A Comparison of Tanner of Destroying Angel and Deckard of Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep

Louis Tanner of Destroying Angel and Rick Deckard of Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep: Importance to the Thematic Development of "moral men in immortal worlds" and Body Mind Invasion How would you feel if you found out you where making love to any android?Shocked I hope. In this essay I will discuss how Louis Tanner of Destroying Angel and Rick Deckard of Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep are important to the thematic development of "moral men in immoral worlds" and body mind invasion. Is Tanner a moral man in an immoral world? What is considered moral or immoral? We know from reading Destroying Angel that Tanner is a good person. Tanner is the type of person whom we say would "do the right thing" in certain situations. He's honest and honorable.

If Tanner makes a promise, he keeps it. He made an agreement with Rattan, where Rattan would be shipped to New Hong Kong illegally in return for the name of the chain killer. Rattan is a drug dealer with a lot of money to waste. He's also the only person with the information to catch the chain killer. To get justice the moral must cooperate with the immoral. We also know that Tanner is not a womanizer. He had his chance with Hannah but did not take advantage of the situation: "No Hannah"(136). Tanner had more worrisome thoughts than making love to a good friend. He wanted the murderer of all murderers, the chain killer. As a cop he never captured the chain killer. This person fused chains to people's bodies and then threw them into the water. For Tanner who was now a retired cop, it was as if a spark lit up in him. All the old memories fled back into his mind. The nightmare of his partner getting shot on a "drug bust gone"(13) wrong began to replay in his mind. He had a conscience; therefore, he could never forget what was done to his partner nor the victims of the chain killer.

One of the many other themes found in this book was body mind invasion. When Tanner was still a cop, slugs worked at the police station whose job was to "solve almost any problem" (16). These people were constantly injected with reason enhancers to help them solve investigations. Now that Tanner was retired, the slugs working at the police station probably looked "Distended and distorted"(16) after all these years of taken drugs. Although they took the enhancers, they did not help in finding the chain killer. The only person that could help find the killer was Rattan. He was interested in the new process of the regeneration of limbs in New Hong Kong. This was a process where your natural limbs were actually grown back. Rattan would have rather died than have prosthetic limbs. The only person that could have transported him to knew New Hong Kong was Tanner. It was a domino effect after that. Both parties got what they where looking. Rattan went to New Hong Kong and Tanner got the name of the chain killer.

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Louis Tanner developed the themes of "moral men in immoral worlds" and body mind invasion in a certain fashion. Now I will compare it to how Rick Deckard in Do androids Dream of Electric Sheep developed the same themes.

Was Rick Deckard a moral man in an immoral world? He lived in a world where humans were given classification such as chickenheads or specials if they didn't pass a mental exam. They were being judged by their own to see who was worthy to go to mars and live a better life. If they passed the test and emigrated to mars, androids would be their slaves. As slaves the androids had to do everything they were told. Androids were very intelligent beings and retaliated against their owners. They were beginning to get lonely and illegally came back to earth. Rick was a bounty hunter whose job was to find and destroy these androids. At first to him it was just a job. He didn't have any feeling toward the androids because they were not human. As his assignment continued, he found that he " "[was capable of feeling empathy for at least specific certain androids."(124) When he captured Luba Luft at the museum he bought her a book. This book contained a picture of the painting she was admiring. This showed that Rick began to have empathy for androids. He then killed her and destroyed the book. Ricks morals began to get twisted. He knows what his job is but he's physically attracted to an android. At one point he begins to question himself as a bounty hunter. Phil Resch tells him "Go to bed with [Rachel] first and then kill her" (126). This in turn would diminish the attraction he had to Rachel. He sleeps with her but doesn't kill her. Rachel then kills his sheep because she knows Rick loves the sheep more than her.

Another theme developed in the book was body mind invasion. Rick, his wife and almost everyone else on the planet had a mood organ. This device had different settings where each performed a specific function. For example the number 888 meant "the desire to watch TV, no matters what's on it ".(4) Dick and everyone else were also dependent on the mood organ for their daily mood or feelings. Each day they programmed how they wanted to feel: " My schedule for today lists a six hour self-accusatory depression."(2) Therefore, their life is run by a machine and maybe that is why they show android type behaviors. For example people are given classifications, such as chickenheads if they "[fail] the minimum mental faculties test (15). People are forced to things they find terrifying (when Isodore was force to use the videophone). Also humans feel no empathy for androids when they're killed. Although androids are not human, a few of them are part of society and participate in it. It's almost impossible to tell the difference between man and Androids. Man and androids are slowly becoming one. Man is controlled by a machine and is starting to exhibit android like behaviors. Androids on the other hand have begun the show human characteristics. An example is that the androids feel lonely by themselves. It seems that the distinction between the two is soon fading away. Rick said that if android questions were added to the empathic question used on the Voigt- Kampff test, the distinction between man and android would disappear.

After having read both books, I have to say that I enjoyed reading them both. They were very interesting. Especially their out look on how the future is going to be. Maybe in ten years androids will be part of our society.

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