Lindsey StClair5/14/2014English 1BEssage 2Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep Symbols and ThemesEmpathy is the feeling of understanding and sharing another person's experiences and emotions: the ability to share someone else's feelings. Can anything other than a human feel empathy? Empathy is the main theme of Do Androids dream of Electric Sheep and is the issue of the entire novel. Each character in the novel must understand what it means to be empathetic and whether or not this allows someone to be seen as a human being. Animals and empathy play hand in hand when they test people to see if they are human, they use animals in their tests to see if there is a reaction. The animals in the story that have a great meaning of empathy are the sheep, the owl and the goat. Animals are an important part of society in and out of the book, without animals much would be lost. They represent wealth, companionship, hope and, above all, a living life. Any stage of loneliness can teach people to use their imagination, understand their values, and have empathy for others. The story Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep is set in 2021. After the end of the World War, the government pushed people to move to other plants due to radioactive dust in the air. Rick Deckard is the protagonist of this novel; he is a bounty hunter, married to Iran and owner of an electric sheep. He lives on earth but is always afraid of contracting a disease from the dust in the air and being deported to another planet. Since WWT happened, people were strongly advised to move to another factory because the dust was killing all the people and animals. Rick is always very attentive and always has a model Ajax Mountibank Le...... middle of paper ...... had the goat for a few days and showed great empathy for the goat. He was so heartbroken after his wife told him what had happened, that he left. “I'll be fine,” he said, and thought, “I'm going to die.” These two things are also true. He closed the car door, gave a hand signal to Iran, and then rose into the night sky” (227). After all the challenges Rick faced in this story, in the end it all came down to empathy. His feelings towards androids, feelings towards animals, feelings of others, and even feelings towards himself. Any human being, no matter who they are, feels some sort of empathy. What Philip K. Dick was trying to possess in this story is that a world without empathy is like the Earth in this story, damaged, contaminated, worthless, contagious and sad. Be true to who you are, have empathy for others, and achieve your goals.