Topics for Further Study
Last Updated August 15, 2024.
- Conduct research on the artworks and music referenced in the novel. What is the relevance of Edvard Munch's paintings or Mozart's The Magic Flute to the novel's themes or storyline?
- Using the evidence presented in the novel, what moral distinctions can be drawn between real life and simulated life? Be sure to include examples from the text.
- Imagine you are either a Martian colonist or an Earth native in Dick's world. Write an essay arguing for or against the abolition of androids.
- Analyze the portrayal of sexuality and gender roles in the novel: compare characters like Rachael, Pris, Iran, or Irmgard. Discuss whether Dick is misogynistic (a woman-hater) or if he exaggerates inequality to effectively critique society. Consider the concept of having sex with the enemy and then killing "her." What does this reveal about our society, violence, and sexual attitudes?
- Draw comparisons between Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? and other abolitionist literature. Imagine Shylock's speech from Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice ("If you prick us, do we not bleed?") being delivered by an android. Alternatively, make direct connections to the civil rights movement of the 1960s and discuss how Dick reflects on the marginalized status of African Americans during that era. Or compare Dick's bounty hunter to the southern fugitive slave trackers of the antebellum period.
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