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Chapter 19
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Humanity and Empathy
Reality vs. Artificiality
Alienation
Religion and Faith
Consumerism
Summary
Analysis
Rick informs Bryant of his success, and Bryant instructs him to rest while the police handle the bodies of the retired androids. Rick bitterly reflects on the simplicity of androids, mocking their inability to distinguish him from John. He tells John to avoid staying in the apartment with the aftermath. In response, John declares his intent to leave the building entirely and move somewhere with more people, though he does not want to live near Rick. Left alone, Rick contemplates the moral burden of his work, likening himself to a plague, and he hopes that returning home to Iran might bring him some solace.
Rick’s mockery of the androids’ inability to recognize him as distinct from John reflects his struggle to maintain emotional distance from his work. By belittling their intelligence, he attempts to dehumanize them further, masking his own moral unease. However, his comparison of himself to a plague exposes his deeper self-awareness, revealing that he sees his role as destructive and dehumanizing, not just for the androids but for himself.
Themes
When Rick arrives home, Iran meets him on the roof, visibly distressed. She informs him that someone killed their goat by dragging it from its cage and pushing it off the roof. From Iran’s description, Rick identifies the culprit as Rachael, who made no attempt to conceal her actions. Despite Iran’s pleas for him to stay with her, Rick leaves in his hovercar, overwhelmed by despair. As he flies north into the desolate wilderness, he reflects on the lost stars, now obscured by dust, and considers retreating to a lifeless place where he can grieve alone.
Rachael’s choice to target the goat, rather than Rick directly, reveals her understanding of what the goat symbolizes—a fragile hope for emotional renewal and moral grounding. Her decision to make no effort to hide her actions adds an air of defiance, as if she seeks to force Rick to acknowledge the pain and destruction his actions cause. The very fact that she is willing to take such an act of revenge suggests that she understands, and perhaps even experiences, human emotions far better than Rick gives her credit for.
Themes
