Who Is The Sympathetic In Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep?

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In Philip K. Dick’s “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?”, empathy is a main theme. Each character in the novel deals with what it means to be empathetic and whether being empathetic makes one a human being. Besides the other characters, Rick becomes permanently empathetic to the androids and thinks of them as people. In the beginning, Rick is a selfish, self-involved bounty hunter who seeks financial benefits by retiring the valueless and lifeless androids. The text reads, “Empathy, he once had decided, must be limited to herbivores or anyhow omnivores who could depart from a meat diet.” Rick at first thinks that androids cannot be empathetic. As the novel continues, it is experiences within the novel which causes him to develop empathy