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Speculative Fiction - Assignment 4
James Madison University
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Instructions:(This will be graded only as an acceptable or unacceptable effort. One of the goals of this exercise is to have you separate other influences on how you read and respond to a text from the way the text itself constrains and suggests interpretations and responses.
- In Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep various characters judge one another based on their level and kind(s) of empathy. It therefore seems interesting to consider which characters WE feel the strongest empathetic connection with, if any, in this novel. So, which character, if any, is it for you? If you don't feel much empathy for any of the characters, choose one character that you think you can discuss well. Having chosen a character, now do the following:
- First make some notes on what kind of empathy you have with that character (shared sorrow, happiness, worry, anger, etc? At certain points in the novel?) OR characterize what you feel towards the character instead...
- Then, using the full novel, consider specific ways the text does/does not provide details that are arguably designed to encourage you to feel empathy for this character. Details could be plot details, literal or figurative representations of character (physical description/emotion/thoughts/etc), kinds of character development over the course of the novel, specific things the character says, the name of the character, and anything else that seems relevant!
- Next, consider whether there are any aspects of the context of the author's life, of the period in which the novel was written or the plot is set, of your life, of this class, etc. that incline you to feel more or less empathy of particular kinds for your chosen character.
- Using the information from the first parts of this assignment, write up a one-page typed (doublespaced) reponse paper summarizing your connection or lack thereof to the character and the different kinds of influences that may have affected the level and kind of empathy you feel.
