Electric Kipple

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English 3222 Short Paper Due:10/30/12 "Kipple" In the novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, Phillip K. Dick makes sure to present Earth as an apocalyptic world where much of the Earth has been destroyed by nuclear warfare and most of the human population has run off to Mars. This is a depressing world and the remaining humans on Earth fill the void in their lives with several different venues. Mood organs, Mercerism, empathy boxes, and animals. These things are helpful in filling the void in the humans lives on Earth, but it is the "kipple" that is really filling all the literal voids left when people abandon everything and move to Mars. I propose that Dick uses kipple as a physical embodiment of the figurative void-fillers. If it is accepted that kipple is the physical manifestation of all the venues used to fill the figurative voids in the characters’ lives, then it follows that Dick’s negative portrayal of the kipple reflects his opinion of the figurative void-fillers. In the course of this essay, I intend to establish this by discussing how each void-filling venue is presented in Androids. I will thereby demonstrate that Dick uses the negative description of kipple to symbolize the futility of drugs, religion, and consumerism when it comes to solving mankind’s problems. To understand how kipple is represented you have…show more content…
Immense pressure has been put on the citizens to own one. Rick’s “relationship [with his neighbor] is based on a comparison of what they own, with Rick’s artificial sheep indicating relative poverty. Because of this, Rick laments that owning an electric sheep rather than a real one “has a way of gradually demoralizing him” (Dick 9). Consumerism is such an integral part of society that Rick feels worthless and unimportant because he does not own a live animal. The ideals of consumerism put such strong pressure on Rick that he is willing to do anything to be able to buy a real
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