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Essay / Fictional Essay - 936
In the story "We Can Remember It for You Basically", written by Phillip K. Dick, the protagonist, Douglas Quail, has to deal with multiple problems involving his memory. At the beginning of the story, Douglas appears to be just an ordinary working-class man with a crazy fantasy of visiting Mars; but as the story progresses, the reader begins to discover that there is much more to say about Douglas Quail. While visiting a company called the Rekal Corporation, a company that offers the involvement of false memories to make people's dreams and fantasies more real, they discover that Douglas has in fact already been to Mars. This story explains a lot about the nature of memory and reality. This shows that there are things that happen in a person's life that can get so far into their brain that we can start to confuse reality with fantasy. Throughout the beginning of the story, the protagonist Douglas Quail deals strictly with internal conflict, regarding his deep fantasy and dream of one day visiting Mars. However, as his wife reminds him daily, he is just a simple working-class man who will never be able to accomplish this feat. At first, Douglas refuses to believe it and tells himself that whatever happens, he will one day visit Mars. As he slowly begins to realize that he indeed won't be able to travel to Mars, he searches for a secondary option. It was there that he decided to visit a memory imprinting company known as the Rekall Corporation. During his visit to the Rekall company, he faces a much more difficult conflict. This is where the external conflict comes into the story regarding the reality that he actually visited Mars and Interplan is going to try to kill him. In this particular story, the protagonist has to face middle of paper......problems arise due to the advanced technology present throughout the story. In this story, author Phillip K. Dick attempts to explain the dangers but also the benefits of such advanced technology, as well as the complications of the human mind when it comes to managing complex memories. Although the reason Douglas finds himself facing such problems and dangers comes from the technology he has been presented with throughout his life, he is also able to use this technology to his advantage and possibly save his life. life. The story also explains how people can delete memories so far in their brains that they can begin to confuse their dreams with the reality of events that actually happened during their own lives. This happens in the most extreme way in the case of Douglas Quail in the story "we can remember it for you basically ».”