himself and sees a
where he spends all the money he has made on the day's vision of Mercer, who tells him where they are hiding and which
bounties as a down payment on a goat. He takes the goat ones will be hardest to destroy.
home. His wife admires it but is worried about the cost,
especially when Deckard shares the fact that he wants to quit Pris comes down the steps. At first Deckard thinks it is
his job as bounty hunter. Deckard's boss calls to tell him they Rachael because they are the same model; then he recognizes
know where the remaining androids are hiding and talks him it is Pris. He kills her, then goes to Isidore's apartment. He fools
into going after them that night. the androids into thinking he is Isidore, and they open the door.
Roy fires on Deckard. Deckard returns fire, killing Irmgard and
then Roy.

Deckard calls his boss to tell him he got all the androids, then
goes home. When he gets there, his wife tells him someone
killed their goat. From her description, Deckard realizes it is
Rachael. He flies off into the uninhabited north.
A Trip Before Bed

In the wastelands of Oregon, Deckard walks up a hill and is hit
by a stone. He sees an obscure figure, and realizes he is in a
vision of Mercerism. He hurries back to his car, and calls his
office. His secretary tries to coax him back to civilization, or at
least to call his wife. Deckard starts to call his wife, then stops
when he notices a toad. He carefully puts the toad into a box,
excited because toads are supposed to be extinct.
Deckard flies home and shows his wife. As she admires the
toad, she realizes it is artificial. Deckard's spirits drop, and he
goes to bed. Once he is asleep, his wife calls the artificial pet
store and orders electric flies to go with the toad.

Plot Diagram
Climax
11
10
12
9
Falling Action
Rising Action 8
13
7
6 14
5
15
4
Resolution
3
2
1
Introduction
9. Deckard buys a goat.

Introduction
10. Rachael Rosen sleeps with Deckard so he won't kill
androids.
1. Deckard gets a new case, tracking six rogue androids.
Climax
Rising Action
11. Deckard kills the remaining three androids.
2. Someone new moves into Isidore's building.
3. Deckard visits the Rosen Association.
4. Deckard discovers Rachael Rosen is an android. Falling Action
5. Deckard kills Polokov, a rogue android. 12. Rachael kills Deckard's goat.
6. Fake cops arrest Deckard when he tries to test Luba Luft. 13. Deckard goes off into the wasteland.
7. Fellow bounty hunter Phil Resch helps Deckard escape. 14. Deckard fuses with Mercer and finds a toad.
8. Deckard and Resch track Luft, and Resch kills her.

Resolution
15. Iran reveals that the toad is a fake; Deckard goes to sleep.

Timeline of Events
January 3, 2021
Deckard wakes up and squabbles with his wife.
Later the same day
Deckard gets a new case, tracking six rogue androids.
Later the same day
Deckard visits the Rosen Association to get help

tracking the androids.
A few minutes later
Deckard reveals Rachael Rosen is an android.
That same day
Isidore meets the new person in his building.
Later the same day
Deckard kills the android Polokov.
Later the same day
Luba Luft calls fake police on Deckard.
Later the same day
Resch the bounty hunter kills fake Inspector Garland.
Later the same day
Resch kills Luba Luft.
Later the same day
Isidore befriends Pris and the other androids join them.
Later the same day
Deckard buys a goat.
Later that night
Deckard sleeps with Rachael Rosen.

Later that night
Buster Friendly reveals that Mercerism is fake.
Later that night
Deckard kills the remaining three androids.
Later that night
Rachael kills Deckard's goat.
Early the next morning
Deckard flies into the wasteland.
That same morning
Deckard fuses with Mercer and finds a toad.
Later that morning
Deckard takes the toad home and learns it is artificial.
Later that morning
Deckard goes to sleep and his wife watches over him.

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? Study Guide Chapter Summaries 15
works, but people can use it to select a very wide range of

c Chapter Summaries intense emotional states, some of which last for hours. How
can people think clearly when under the influence of machinery
that makes them feel specific things? And how can people
Chapter 1 ever experience an authentic emotion when they can so easily

change moods?
This first chapter also introduces another theme group:

Summary isolation, connection, and empathy. While people today care
about animals, people in the postnuclear war landscape of this
Rick Deckard wakes up on January 3, 2021 (in earlier editions novel need them. Having an animal is important on an
of the novel it's 1992), when his mood organ goes off and fills emotional level. It is also part of the novel's new religion,
him with artificial emotions. His wife, Iran Deckard, also wakes. Mercerism: empathizing with an animal has spiritual
They argue about the settings on her mood organ. This dispute implications. Animals are so important that those who don't
slides into a larger argument about Deckard's job. Deckard is a have them, like Rick Deckard, tend artificial animals. They even
bounty hunter who hunts down rogue androids (artificial care about them, but they know they aren't real. In this way,
humans). Iran accuses him of being a murderer. They then shift Dick's theme of how important empathy is for humanity gets
back to the original fight over settings on the mood organ. Iran interwoven with the themes of reality and humanity. The fact
finally gives in and tells Deckard to program moods for the that Deckard's neighbor can't tell Deckard's sheep is fake also
both of them. foreshadows the main plot issue in the novel: Deckard won't be
able to tell the rogue androids from humans.
Deckard eats breakfast, puts on an "Ajax model Mountibank
Lead Codpiece" (a device to protect the reproductive organs
from radiation exposure), and goes to the roof to look at his Deckard's preparations for the day also show the role
artificial sheep. His neighbor, Bill Barbour, comes up to see his capitalism plays in this postnuclear society. Deckard's world is
pet horse and informs Deckard the horse is pregnant. Deckard so damaged that radiation is a continual threat. However, he
asks about buying the foal, but Barbour isn't interested. not only takes this threat in stride, he wears a lead codpiece.
Deckard argues that for Barbour to own two horses when This is Dick commenting on capitalism: it will find a way to
Deckard has none is immoral and violates the principles of profit from even a nuclear holocaust, and will carve new market
Mercerism. Barbour disagrees, saying Deckard has an animal niches.
and can achieve "true fusion with Mercer." Deckard admits his
sheep is a fake (he used to have a real one, but it died).
Barbour promises he won't tell anyone. They squabble a bit, Chapter 2
and Deckard leaves for work.
Summary
Analysis
John Isidore is getting ready for work. He is the only person
Philip K. Dick introduces the central questions of this
living in his apartment building. He listens to the television while
novel—What is real? What does it mean to be human?—in the
he shaves, and thinks about the current state of affairs.
book's opening scenes. What is striking about this novel (and
much of Dick's work) is how easily the author introduces these Before he leaves for work, Isidore uses his "empathy box." He
complex themes. On one hand, the scene is completely normal: holds the handles and experiences a kind of technological
a couple wake up and squabble over his job. However, on the vision: a virtual reality that comes with physical sensation and
other hand, his job involves making complex ethical and emotional connection. He uses it to share the suffering of
emotional judgments over whether other people are real or not. spiritual leader Wilbur Mercer. After he uses the box, Isidore
They also have this argument while under the influence of their hears a television playing somewhere in his building and
mood organ. Dick never explains just how the mood organ realizes he is not alone in his apartment building.

quality, but the reader must wonder, if only briefly, where the
Analysis desire for freedom puts androids on the human–robot scale.
This second chapter introduces a second plot line, which will

develop in parallel to Rick Deckard's main plot of hunting
androids. It also further develops the setting, and fleshes out
Chapter 3
the nature of this world, which is very dark, indeed. The war
killed so much of the population that people like John Isidore
live alone. He is the only person in his entire building. In Summary
passing, it also sketches the political implications of the war.
Society classifies people according to their genetic condition Rick Deckard stops briefly at a pet store on his way to work at
and how intelligent they are. This is another way in which Philip the Hall of Justice. Deckard's boss, Harry Bryant, tells him the
K. Dick develops the theme of humanity. Isidore is considered office's top bounty hunter Dave Holden was shot. Deckard
"a special" and "a chickenhead." He is a special because his chats briefly with his secretary, Ann Marsten, who says it must
genes were damaged by radiation from World War Terminus, have been an advanced android with a "Nexus-6 brain unit."
and he is a chickenhead because he failed to score high Deckard reviews the information on that model brain before
enough on an IQ test. Isidore is good-hearted and functional meeting with Bryant. He thinks about the relationships
but not overly bright. Legally and socially, he isn't considered between androids (or "andys") and humans, and why empathy
fully human. distinguishes the two. This makes him think about the empathic
principles of Mercerism, and about animals. This also prompts
This chapter also introduces the empathy box. Dick doesn't Deckard to call the Happy Dog Pet Shop salesman and ask
explain how this machine works, either, but as the mood organ how much the ostrich he had admired costs: $30,000. When
changes individual moods, the empathy box changes people's the salesman asks for Deckard's name, Deckard replies, "Frank
collective experience. When people grab the box's handles, Merriwell." Deckard then calls the store where he bought his
they experience an empathic fusion with other people using imitation sheep and asks how much an imitation ostrich would
the box, and share a vision of Wilbur Mercer and his suffering. cost. The salesman says, "less than eight hundred dollars."
This vision is so real that when someone in the vision throws a
rock that hits Mercer, Isidore bleeds. This goes beyond
traditional empathy. Somehow, through this technological Analysis
interface, the people using the empathy box now share a
reality. They feel what others feel, and their bodies share a This chapter largely develops the novel's central plot, and
reality. especially Rick Deckard's situation and motivation. Before this
time, Dave Holden had been the main bounty hunter in the
Finally, this chapter sketches the biological and political office. Therefore, while the day's duties are familiar to Deckard
situation in which the novel occurs. Space colonization started in a general sense—he is an experienced bounty hunter—the
before the war, but it really took off after the war. Androids day is also new, because he is stepping into another hunter's
were one of the main reasons. Any human who immigrated to a shoes. This increases the level of risk and tension, because the
new world was given his or her own android servant. The novel androids already beat Holden, who was supposed to be better
doesn't dwell on this much, but it has several implications: It than Deckard.
means humanity is exporting a kind of slavery to the stars. It
means every human living on another planet is a kind of In this chapter, Philip K. Dick makes a key element in the book
aristocrat, with a personal servant—and that half the explicit: empathy is what distinguishes humans from androids.
population on alien planets is artificial. Finally, it means the Humans experience empathy; androids do not. However, as is
androids that go rogue aren't just breaking rules. They are common in the novel (and his work), Dick immediately
more like escaped slaves, which makes the novel's bounty complicates this seemingly clean distinction. Humans feel
hunter hero something like a slave catcher. Their desire to be empathy, but they have only limited access to the animals that
free has consequences: they must kill human beings to escape. are central to their empathic experience. Capitalism also
Dick portrays that lack of empathy as an essentially inhuman complicates their ability to practice empathy. Deckard cannot

have the ostrich he wants because he doesn't have the money. Voigt-Kampff test on androids. The Rosens, however, ask
There is also more than a little economic competition in this Deckard to give Rachael the test first. Eldon tells Deckard that
book: Deckard compares himself to his neighbor, who has a Rachael may be an android.
horse, and places himself on a spectrum of real pet owners
(rich) and owners of fake pets (poor).
Analysis
Dick sketches some of the principles of Mercerism in this
chapter. An empathic religion, Mercerism is quite complex. It This chapter advances and complicates the plot. It provides
has a central ethical tenet: people can only kill killers. However, details on how Rick Deckard judges who is a real human and
Mercerism never really defines the evil that threatens their who isn't. In doing so, this chapter further raises the stakes. It
leader. Instead, it is free-floating, and anyone can accuse also makes the process more mundane and bureaucratic.
anyone else of it. This creates an elevated level of paranoia. Deckard doesn't have a single technological tool (such as the
empathy box) that will reliably distinguish between human and
Dick drops humorous notes into his work at unexpected
android. Instead, the process takes time. It happens within an
moments. Readers can see one of those here when Deckard
institutional context—Deckard answers to his boss—and a
gives the fake name of Frank Merriwell. Merriwell was a
social/legal one. The test is fallible, and new reports show it is
popular fictional character who appeared in many novels at the
more fallible than they had believed.
end of the late 19th century and beginning of the 20th century.
Merriwell was a wholesome, all-American young man, active in In the second half of the chapter, Deckard flies to Seattle. This
sports and school. casual acceptance of advanced technology is part of the
science fiction tradition. There, Philip K. Dick further explores
the negative implications and contradictions of corporate
Chapter 4 capitalism. The Rosen Association makes its money
manufacturing artificial beings but appears to have some of the
rarest animals living in their building. They aren't in a position
Summary where people can actively care for them, but are displayed as
trophies. The company is also run by a family (or so Deckard
Harry Bryant briefs Rick Deckard on the new job. There were thinks), which suggests it may be corrupt (since Rachael
eight advanced androids, and Dave Holden killed two of them. Rosen would get her job due to family connections, rather than
Deckard is ready to hunt the remaining six, but Bryant worries merit).
the "Voigt-Kampff Altered Scale" isn't advanced enough to
distinguish humans from androids. He wants Deckard to visit
the Rosen Association—the company who makes the Chapter 5
androids—so he can test some androids with the same brain
units. Bryant also worries about reports from the Soviet police
indicating that the "Voigt-Kampff scale" may not be as Summary
accurate as they thought. New studies show some humans
with psychological conditions that produce a "flattening of Rick Deckard attaches a sensor to Rachael Rosen, and sets up
affect" may fail the test. Bryant points out if Deckard tests a a light to shine in her left eye. He asks her several emotionally
human and the person fails, he should then murder the human, charged questions. Rachael's answers display appropriate
rather than putting an android out of commission. emotions until the final question. Deckard concludes she is an
android. Her uncle says she isn't: the odd response comes
Deckard flies to Seattle to visit the Rosen Association. A young
from her having been raised aboard a spaceship, rather than
woman named Rachael Rosen meets him when he lands his
on Earth. The Rosens argue the test is flawed and deny him
hovercar. As she guides him into the building, they pass an owl
the chance to test Nexus-6 androids. They also filmed the test,
and a raccoon—rare living animals. Deckard asks about buying
so he can't deny it. They start the process of trying to bribe
the owl, but Rachael dismisses the idea. Once Rachael's uncle,
him with an owl. As they are negotiating the bribe, Rachael
Eldon Rosen, joins them, Deckard is ready to administer the

keeps calling the owl "it." Deckard realizes he was right the first
time: she is an android. He asks another question and confirms Chapter 6
it. Rachael hadn't known, though, and she is shocked. As
Deckard leaves, he realizes she is a Nexus-6, and therefore
realizes how hard they will be to detect. Summary
John Isidore goes downstairs to greet the new person in his
Analysis building. When he knocks on the door, the TV goes off. He
introduces himself through the door, and a girl opens. She
In 1950 Alan Turing, one of the creators of the computer, seems scared at first, but becomes less scared as they talk.
proposed something that has become known as the "Turing Isidore tries to be friendly. The girl tells him to come back when
Test." It is a way of determining if a computer or intelligent she is more settled. He looks at the rotting furniture and
machine can actually think. In this test, someone asks a human apartment and suggests they can find better furniture for her.
and a machine the same questions, comparing the answers. He also explains Mercerism and "kipple" to her. When he
This test has become part of popular culture. In this chapter, repeats his name, she introduces herself as Rachael Rosen.
Philip K. Dick proposes an alternative. He assumes computers When he recognizes the name as part of the Rosen
will be intelligent and will think as well as humans do. However, Association, she changes her name, saying it is Pris Stratton.
he proposes they won't be able to feel, and that is how one can She then shuts the door, leaving him alone in the hall.
distinguish between human and nonhuman intelligence.
In this chapter, Dick shows Rick Deckard acting on this Analysis

distinction between a human and an artificial person. He also
shows something very important for the novel and this debate: The two plot threads seem to have nothing to do with one
Deckard succeeds in identifying Rachael Rosen as an android another. Rick Deckard is a bounty hunter; JohnIsidore drives a
when the formal diagnostic test had failed. This is something truck. Deckard is considered fully human; Isidore is not; and so
people are better at than any formal mechanism, and Deckard on. However, the two plots run parallel in ways that don't
in particular. His ability to detect empathy, or its absence, in become fully clear until the end of the novel. Those parallels
others is part of what makes him a hero. start here. Both men encounter androids at roughly the same
point in the book. Both encounter female androids. When Pris
This chapter also establishes the theme of corporate
Stratton introduces herself as Rachael Rosen, she is also
corruption, because the Rosens intentionally set Deckard up,
pointing readers to a connection readers will discover late in
making sure his test would fail when testing Rachael, then
the book: she is based on Rachael Rosen. Pris knows she is
filming it so they can blackmail him. Even the bribe the
not original and that she is part of a line of manufactured
company offers is corrupt: they offer him an owl, which they
beings. It is part of what makes her bitter about her situation.
later admit is artificial.
Pris also seems like she is playing with her own fate in this
Finally, this chapter establishes a plot thread that turns out to
chapter. When she shifts names, she gives Isidore a clue that
be a red herring. Rachael claims not to know she was an
she isn't who she says she is. When she uses the name of the
android before this test. However, later in the book she talks
company that makes androids, she signals she isn't human.
about how she manipulated several bounty hunters by sleeping
Together, these seem almost like a death wish on Pris's part.
with them. This suggests a complicated mindset for the
Later, she will deride Isidore, indicating that perhaps she just
corporation and Rachael: they are lying about her lack of
doesn't respect his intelligence enough to bother hiding her
knowledge, and have set up layered false realities to confuse
identity from him.
Deckard. And they do succeed in confusing him. He identified
Rachael as an android but couldn't tell she was lying to him. Isidore's explanation of "kipple" explicitly introduces the theme
of entropy. Kipple is Philip K. Dick's term for the kind of casual
mess and trash everyone generates just by living. It is leftover
trash, a by-product of human technological civilization (and

capitalism). For all of Isidore's supposed mental limitations, control of the human soul. In this instance, it seems to be a
when he explains to Pris why it is impossible to fight kipple, he battle between shallow commercial entertainment (Buster
is essentially summing up the explanation of how local order Friendly) and profound religious truths (Wilbur Mercer).
cannot exist in the universe and why entropy will always win. However, as is often the case in Philip K. Dick's fiction, the
reality is more complicated. As Dick will reveal late in the novel,
this is also a battle between an android (Buster Friendly) and a
Chapter 7 myth constructed in part by special effects and acting
(Mercerism). This isn't just a battle for the human soul—as
important as that would be. This is a battle between two kinds
Summary of social systems (capitalism versus religion) and definitions of

reality.
As John Isidore hurries to get ready to work, he keeps thinking

On a smaller note, this chapter provides another parallel
about Pris Stratton, and what she does and doesn't know. He
between Rick Deckard and Isidore. Both get the chance to rise
observes that she doesn't know Buster Friendly, which leads
to new challenges at work, and both do well. Isidore proves he
him to think about the relative importance of Buster Friendly
can talk to customers in difficult situations, and Deckard
and Wilbur Mercer. Soon, Isidore is driving the company truck
outperforms the standard test in identifying androids.
and picking up broken animals, including a malfunctioning cat
he takes to the animal repair hospital. As he drives, Isidore
thinks about how realistic the cat is. He tries to recharge it but
can't find an outlet, so the cat dies. He drives on, listening to
Chapter 8
Buster Friendly on the radio, and thinking about how Buster
always seems to attack Mercer and Mercerism.
Summary
Once Isidore arrives at work, he brings the broken cat to his
boss, Hannibal Sloat, who realizes the cat was real, and Rick Deckard arrives at work. His boss briefs him on which
criticizes him for not realizing it. Milt Borogrove, the other android to go after first, and tells him a Soviet cop will be
worker, speaks up for Isidore, arguing that fake animals have joining him in the hunt. Deckard resists at first, because he is
gotten so good, they could fool almost anyone. Sloat is still used to working alone. He checks the android's place of
angry, and tells Isidore to call the cat's owners to let them employment and then his apartment building and finds them
know their cat died. Isidore doesn't want to, and stutters from abandoned. Deckard checks in with his boss who tells him the
nerves. However, once he is on the phone, he regains his Soviet cop is already in town. Deckard is studying the
confidence and takes control the situation. The company ends information on the next android when Rachael Rosen calls him
up offering to make an artificial cat to replace the dead one. and offers to join him on the hunt. He refuses. She insists,
saying the androids are too tricky for him to catch alone. After
he hangs up, the Soviet cop gets out of a hovercar taxi and
Analysis joins him. He is outgoing and friendly. When Deckard notices
his gun, the cop brings it out so Deckard can look at it.
This chapter offers an example of situational irony. John Deckard suddenly realizes this supposed cop, Sandor Kadalyi,
Isidore works for a company that repairs artificial animals. He is the rogue android, Max Polokov, that he was looking for.
knows just how good the imitations have become. However, When he mentions his suspicion, the android tries to shoot him.
when the cat is in pain, he continues to assume it is a fake, When the laser gun doesn't work—because of technology in
rather than realizing the cat is real. The cat dies in part Deckard's car suppressing it—the android tries to strangle him.
because Isidore doesn't realize it is real. Deckard shoots him with an old-fashioned pistol. He calls his
wife to let her know what he has done, and then begins hunting
Although he is supposedly mentally limited, in this chapter
for the female android Luba Luft.
Isidore shares an insight that is very profound and truer than
readers know, when he thinks of the two influences on
people—Buster Friendly and Wilbur Mercer—as fighting for

distracts Deckard and points a laser at him. She calls the

Analysis police and reports him as a pervert.
The parallels between John Isidore and Rick Deckard continue When the cop arrives, Deckard introduces himself as a bounty
here. Both men arrive at work. In the process, both must hunter, but the cop doesn't know him, saying he knows all the
assess the artificiality or realness of beings they encounter. local bounty hunters. Deckard suggests they call his boss,
For Isidore in the previous chapter, the cat is mistaken for an Inspector Harry Bryant. The cop says there is no such person.
android. For Deckard, the Soviet cop is mistaken for a human. Deckard calls Bryant, but when he hands the phone to the cop,
In both cases, the alleged false beings are terminated. This the cop says no one is there. The cop tries calling, and is told
effect drives home the fact that in this postwar society, being there is no bounty hunter named Deckard. He decides to take
able to tell real from artificial is literally a matter of life and Deckard to the Hall of Justice to sort everything out. The two
death. Interestingly, both men also find themselves making leave via the roof, giving the cop a chance to look over the
mistakes when they speak. Isidore stutters due to his nerves, body in Deckard's car. Once they get in the cop's car and take
while Deckard accidentally reverses the names of the two men, off, Deckard realizes they are heading away from the Hall of
accusing the android of being the Soviet cop, rather than the Justice. When he asks about it, the cop says that Deckard's
other way around. talking about the former Hall of Justice. It is abandoned, and
there is a new one. The cop takes Deckard to the new Hall of
This chapter also develops key differences between the two
Justice.
men. Isidore never realized the cat was fake until his boss told
him. Deckard spontaneously realizes the supposed cop was an
android based on subtle cues.
Analysis
Finally, this chapter continues to complicate the question of
what is real. Someone Deckard had thought was not just Any time people try to test someone's innate mental
human, but known to be human and there to help him, turns out capacities, such as intelligence, they face a challenge: how can
to be an android. Because this android was playing the role of they be sure the test reflects the person's actual ability and not
a cop, it indicates that society's official power structure is education or bias? During the period when Philip K. Dick wrote
compromised. This isn't a world where humans run things and this novel, cultural bias in testing was becoming part of popular
protect themselves from androids. This is a world where culture in America. That's what readers see here, with a great
humans don't know androids are working right beside them in deal at stake. Rick Deckard cannot get his test to work on
positions of power. Luba Luft, but he is unable to tell if it is because of language

difficulties, lack of cultural context, or because she is an
android. He simply can't tell. Even when she pulls a weapon on
Chapter 9 him, it might be because he is a strange man in her dressing

room, asking her strange questions. It is plausible that she
might be human and just think he is weird.
Summary When Luft calls the police, this further develops the idea that
the social power structure has been compromised, although
Since Luba Luft is pretending to be a human opera singer, Rick Deckard doesn't realize it yet. And at this point, the reader
Deckard goes to the opera house. When he arrives, they are doesn't know it, either. Just as it was possible that Luft was a
rehearsing Mozart's The Magic Flute. Deckard studies the cast, real person who didn't like Deckard's questions, it is possible
and identifies the android Luft. Once the rehearsal ends, he Deckard is out of the loop and doesn't realize a new Hall of
goes to Luft's dressing room, introduces himself, and says he Justice (police station) has been built.
is there to give her "a standard personality-profile test."
However, she confuses Deckard and the situation, first arguing There are some links between the opera Luft is
that he should take the test himself to show he isn't an android, rehearsing—Mozart's The Magic Flute—and this novel. The
and then by pretending not to understand many of the Magic Flute tells the story of a prince who is hired to rescue a
questions, due to differences in language and culture. Luft princess. However, when he finds her, he ends up joining the

community in which she lives rather than bringing her back. a new police station uses a newer test (though it seems
This partially foreshadows Deckard's actions: he sleeps with unlikely they wouldn't have even heard of the older test). The
Rachael Rosen, which she thinks will keep him from killing situation gets more complicated when Phil Resch enters and
androids. However, the parallel is only partial. confirms he had always wondered about whether the Soviet
cop was human or not.
A more substantial parallel drawn between Rick Deckard and
the author Philip K. Dick is the love of opera. In other areas, The suggestion that the different elements of the police force
Deckard seems relatively uncultured. He reads little: Dick only test one another creates a new and intriguing possibility. The
shows Deckard reading background information on the traditional Turing test assumed a known human would be doing
androids. However, in this chapter he shows great familiarity the testing: it assumed a known baseline of humanity and
with opera. Dick was such a fan of opera, he claimed he could reality. This situation is much more complicated. Here, two
identify almost any opera by the time he was a teenager. groups of people are using two different tests to determine if
the other group is real or not. This opens up a philosophical
quandary. What if both tests show both sets of people are
Chapter 10 androids? What if the tests disagree, with one showing human
and one android? At this point in the novel, reality loses its
moorings. Things will get stranger and more fluid from this
Summary point on. There may not be a final conclusion on what is real
and what isn't.
At the new Hall of Justice, the police book Rick Deckard for
suspected homicide and representing himself as a police
officer. A senior officer named Garland allows Deckard to call Chapter 11
his wife. When he does, an unfamiliar woman answers. Deckard
and Garland talk about the material Deckard has with him, and
about androids and how to detect them. Garland notes that the Summary
next one on the list is him. He calls a bounty hunter in to help
them sort through the situation. Phil Resch enters and they talk Garland agrees to the test. When Phil Resch leaves to get the
about the situation. Resch says he had always wondered about gear for their Boneli Reflex-Arc Test, Garland pulls a laser on
the Soviet cop Deckard killed/deactivated, as he always Rick Deckard. Garland says he and Resch are both androids,
seemed suspiciously cold. Neither Garland nor Resch are but only Garland knows. He also knows the rogue androids
familiar with the Voigt-Kampff test Deckard uses. While they Deckard is hunting.
are talking about the possibility and implications of Deckard
testing them, the secretary calls with the results of the bone Resch returns and starts plugging in the equipment for the
marrow test: the Soviet cop was an android. Deckard was right. test. Garland points a hand at Resch, and he rolls to the side
They conclude that they will have to run their respective tests and fires a laser at Garland. Garland's hand opens as he dies,
on one another to see who is human. revealing a laser. Resch and Deckard consult about what to do
next. Deckard tells him the building is full of androids, but not
that Garland said Resch was one. They leave the office. Resch
Analysis handcuffs them together so it looks like he is escorting a
prisoner. As they walk to Resch's hovercar, Resch wonders
This chapter begins to move the novel into the surreal. why he didn't identify Garland before, and wonders if someone
However, each twist in reality is always plausible, and could had implanted false memories in him. Because this can only be
always signal to readers that Rick Deckard is the one who is done to androids, he questions his own humanity. As they leave
out of touch with reality, or even crazy. He might have dialed to track down the android Luba Luft, Resch asks Deckard to
the wrong number (and accidentally gotten someone who test his humanity after they finish.
wasn't his wife). Deckard and his boss have already talked
about the limitations of the Voigt-Kampff test, so it is possible

suggests Deckard wants an android, and that he should sleep

Analysis with the android next time before killing it.
Before Phil Resch returns, Rick Deckard asks why his phone
call didn't reach his wife. Garland tells him they have set up a
"closed loop," with no interaction with the rest of San
Analysis
Francisco. Philip K. Dick doesn't do much with this in this novel,
The artist Edvard Munch was born in Norway in 1863. His work
but this small detail is very insightful. Once people interact
was part of German Expressionism, a movement in the arts
electronically rather than directly, a third party can redirect
that sought to express emotional experience. He is best known
those communications or replace them with fake digital
for his work The Scream, which some people see as
realities.
expressing the despair of living in the modern world. When
Resch's response when Garland points to him parallels Luba Luft chooses to visit this exhibit at a time when she
Deckard's earlier response. These human bounty hunters are knows a bounty hunter is after her expresses her inner state
good at reading clues in a situation and responding directly. (whether she knows it or not). Readers familiar with Munch can
Rationally, there is little reason to think someone pointing a imagine his famous painting of a man screaming as a response
hand at another person is a threat. However, as Deckard to the two bounty hunters first finding, then killing, Luft.
correctly read the signs with the Soviet cop, Resch does the
She is captured as she stares at another of Munch's paintings,
same here. This establishes a pairing or doubling between the
Puberty, one that Rick Deckard purchases for her in a book
two men. Dick will reinforce this later in the novel when
collection. While the painting is much less well known than The
Rachael Rosen reveals she also slept with Resch.
Scream, its lines and colors are similar, and the girl matches
the physical description Philip K. Dick provides of Rachael
Rosen. Luft is a mature woman at the height of her career
Chapter 12 when she is caught, but she has in many ways only just begun
to live. In contrast to the girl in the painting, who is on the cusp
of life and fertility, Luft is on the cusp of death, and the men
Summary who take her there are about to embark on a new
understanding of their own humanity.
Phil Resch and Rick Deckard look for Luba Luft at the opera
house, then at a nearby museum. They track her through an This chapter further develops the parallels between the two
Edvard Munch exhibit. Once they find her, she accuses Resch bounty hunters. Both men reveal themselves to be surprisingly
of being an android. As they take her away, Luft asks for a reflective for men of action. They are also both surprisingly
copy of the painting she was looking at when they found her. insightful about themselves and about each other. In this
Deckard agrees, and buys her a book with that image in it. Luft chapter, each man shares a fundamental insight about the
praises the act as innately human and taunts Resch about not other. Deckard identifies a key difference between how he kills
being human. Resch draws a laser. Deckard argues that they and how Phil Resch does: Resch enjoys it. Resch observes that
still need to test her, but Resch kills her anyway. Once Luft is what Deckard feels for the androids isn't empathy, but lust. He
dead, they talk again about whether Resch is human, and is essentially pointing out the human tendency to deceive itself.
Deckard shares his plans to get out of the bounty hunter
Resch's reactions in Chapters 11 and 12 show how complicated
business.
the question of humanity is in this book, and how it intertwines
They leave the museum and Deckard tests Resch, who scores with the question of reality. Resch remembers things about his
as human. However, Deckard argues that Resch's empathy is boss, which he should not be able to if an android had taken
defective: he doesn't empathize with androids. Resch agrees Garland's place. This makes him doubt his own humanity so
but claims it is not part of the standard model; including it much that he wants Deckard to test him, knowing this could
would change everything. Deckard has Resch help him test undercut his entire life. At the same time, when Luft taunts him
himself and concludes he empathizes with female androids. as not human, it upsets him so much, he kills her.
Resch mocks him that this isn't empathy but sexual desire. He

his.
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Summary
When John Isidore flies home after work, he takes expensive
groceries with him. He offers them to Pris Stratton, but she
Summary
dismisses them. Isidore concludes she is upset because she
Roy and Irmgard Baty brief Pris Stratton on what has
doesn't have any friends. Pris says she does, but a bounty
happened since they last saw her, and check out Pris's
hunter might have gotten them all. Isidore has never heard of a
situation in the building. Roy decides they should all take cover
bounty hunter. He is confused and appalled, and assures Pris
in the same building. As Roy reasons through their situation,
he will protect her. As they talk, Pris makes mistakes she thinks
John Isidore recognizes him as their leader. However, he also
reveal her android identity, but then recovers enough to fool
recognizes an emotional flatness in all three of them that sets
Isidore, who takes her mistakes as those of someone new to
them apart. Isidore agrees with Roy Baty that Pris should stay
Earth. Pris is telling him about what it is like to live on Mars, and
with him, and says he will take care of her.
how they read science fiction, when there is a knock at the
door. Pris sends Isidore to answer it, and he finds Roy and Roy leaves to go set up an alarm so they will know if a bounty
Irmgard Baty, the last two rogue androids, standing there. hunter is approaching. While he is gone, Pris agrees to stay
with Isidore. Once they are in his apartment, Pris explains
bounty hunters are not real, and none of the story she and Roy
Analysis tell are real because they were patients at a mental hospital.
That is why they are emotionally flat, and why they share
It isn't clear if John Isidore doesn't know about bounty hunters "group hallucinations." Isidore accepts their story, and the
because of his limited mental capacity, or for some other androids decide to vote about what to do next.
reason (bounty hunting might be a very rare profession, for
example). What is clear is that some factor lets Isidore make
allowances for Pris Stratton's actions that others might not Analysis
have made. It might be Isidore's good nature, or it might be
how he accepts his own limits. Some factor makes him a better Among other functions, this chapter demonstrates the
person. He is also quicker to recognize the possibility that difference between emotional insight and intellect in this novel.
cultural bias might distort a person's actions than the more John Isidore recognizes Roy Baty as a leader, something
confident Rick Deckard was when analyzing Luba Luft. Isidore has never been (or aspired to). At the same time, he is
emotionally insightful enough to recognize the androids share
In this chapter, Philip K. Dick uses science fiction to develop
an "abstractness." Isidore follows this genuine insight with an
and complicate the theme of reality. The androids on Mars
image of bounty hunters as "machine-like" and inhuman. On
read science fiction because it is exciting and because it tells
one hand, this is a view generated by Isidore's ignorance:
stories of how people thought Mars ought to be. This means
because he doesn't know what bounty hunters are, or what
artificial humans who have lived on another planet read
androids are, he doesn't have much to go on. On the other
fictional stories written by people who lived before space flight,
hand, his emotional purity gives him an insight the actual
and somehow find them more emotionally real than their own
bounty hunters like Phil Resch and Rick Deckard lack. These
reality. Dick doesn't do much with this twist, but it is a useful
bounty hunters make their living killing others they have
commentary on how people experience reality. This continues
classified as other than human. This is where readers can see
to develop the theme of reality, but it also comments on the
Philip K. Dick's research into Nazi Germany showing up. As
book readers are reading, making it a kind of "metafiction."
some Germans learned to live near the camps without
Because the androids read science fiction while Deckard
empathy, so the bounty hunters must kill androids without
makes references to the old-fashioned Frank Merriwell, this
empathy in order to survive.
also suggests their minds may be livelier and more varied than

Pris Stratton also offers another possibility for the spectrum of man moving toward death. His wife suggests that is the
possible realities in the novel: shared insanity. Her story would revelation. Deckard leaves to go after the remaining androids.
explain why she and the other androids act differently from Once he is in his hovercar, he calls the Rosen Association and
normal humans. However, it also introduces more questions, asks Rachael Rosen to come help him retire the remaining
because group hallucinations are rare and hard to prove, and androids. When she resists, he asks her to fly down and share
depend on some factor influencing an entire group. This would a hotel room with him. She agrees.
be a better description of humans using their empathy boxes
than androids.
Analysis
Chapter 15 The brief scene opening the chapter paints a tragic picture of
John Isidore's limitations. He wants to be needed so badly he is
willing to stay in the apartment with the androids even though
Roy Baty voted to kill him. The scene also reveals a lot about
Summary the androids. Emotional flatness is one thing, but being
completely casual about the possibility of killing someone
Irmgard Baty votes to hide in the apartment. Roy Baty votes to
reveals just how inhuman the androids are and how important
kill John Isidore. Pris Stratton votes to stay, and accept
emotions are in determining humanity.
Isidore's help, which gives Isidore a new sense of purpose.
The bulk of this chapter focuses on changes in Rick Deckard's

That evening, after Rick Deckard finishes work, he visits pet
life and character. His choice to spend all the bounty money on
stores. The Happy Dog Pet Shop salesman convinces him to
a goat reveals just how important animals are to people in this
buy a goat. They negotiate, but the final price is more than
postapocalyptic world. It also reveals just how much control
what Deckard can afford to pay. The down payment takes the
the capitalist structure has over people. Deckard has had a
entire $3,000 he has made in bounties thus far. When he takes
tremendously hard day and deserves a reward and a rest. He
the goat home, Iran Deckard admires it but worries about the
gets the goat—his reward—but only at the cost of putting
expense. Their neighbor Bill Barbour sees them on the roof
himself in debt for a very long time. The conversation with Iran
and congratulates them. Iran wants to tell everyone their sheep
Deckard also reveals just how trapped Rick Deckard is. They
was fake, but Deckard resists. They go back to their
have reversed positions from the start of the novel. In the
apartment, where Iran uses the empathy box to commune with
novel's first pages, she calls him a "murderer hired by the cops"
Mercer in gratitude for their goat. Deckard shares with Iran
and expresses sympathy for "those poor andys." Now, when
that he has started to empathize with the androids. She
Deckard comes around to the same position, Iran reverses
responds with practical concerns about his job and the cost of
herself. She argues the conservative position: they need the
the goat. He reassures her he will change jobs. They try to
money. Deckard can't win, even if it is a situation he helped
work out the details of his possible career shift when
create. This may be why he propositions Rachael Rosen in this
Deckard's boss, Harry Bryant, calls to tell Deckard he has a line
chapter.
on where the rest of the androids are. Deckard says he needs
to rest, but Bryant talks him into going after the androids. The ethical principles Wilbur Mercer explains also complicate
Mercerism. The first glimpses of Mercer make him seem like a
After the call ends, Deckard takes his wife's place at the
Christ-like figure. He suffers, and the humans who use the
empathy box. He communicates directly with Wilbur Mercer.
empathy box suffer with him. Now, though, Mercer explicitly
Mercer explains key but difficult principles, including the fact
states there is no salvation, which removes a key element of
there is no salvation, and Deckard will have to act unethically
the parallel with Christ. Instead, he is more like an especially
no matter what path he follows. Deckard protests this
empathic version of Sisyphus, the figure from Greek mythology
message. Suddenly, someone in the shared reality throws a
who was condemned to continually roll a rock up a hill but
rock that hits him in the ear. Deckard lets go of the handles on
never reach the top.
the empathy box and exits the shared vision. He tells his wife
he didn't get anything from the box, and Mercer is just an old

acknowledges she has other motives than he does, and that in

Chapter 16 the long run, they will be working against one another.
The chapter's final pages paint a tragic picture of how Rachael

Summary is and is not like other women Deckard has known, and how
Deckard is and isn't like other men. When Deckard is
Once Rick Deckard checks into the hotel, he reviews the rummaging through Rachael's purse, it seems like any other
background information on the remaining androids. When woman's purse, full of odds and ends he doesn't know what to
Rachael Rosen joins him, she reviews the information as well. do with. When she tells him she loves him, and refers to her
She opens a bottle of bourbon. Once they are sitting on the potential score on the Voigt-Kampff test, it's another way of
bed together, Rachael shares the fact that Pris Stratton is the saying that love—her love for him—makes her human. However,
same model android as she is and suggests Deckard will have she also refers to herself as ant-like and urges Deckard not to
trouble destroying her because of this. She also suggests she think about what he is doing or he will find himself unable to go
will be able to help Deckard find the androids because she on. For his part, this is when Deckard realizes Phil Resch was
knows how their minds work. This slides into a conversation right: the other bounty hunter could read him as well as he
about the nature of android reality, and why she is there. She could an android. Both lovers waver in and out of humanity.
will help Deckard find the androids, but she will also report
back to the corporation so they can make better androids that
are harder to detect. Rachael also comments on her own lack Chapter 17
of empathy, and how she really doesn't care if the other
androids live or die.
When Rachael realizes Deckard is worried about Roy Baty, she

Summary
removes a device from her purse that will let Deckard paralyze
After Rick Deckard and Rachael Rosen have sex, they enjoy
androids for 5–6 seconds, giving him a crucial edge. They then
room service and talk. Rachael shares the fact that androids
go to bed. As they undress, they continue to talk about the
have a very limited life span—they live for four years before the
upcoming encounter. Rachael tells Deckard she loves him, and
android metabolism breaks down. Deckard and Rachael dress
says he would make her score really well on the Voigt-Kampff
and go to his hovercar. As they fly to look for the androids,
test. Deckard says he cannot kill Pris, because Pris is too
they talk. Deckard says he would marry Rachael if she he
similar to Rachael. Rachael tells Deckard if he sleeps with her,
could. Rachael explains that he won't be able to keep hunting
she will kill Pris for him. Still thinking, Deckard gets into bed.
androids now that they have slept together. She goes on to say
none of the nine other bounty hunters she has slept with could
go on, except for Phil Resch. Deckard is stunned to learn that
Analysis he is just one of many, and that their sexual activity was part of
an android plan. Deckard protests that sleeping with her hasn't
There is a long history of using informants to reveal plot points
changed his perspective, and he will be able to retire the
unknown to the main character. In this chapter, Rachael Rosen
androids. She says she can tell. Deckard dismisses her claimed
offers to fill that role. And she is right: she offers an insight into
insight and says he'll be able to kill all the rogue androids, and
the android mind Rick Deckard can't get anywhere else. She
will kill her as well.
isn't just a member of the same group or community—one of
the androids Deckard is hunting is literally the same model. Rachael tries to find something in her purse (probably a
This could make Deckard feel like a hero, especially after the weapon), then gives up and asks Deckard to kill her carefully.
mixed reception Iran Deckard gave him. His wife criticizes him Deckard parks the car and gets out his laser, but can't kill her.
when he shifts his position and agrees with her. Rachael, by She thanks him, and then argues this shows she was right and
contrast, is willing to kill someone who is exactly like her for he won't be able to kill the androids. She tells him to go home
him. Not only is she not criticizing him, she is joining him on his to his wife and goat, and mocks him for how much he cares
mission. Rachael seems to be sharing openly with Deckard, about the goat. When Deckard doesn't speak, she turns on the
and to be more self-aware than the other androids. She

radio so they can listen to the "Buster Friendly" show. When being alone. During Isidore's last trip to Pris's apartment, he
Deckard turn the show off, she turns it back on, claiming finds a spider. He captures it in the plastic bottle he carries for
Friendly will say something important on that evening's show. moments like this, and takes it up to his apartment to show the
androids.
Analysis When Pris sees it, she asks why it has so many legs. Irmgard
Baty suggests it doesn't need all of them. Pris gets a pair of
If the last chapter was Rick Deckard's great triumph, this one is scissors out of her purse and starts cutting off the spider's
a great reversal, and one of his lowest points in the novel. Not legs. As she does, the "Buster Friendly" show comes on. The
only did Rachael Rosen not love him, she wasn't telling the show shares a revelation that the visions people see when they
truth. Not only will she not be helping him kill her fellow merge with Wilbur Mercer via the empathy box are "artificial."
androids, she slept with him as part of a conscious plan to The background is a film set, the visuals are special effects,
change his orientation and make him unable to complete his and the man who plays Mercer is an alcoholic actor named Al
job. Finally, not only is Deckard not special to her, he is not Jarry. Buster Friendly builds on this initial exposé, arguing
even one of a kind. Instead, he is part of a series of male Mercer is politically dangerous. The androids in the apartment
bounty hunters she has slept with to change their minds. Here, add commentary as Friendly talks, ending with Irmgard arguing
Rachael reveals herself to be a "femme fatale." The femme that without Mercer, androids have only the humans' word that
fatale is a common figure in detective fiction, especially hard- they experience empathy. She then turns back to Pris, who
boiled detective fiction. The woman who seems too good and snips off the spider's fourth leg. When the crippled spider won't
beautiful to be true turns out to be using her sexuality to move, Roy Baty lights a match and makes it move with the
manipulate the male detective. She is a kind of trickster figure, flame.
and this description definitely applies to Rachael Rosen.
Irmgard realizes Isidore is upset but can't tell why. She
However, Rachael also does something much more subtle and suggests it is the loss of the spider and offers to pay him back.
complicated. Before they slept together, Rachael revealed to Pris says Isidore is upset because he uses an empathy box,
Deckard that she and Pris Stratton were the same type of and the conversation returns to Mercer being a fake. Isidore
android. Part of the tragedy of her existence—along with her realizes something is wrong with the androids he had thought
short life—is that Rachael knows she is not an original, but were his friends. Isidore's emotions begin to destroy the world
instead just a type. In this chapter, one of the reversals around him. He goes into the living room and sees a vision of
Rachael performs on Deckard is to change him from an Mercer. The restored spider crawls across his foot, and he
individual to just one of a category. He is so standard a type realizes Mercer is very close. He speaks to Mercer, asking if
that she knows what sleeping with her will do to him. Also, as the claims are true. Mercer admits he is a fraud. As they speak,
an experienced bounty hunter, Deckard should be able to read Mercer returns the spider, fully healed, to Isidore. Suddenly an
Rachael. Instead, in this chapter she reads him, predicting his alarm goes off, and Roy tells Isidore the bounty hunter is
actions better than he can. outside.
Chapter 18 Analysis
Like Chapter 17, Chapter 18 is marked by reversals. John
Isidore means it when he thinks that his life is so much better
Summary than it was, that he can't go back to living alone, and that all
animal life is so rare in this devastated world that finding the
Pris Stratton guides John Isidore in moving the rest of her
spider is like a treasure or a blessing. His life seems to be
belongings. She especially wants the TV set up. The other
going so well, but then the androids reveal their true nature.
androids want the TV on because the "Buster Friendly" show is
Their lack of empathy makes it possible for them to speculate
about to start. As Isidore moves Pris's belongings he thinks
if spiders need legs without recognizing how horrific this is to
about how his life has improved, and how he can't go back to
Isidore.

Philip K. Dick juxtaposes the two actions in this chapter as Rachael Rosen, and then realizes it must be Pris Stratton.
intentionally and skillfully. While the androids in Isidore's He kills her. He then goes to the apartment and pretends to be
apartment are torturing and crippling a spider—thereby Isidore, even stuttering like Isidore to fool the androids inside.
revealing their fundamental lack of humanity—Buster Friendly The androids open the door, and Roy Baty fires on Deckard,
is making a public announcement about Wilbur Mercer, but Deckard fires back. He kills Irmgard Baty, then Roy. After
showing he is not what he claims to be. The androids think this the androids collapse, Isidore comes in. Deckard calls his boss
revelation will lead humans away from Mercerism. However, to let him know he is done.
Buster Friendly's actions seem more like what the androids do
to the spider. He is trying to cause pain, not present the truth.
Analysis
The last portion of the chapter is both profound and confusing.
When Isidore gets upset, his emotions seem to disrupt the Reality continues to blur and rupture in this chapter. The first
fabric of reality: his apartment seems to crumble around him. distortion comes when John Isidore realizes he is holding onto
Later, when Isidore releases the handles of his empathy box, it his empathy box. Has he been holding it all along? Did his
is possible that he had been experiencing the vision because apartment only seem to crumble around him, as part of the
he engaged the empathy box. However, if this is the case, why vision produced by the empathy box? Philip K. Dick never
would the androids experience the disruptive vision, too? A clarifies this. Even if he had, it would not explain Wilbur
more plausible explanation is that Dick is allowing the Mercer's presence, and why Rick Deckard saw him. If Deckard
disruptions and ruptures in reality to spread until they include were just hallucinating, due to stress, lack of sleep, or other
the reader. Just as Rick Deckard has had to determine factors, how could Mercer give such accurate and useful
throughout the novel what is real and what is artificial, so, too, information about the androids? Like the characters in the
must the reader. The reader must decide if the apartment novel, readers must reach their own conclusions, and move a
changed at all, and why it changed if it did. Readers must also step at a time.
reach their own conclusions about the status of the healed
spider. Is it an artificial spider? Or does Mercer somehow have
supernatural powers despite his natural origins? Chapter 20
Chapter 19 Summary
After he gets off the phone with Harry Bryant, Rick Deckard
Summary suggests that John Isidore move to another apartment,
because the police will be working in this one. Isidore says he
John Isidore realizes he is holding the handles of the empathy is leaving the building. Deckard suggests living in his building,
box. The androids pressure him to deal with the bounty hunter. but Isidore refuses. Isidore then leaves the apartment,
He opens the door, spider in hands, but no one is there. Isidore confused, and Deckard goes home.
walks to what used to be a garden before the war destroyed
everything, and releases the spider. Rick Deckard asks him When Deckard gets home, his wife tells him their goat is dead.
what he did and why. Isidore explains that if he took it to his Someone forced it off the roof. From the description, Deckard
apartment the androids would torture it. Deckard agrees, realizes it is Rachael Rosen. Iran Deckard wants him to come
introduces himself, and asks Isidore to help him with the inside so they can talk about the news that Wilbur Mercer is a
androids. When Isidore hesitates, Deckard goes to tackle them fake. Instead, Deckard leaves again, flying off into the
alone. As he moves toward the apartment, Wilbur Mercer uninhabited north.
approaches Deckard. He tells Deckard where the androids are
hiding, and then says the first one will be the hardest to kill.
The first android comes down the steps. Deckard recognizes it

been through something similar. When that fails, Deckard

Analysis moves into the philosophical and spiritual realms, reflecting on
the differences between Dave Holden and Wilbur Mercer. Even
Earlier, Rachael Rosen had accused Rick Deckard of loving the
though he had done the same things Deckard did, Holden
goat more than anything, including his wife. She carries out a
wouldn't have been able to understand the way Mercer would,
very human act of revenge. He killed her friends, so she kills his
because Mercer accepts all. Deckard then goes on to a very
goat.
profound realization: his actions have alienated him from
This chapter develops the theme of isolation. John Isidore had himself. His actions made him "an unnatural self." This is the
thought that once he made connections with others, he dramatized version of the concerns Philip K. Dick would
couldn't go back to living alone. Now, though, that connection express in his 1972 lecture, The Android and The Human.
is twice shattered: first by the androids torturing the spider and Deckard has systematically dehumanized himself through his
then by Deckard killing them. Isidore is shattered in turn, and actions. Dick never specifies whether the damning actions are
essentially drifts out of the book. Deckard has always been the killing the androids, cheating on his wife, falling for an android,
more active of the two, but he also moves beyond the bounds or a combination thereof.
of what he has known before: he travels to a desolate area
Directly after Deckard reaches this damning conclusion about
where nothing lives, and nothing can live. Animals only go there
himself, he finds himself in a vision of Mercerism. Instead of
if they know they are going to die, so Deckard is, in a way,
being cut off from Mercer, Deckard becomes Mercer, right
following his beloved goat into death. Experiencing connection
down to the ritual wounds from thrown rocks. He then
and then losing it shatters Deckard the way it had Isidore.
recognizes he has done something completely new, because
he is fused with Mercer without his empathy box. Deckard and
his reality are fundamentally different. However, as the next
Chapter 21 chapter will show, this difference may not make a difference.
Summary Chapter 22
Rick Deckard lands in the wasteland. He thinks about being the
"greatest bounty hunter" ever, and decides to call Dave Holden.
However, when he calls the hospital, Holden isn't well enough
Summary
to take calls.
Rick Deckard puts his phone down without finishing the call to
Deckard walks up a hill, thinking. A stone flies through the air Iran because he sees a toad on the ground. He is incredibly
and hits him. He sees a figure, and realizes he is in a vision of excited because toads are supposed to be extinct. Deckard
Mercerism. He hurries back to his car. He tries to call Harry gathers the toad into a box, puts it in the hovercar, and flies
Bryant, but Bryant is not available, so he talks to his secretary, home.
Ann Marsten. The secretary tells Deckard he looks like Wilbur
When Deckard arrives, his wife is at the mood organ, but she
Mercer, and advises him he needs rest. She then tries to coax
feels too flat to choose a new mood. Deckard shows her the
him into coming back to civilization. Deckard shares his vision
toad. As they are talking about it, she examines it, and finds its
of becoming Mercer, then agrees to call his wife. He starts to
controls: it is artificial. Deckard's mood sinks. He is exhausted
call her, then stops.
and now wants to sleep. They talk about his day, and about
Wilbur Mercer. She plans to dial up the mood of "long deserved
peace" for her husband on the mood organ, but he drifts off to
Analysis sleep without any artificial help. Once he is asleep, Iran calls
the artificial pet store and orders a batch of electric flies to go
In this chapter Rick Deckard tries to make sense of what he
with the toad.
has done. In trying to call Dave Holden, Deckard is trying to
sort through what happened by talking to someone who has

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? Study Guide Quotes 29
Analysis "Evidently the humanoid robot

constituted a solitary predator."
Traditionally, at the end of a heroic quest or adventure, heroes
receive a reward. Rick Deckard thinks he has received this
type of reward when he finds the toad. He would be rich and — Rick Deckard, Chapter 3
famous for finding it. He even reasons forward to new
understanding of his spiritual state based on this discovery, Rick Deckard reflects on the nature of androids and how they
thinking that he found the toad—a fantastic, impossible relate to humanity. It is a good example of dramatic
discovery—because he now sees the world through Wilbur irony—where the audience knows something the character
Mercer's eyes. He essentially brought the world into being. doesn't—because Deckard makes his living as a predator: he
lives because he kills androids. He works alone, even when his
This is a conscious, positive version of what happened when
boss orders him to work with a partner, while the androids
John Isidore started to destroy his apartment because he was
work together (however poorly) at the end of the book.
so upset. It is more important because Deckard does what
Mercer is supposed to have done, bringing the dead back to In the end, Deckard thinks he is thinking about androids, but he
life. is really thinking about himself.
Deckard is clearly crushed when his wife, Iran, reveals the toad
is artificial. However, from the reader's perspective, it isn't clear
Deckard should be disappointed. He has done what Mercer
"It, he thought. She keeps calling
said he had to: all paths require unethical action. He has the owl it."
accepted all, in his way: he has loved an android. There is no
salvation, but Mercer had said there wouldn't be. Instead, like
— Rick Deckard, Chapter 5
Mercer, Deckard is just a tired man who must keep going, one
step at a time. Now, though, instead of fighting with his wife,
the two have reached peace. They use the mood organ in the This clue tips Rick Deckard off that Rachael Rosen is an
spirit of love and justice. This is not a bad reward for the android. It shows how important empathy is when
world's longest day. distinguishing between androids and humans in this novel. It
also shows how good Deckard is at his job. Rachael fooled the
formal diagnostic test Deckard used on her, but his experience
g Quotes lets him read her as an android anyway.
"In a giant, empty, decaying "You're not Polokov, you're

building which had once housed Kadalyi."
thousands, a single TV set hawked
its wares to an uninhabited room."
Appearing to be a misstatement, a moment when Rick Deckard
— Narrator, Chapter 2 accidentally says the wrong thing, he realizes that the man
(Kadalyi) isn't human, but instead is the android he is hunting.
The place where Isidore lives captures capitalism after the However, this accident turns out really well for him: Polokov
nuclear war. Ads are still broadcast and shows still corrects him; thus, confirming he is an android.
sponsored—but to an almost depopulated world. The line is at
This line also shows how subtle and complex reality is in Philip
once literally true, symbolic of the current situation, and
K. Dick's fiction: a verbal stumble reveals a deeper truth, even
poetically depressing.

the nature of a man's being.

exist; I'm just representative of a
type."
"We're a closed loop, cut off from
— Rachael Rosen, Chapter 16
the rest of San Francisco."
On the surface, this is a statement of fact about androids.
— Garland, Chapter 11
Knowing this is part of the psychological challenge of their
existence. However, this statement would also be true for
In many ways, since World War Terminus (WWT), humans have humans in a general sense: each person could be interpreted
been cut off from one another, connecting only via the as a representative of a genetic programming, just as Rachael
empathy box and Mercerism, which, it turns out, is itself a Rosen is a representation of mechanical programming.
closed loop. The line is both a literal description of the
androids' setup and a symbolic one of the humans'. This is also part of the Platonic philosophy Philip K. Dick
appreciated. Greek philosopher Plato refers to this theory of
ideal forms in several of his writing. In this model of reality, the
things people see with their senses are just representations of
"So much for the distinction
ideal types.
between authentic living humans
and humanoid constructs."
"No bounty hunter has ever gone
— Rick Deckard, Chapter 12 on ... After being with me. Except
one."
The observation marks how completely this day has changed
Rick Deckard. His feelings toward humans and robots recently
— Rachael Rosen, Chapter 17
have been the reverse of what they should have been. This is a
tremendous warning sign, because his instincts are all that
have kept him alive in the encounter with the first rogue Rachael Rosen reports this information as a factual
android. observation and seems not to realize the tremendous impact it
has on Rick Deckard. It is one of the worst revelations in the
novel for Deckard. (The only revelation that is worse is when
he finds out the toad at the end of the book isn't real.)
"You will be required to do wrong
... It is the basic condition of life." He has just broken the law to sleep with Rachael and told her
that if it were legal, he would marry her. Deckard comes close
to telling Rachael he loves her. She follows by revealing the
— Wilbur Mercer, Chapter 15
fact that having sex was part of a plan on her part. Deckard
had thought they shared spontaneous attraction. Instead, he is
The statement establishes the fact that reality is ethically part of an android's plan for self-preservation.
complex, and no one can live a completely pure life. There is no
salvation, and Rick Deckard must proceed as if Wilbur Mercer
doesn't exist. The result is an extremely isolated existence, one
"Mercerism is a swindle!"
Deckard can never escape.
— Buster Friendly, Chapter 18
"It's just an illusion that I ... really

Media personality Buster Friendly delivers the line with gusto,

"Everything is true ... Everything
as if he has now demolished Mercerism, and with it, one of
humanity's claims to superiority over androids. It turns out, anybody has ever thought."
however, that simply disproving the facts of Mercerism isn't
enough to destroy it because people do not live by reason — Rick Deckard, Chapter 20
alone, like androids. Instead, they are capable of emotions
such as empathy and faith, which androids cannot
Rick Deckard has reached a place where he can't distinguish
comprehend.
between things any longer. Reality/illusion, true/false,
living/inanimate—these are all the same now.
"There is no Pris ... Only Rachael This also aligns with points Philip K. Dick made elsewhere
about how personal experience relates to reality. In a 1964
Rosen, over and over again."
essay for a science fiction fanzine on drugs and hallucinations,
Dick argued that visions people call hallucinations or access
— Rick Deckard, Chapter 19 via drugs are as real as any other perception.
On the literal level, the line refers to the fact that Rachael
Rosen and Pris Stratton were the same kind of android. Rick "Mercer isn't a fake ... Unless
Deckard claims there were no real differences between the
two. On the emotional level, this line communicates Deckard's
reality is a fake."
despair. Rachael manipulated and betrayed him. This line is
saying that all women are this way: the only thing that will — Rick Deckard, Chapter 21
happen is women will betray him. It is one of the main points
where reality blurs in the novel: if these two beings are
Buster Friendly has just revealed Wilbur Mercer is a fake, and
essentially the same, in killing Pris he essentially killed Rachael.
Rick Deckard knows, factually, that Mercer is a fake. However,
because Mercer carries an emotional truth and still appears to
The line is symbolic of Deckard's conundrum as an android
Deckard and others in visions, he is real. Mercer, therefore,
hunter. He must forever perform the same rote work, much like
becomes like other mythic or religious figures: the facts are
John Isidore driving his truck. Except unlike Isidore, he is not
inaccurate, but the value and experience followers receive are
creating or saving anything, only destroying.
very real.
However, Philip K. Dick leaves another twist as an option: it is

"What a job to have to do ... I'm a possible that everything is fake. Because Deckard is about to
learn the toad he found is artificial, this becomes
scourge, like famine or plague."
foreshadowing. Maybe nothing is real. In some ways, either
option could be read as redemptive or as damning, depending
— Rick Deckard, Chapter 20 on the reader's worldview.
After a day spent hunting and killing androids, Rick Deckard

reflects on the nature of his job. His whole life is killing. It is "After I finished. I couldn't stop
who he is, the same way the biblical figures from Revelation
are death, or plague, or famine. He may be necessary, but what
because there would be nothing
a terrible world he lives in that such an awful figure is a left after I stopped."
necessity.

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? Study Guide Symbols 32
Over the course of the day, Rick Deckard has lost faith in his These include eating oysters raw and boiling lobsters alive. By
job and in the distinction between androids and humans. He using examples from actual history, Dick is commenting on
also made a huge amount of money and then lost it. His goat is history. He is also applying the Voigt-Kampff test to his
dead, and Wilbur Mercer has been exposed as a fraud. readers, quietly saying, "You would not pass for human."
Deckard has nothing left but momentum. At the same time,

Deckard's statement of his personal identity here makes him
sound like the description of Mercer found in Chapter 15: he is The Fake Sheep
just an old person moving toward death, as we all are.
When the novel opens, the Deckards own a fake sheep. The
l Symbols fake sheep represents anxiety and shame for three reasons.
First, they used to have a real sheep, but it died. They know
they are now living a lie—and by the standards of their society,
an inferior existence. Second, there is social competition, a
The Voigt-Kampff Test desire to keep up with the neighbors. Their neighbor, Bill
Barbour, has a real horse. The Deckards know their fake sheep
marks them as socially inferior. Third, in Mercerism people
reach a higher level of empathy through owning and caring for
The Voigt-Kampff test is extremely important on a literal level.
animals, so owning an artificial sheep also marks them as
It is the most sophisticated tool Deckard has to determine if
spiritually inferior.
someone is an android or a human. To apply this test, Deckard
connects sensors to the person he is testing, then asks a
series of questions. Each question explores a scenario where
empathy comes into play, especially human empathy for
animals.
The Fake Toad
This test symbolizes how hard it is to determine humanity in
this world. The very name indicates this. The test used to just The novel starts with one fake animal and ends with another.
be called the "Voigt scale" until Kampff modified it three years The first, the sheep, has personal meaning to Deckard. The
earlier. This indicates that the line between human and android toad (the second fake) is a much larger symbol. Toads are
is always shifting. "Kampff" is close to the German word Kampf, sacred to Mercer and thought to be extinct. When Deckard
which means a struggle or fight, a term to indicate how hard it finds one in the book's final chapters, it seems like a huge,
is to tell who is human. The test's title may also remind readers meaningful, and multifaceted reward. If it is real, he will become
of Hitler's Mein Kampf. Hitler classified people as either human rich and famous. The discovery will also strengthen Deckard's
or less-than-human, and so does this society. ties to the religious figure, Mercer. In Chapter 22, he thinks that
he found the toad because he is seeing the world "through
Two other aspects of this test are worth noting. First, it
Mercer's eyes."
repeatedly fails. Deckard gets ambiguous results when testing
Rachael. Her "uncle" Eldon explains that these results came When the toad turns out to be fake, Deckard's entire sense of
from her background. When he tests Luba Luft, he runs into completion and reward is undercut. He moves from feeling
cultural barriers. Deckard's boss mentions people with some triumphant to feeling confused and depressed. However,
psychological conditions would not pass. This test can Deckard's disappointment prompts his wife, Iran, to act in a
determine people's life or death, but Dick shows it is flawed, loving, supportive fashion. She offers direct emotional support
biased, and shifting. for the first time in the novel, and it works. Deckard chooses
not to use the mood organ, and ends the novel sleeping
Second, the questions Deckard asks Rachael during the test peacefully. The toad is like Mercer himself: a fake (or created)
(in Chapter 5) explore situations from the reader's world. being that nonetheless has real effects on the human soul.

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? Study Guide Themes 33
Owls Humanity
In Western culture, owls have long been associated with As a writer, a citizen, and a human being, Dick was concerned
wisdom. This tradition stretches back to the Greek goddess of with the application of the term human. This question takes
wisdom, Athena, and the owl that rode on her shoulder. Dick's several forms in the novel. The first is confusion between
selection of owls as the first victims of nuclear war indicates humanity and artificiality. This theme is central to the novel's
that the postwar world will lack wisdom, or it will possess only plot, because Rick Deckard is a bounty hunter who makes his
the artificial wisdom companies like the Rosen Association living identifying, hunting, and killing androids (artificial
(manufacturer of the Nexus-6 android). When the Rosens try humans). Like many aspects of Dick's work, what is striking
to bribe Deckard with an owl, they are symbolically tainting about this theme and how it plays out is that it is not static, but
wisdom. Rather than using it for good purposes, they are using always shifting. Specifically, as inventors create better
wisdom for power and profit. androids, it becomes harder to tell whether they are real or
fake. The test Deckard uses on Rachael early in the novel used
to be essentially foolproof. He could always use it to tell who
was human. Now it takes more work and is not nearly as
m Themes reliable.
Other factors shift, and when they do, humanity shifts with
them. The radiation caused by the nuclear war threatens
Reality people's status as human: they must wear special protective
gear (or move to another planet) just to remain human. Society
cruelly classifies those they find lacking as "chickenheads,"
Many of Philip K. Dick's works address the nature of reality. referring to their lack of intelligence, and tagging them as not
The relationship between reality and illusion is usually shifting fully human. In this novel, humans are moving to other star
and complicated. Characters operate according to one systems, and this means they will be living in new
understanding of reality for a time, then encounter something environments. One of evolution's central tenets is that
that forces them to rethink this understanding, and often to organisms evolve to match their environment, and this mean
rethink the idea of reality itself. To further complicate this humans will fundamentally change. The book suggests long
issue, characters often experience something that changes space voyages are already changing people, because the
their mental functions, so the very tools they use to evaluate human experience in a completely artificial environment (the
reality changes on them as the characters use them. In the spaceship) is so different from that in a natural environment.
story "We Can Remember It For You Wholesale," which was

the basis for the movie Total Recall, this meant characters had
artificial memories implanted. In the first chapter of Do
Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? Deckard and his wife
Isolation, Connection, and
change their relationship to reality by using their "mood organ,"
which changes their emotions accordingly.
Empathy
In this novel, people use illusions to escape reality, or to make
up for a reality that has failed them or cannot give them what People are isolated in this novel, and they long for connections
they desire. People often know they are using a substitute, and with other people, but they also ache to connect with other
this gnaws at them. Deckard and other characters long to own species. Dick is very clear that people long to feel connected
real animals, and often buy well-made imitations to take the with one another, and that this connection is essential to their
place of the real thing. humanity. A conceptual recognition of connection isn't enough.
People in this book must feel to connect.

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? Study Guide Suggested Reading 34
In this novel Dick uses empathy to define humanity. If people tend to break down and fill with "kipple"—a term for useless
do not empathize, they are not human (at least in this world). junk.
Empathy is how people connect in a largely depopulated world,
and empathy transforms people who experience it. To feel Entropy also makes Deckard's job harder. A key part of his job
together is to be human in this novel. The entire invented is making distinctions: Are you human or not? As an agent of
religion of Mercerism centers around empathy. This emphasis the law, Deckard is dedicated to supporting social order.
on emotion is rare in science fiction and gives Dick's works an Entropy introduces randomness and disorder, making it harder
uncommon depth for the genre. to make distinctions and create or maintain order.
Capitalism e Suggested Reading

Kerman, Judith B. Retrofitting Blade Runner: Issues in Ridley
Scott's "Blade Runner" and Philip K. Dick's "Do Androids Dream
Dick often paints a negative picture of capitalism—the
of Electric Sheep?" U of Wisconsin P, 1997.
economic system where goods are owned by individuals or
corporations and sold in a competitive free-market system.
Lem, Stanislaw. "Philip K. Dick: A Visionary Among the
The author treats low-level workers like Isidore sympathetically
Charlatans." Science Fiction Studies, vol. 2, no. 1, 1975, pp.
because he understands people get caught in a system larger
54–67.
than themselves. Individual businesses, such as the pet shop,
are portrayed as somewhat insensitive but relatively innocent. Sims, Christopher. "The Dangers of Individualism and the
In contrast, Dick portrays large corporations, such as the Human Relationship to Technology in Philip K. Dick's 'Do
Rosen Association, as unethical—a quality bred by the Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?'" Science-Fiction Studies,
capitalist system. They actively deceive and manipulate vol. 36, no. 1, 2009, pp. 67–86.
Deckard when he visits them, and they try to bribe him with an
owl and lie about it being artificial. They produce more and Sutin, Lawrence. Divine Invasions: A Life of Philip K. Dick.
more advanced androids and blame market demand for their Carroll, 2005.
actions.
Warrick, Patricia S. The Labyrinthian Process of the Artificial:
Philip K. Dick's Androids and Mechanical Constructs. Taplinger,
1983, pp. 189–214.
Entropy Zimmerman, Michael E. "Authenticity, Duty, and Empathy in Do

Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" Contributions to
Phenomenology, vol. 74, 2015, pp. 75–94.
Entropy, or the process of ruin or disorder, is a scientific
concept in thermodynamics—the science of physics that
addresses mechanical action and heat. Entropy states that the
universe has a tendency to run down or dissolve into chaos.
Order collapses into randomness and disorder, a recurring
theme in the novel.
Dick uses entropy to establish both mood and setting. Chapter

2 opens with an image of decay: only one TV set is on in a
building where thousands of people used to live. The war that
destroyed humanity accelerated the process of entropy. In
Chapter 6, characters have a discussion about one of
entropy's effects on human systems: places where people live

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Do Androids

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? is written in past tense.

c Chapter Summaries .............................................................................. 15

g Quotes ........................................................................................................ 29 d In Context

e Suggested Reading ............................................................................. 34

The Cold War Science Fiction

The Vietnam War Robotics and Cybernetics

1. A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction,

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the London Critics Circle Film Award, both in 1983. Following

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Rachael Rosen Betrayer Rick Deckard Iran Deckard

Other Major Character

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Full Character List Miss French

Character Description Buster Friendly is an extremely

The Happy Dog Pet Shop salesman

Dave Holden had been the top

Bill Barbour is Deckard's neighbor

Irmgard Baty is one of the rogue

Max Polokov is a rogue android who

Phil Resch is a bounty hunter at the

An executive at the Rosen

Officer Crams is a police officer who Hannibal Sloat is Isidore's elderly

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When Deckard flies to Seattle to visit the company, a young

Back in the apartment building, Isidore introduces himself to

The cop arrives but doesn't know Deckard or his boss. He

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takes Deckard to a police station, but not the one Deckard

Evening religion/movement of Mercerism as fake.

Troubled, Isidore has a vision that seems to disrupt the entire

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A Trip Before Bed

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9. Deckard buys a goat.

3. Deckard visits the Rosen Association.

4. Deckard discovers Rachael Rosen is an android. Falling Action

8. Deckard and Resch track Luft, and Resch kills her.

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Copyright © 2019 Course Hero, Inc.

Deckard wakes up and squabbles with his wife.

Later the same day

Deckard gets a new case, tracking six rogue androids.

Later the same day

Deckard visits the Rosen Association to get help

A few minutes later

Deckard reveals Rachael Rosen is an android.

That same day

Isidore meets the new person in his building.

Later the same day

Deckard kills the android Polokov.

Later the same day

Luba Luft calls fake police on Deckard.

Later the same day

Resch the bounty hunter kills fake Inspector Garland.

Later the same day

Resch kills Luba Luft.

Later the same day

Isidore befriends Pris and the other androids join them.

Later the same day

Deckard buys a goat.