English 25 Paper Assignment Three

The Androids Paper

A full draft is due, printed out, in class on Monday, November 11.  Final draft is due Wednesday, November 13, at the start of class.   Papers that come to me after the start of your class time will be considered late.  If you have a legitimate reason for lateness, talk to me about this before the due date.

Five pages, double-spaced.  As before, I will ask you to turn in the paper via email.  (I collect these to assemble an electronic portfolio for you, which I use to chart your progress though the course.)

Your Assignment:

 

Choose one of these two prompts:
1 Leah Murray introduces the twin concepts of individualism and communitarianism in her essay on George Romero's zombie films.  This pair of concepts seems to be a common obsession of monster stories (think about all the loneliness and isolation in Frankenstein, and the teamwork vs. arrogant individuality in Dracula.)

Where do we see individualism and communitarianism in Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?  How is Philip Dick using this pair of concepts, and what is his point about it?  Feel free to compare or contrast Dick's novel with another monster novel, story, or film we've used in this class to make your point about individualism and communitarianism in Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep.

2 Obviously, all monster stories explore what is monstrous, what is other, what is "them".  Less obviously, these stories also explore the human condition, what we have in common, what is "us".  Philip Dick seems very aware of this in Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep.  One of the key themes of the book is how defining the monstrous narrows the definition of what counts as human in troubling ways.

What does Philip Dick have to say about the human condition in DADoES?  What does he reveal or explore about human behavior, and the way humans think?

Questions?  Email me: