Watching, Rick thought, My god; there's something worse about my situation than his. Mercer doesn't have to do anything alien to him. He suffers but at least he isn't required to violate his own identity. 178
... The old man said, "You will be required to do wrong no matter where you go. It is the basic condition of life, to be required to violate your own identity. At some point, every create that lives must do so. 179
What a coincidence, both of these quotes happen to deal with the idea of identity and what its origin might be. Just kidding, I did that on purpose. As Rick considers his situation and reflects on the circumstance's of Mercer's endless toil, he comes to the conclusion above. When I first read this I found it immediately interesting. However, the more I consider the implications of what Rick could mean, and what Mercer says to him about the necessity of doing wrong, the more disoriented I become. Thus, this blog entry serves not only to walk through a concept of identity openly conveyed in this text but also as a tool for myself to work through an unfinished thought and reach a conclusion regarding Rick's personal identity.
My biggest issue with Rick's comment about violating his identity is the perspective from which it comes. While the words sound like a vast wisdom is being uncovered, Rick's general mood of self-pity that has pervaded his outlook at this point in his struggle to reckon with his newfound empathy for the androids calls into question the shrewdness of his comment. In one sense, Rick could just be saying that Mercer's life is better than his because it is constant and thus holds no surprising revelations that might complicate it. In this sense, the word identity is just thrown in as a melodramatic rhetorical tool to convey the extent to which this man is conflicted. If the reader is to take Rick's comment seriously, and wonder what he and, further, Dick, mean by this statement, the word identity becomes quite a bit more complex in this context. Rick uses the word identity to mean an essential quality of his being--maybe even the aspect of him that defines what one would consider to be his soul.
As we study through different works the notion of identity and what it is, Rick's version of identity i not to be taken for granted. In other contexts it seems that the characters identify themselves and their surroundings not inherently but through experience and gradual understanding. The argument could even be made that one's identity is something that is imposed upon her by the society/family etc that one is a part of. And especially in the context of this story, Rick's "identity" is something that becomes clear to him through a process of interactions, feelings and reflections. Was Rick violating his identity when he wasn't even aware of it yet or did his emotional response to his job emerge over time? This changeability or constance seems to be the axis of the identity crisis and clearly I have not begun to answer the question by posing so many of my own. I would argue that Dick sends mixed messages in his portrayal of these characters' identities to the point that I wonder whether the concept can ever be pinpointed to a specific origin. Maybe it's something that we have thought up to explain ourselves without thinking through the implications of. For the sake of my paper I hope that this is not true.
Hannah! I absolutely enjoyed your entry about the concept of "identity," especially that of Rick Deckard's in "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" I would like to also say that the second quote that you have chosen was also one of my favorite quotes in the entire book ("You will be required to do wrong no matter where you go. It is the basic condition of life, to be required to violate your own identity. At some point, every create that lives must do so.")
ReplyDeleteIn this quote, the old man says that it is "the basic condition of life, to be required to violate your own identity." Such thought is very interesting in terms of empathy as well. To feel empathy means to experience the feelings of another. Initially, in the novel, Rick feels empathy only towards those of his own kind--the humans--which he considers his main identity. As a bounty hunter, he disregards the identity of the androids and sees them only as a threat to humans. But then, he develops a sentiment of empathy for them...
In Jill Galvan's critical essay, ""Entering the Post-human Collective in Philip K. Dick's Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" he says that humans and technology "[shape] one another's existence" (414), or identity, through empathy. However, I still agree with you on the complexity of the idea of an "identity." As you have already asked, the same thing puzzled me throughout the novel... "Was Rick violating his identity when he wasn't even aware of it yet?" or did his identity simply change?
Another aspect of identity that interested me was the difference between identity and identification... is identity innate and permanent or does it change? And if it does change overtime, then does our environment play a big role in changing it or do we, as we so often say that we "identify" with something, have the power to change our identity.
Well, I guess as Galvan says in his essay about one's experiences having a great impact on his or her identity, both the exterior and interior qualities of a person could affect his or her identity. Identity, overall, is a difficult concept to define. It is worth thinking about and your entry enlightened me in those terms.