A turtle called Tu'imalila died in Tonga and “the people of Tonga considered the animal a leader” (Reuters 1966). Likewise, in “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?” the characters take place in a dystopian society and greatly value animals as they reveal humans' capacity for empathy. In Philip K. Dick's novel, "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" the world finds itself in a post-apocalyptic future following a global nuclear war, which has caused millions of deaths and the extinction of many species. Thanks to advanced technology, humans migrated to Mars with androids and those who remained on Earth craved live animals, so companies built realistic robot animals for humans to care for. The protagonist, Rick Deckard, is a bounty hunter on Earth tasked with eliminating androids who have returned to Earth. Rick does this to earn enough money to buy an animal, but he has difficulty accepting his actions. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an original essay in “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?” by Philip K. Dick, the author illustrates a dystopian society in reaction to his personal society through the blurred sense of reality created by advanced technology, the dehumanization of citizens, and the disastrous effects of the post-apocalyptic setting of war. Through further examination of these three points, it is evident that the novel depicts a dystopian society and is based on the author's society. First, in the novel, the characters have a blurred sense of reality through Dick's use of advanced technology that depicts a dystopian society as a reflection of his own drug addiction at the time. To begin, Dick uses the Empathy Box as a device that connects followers of the religion of Mercerism to a collective consciousness to empathize with the feelings of their religious leader. in a simulation that physically affects John Isidore, a “special”. For example, when John activates his empathy box, in his consciousness he begins to see the landscape of a hill and he begins to climb the hill with his leader, Mercer: [John's] feet are now scratched; he felt the same old painful, irregular roughness under his feet and... . . I have felt the acrid mist of the sky [since] . . . a foreign place, distant and yet, thanks to the empathy box, instantly available. (Dick 22) To elaborate, John's feeling of being "in a strange place" is a representation of the alienation people feel when using the empathy box despite being connected to the emotions of others with the device. This technology distorts the sense of reality because it creates uncertainty in the user's senses as they physically feel the manifestation of emotions instead of truly empathizing with others. Additionally, Dick's use of electronic animals instead of real animals in the novel creates a misperception of what is real and unreal in society, as the technology in the dystopian novel is advanced enough that authentic animals and the artificial animals seem almost indistinguishable. For example, when Rick discovers that the toad he found outside his car was electric and Iran apologizes for telling him the truth, Rick responds, “'No. . . I would prefer to know. But that doesn't matter. Electrical devices also have their lives. However paltry these lives are” (Dick 241). To clarify, Rick believed the toad was real because the designof the toad was visually realistic. Despite this, Rick accepts and appreciates the fake toad as real life, suggesting that artificial animals are causing humans to lose touch with reality, which is evidence of a dystopian society. Finally, the distorted sense of reality created by the two different technologies reflects the author's drug addiction. Specifically, Philip K. Dick was an addict because "he saw drug use as a tool to break the reality of the everyday world and liberate the world." spirit. Drug use, Dicka says, allowed him to experience as different a reality as possible” (Encyclopedia.com). Similarly, Dick had a blurred sense of reality, like the characters in the book, as he was a depressed man and wanted to lose touch with reality so he wouldn't have to face his problems. In his society, it was common for artists to use drugs, for example amphetamines, to think outside the box, reflecting the common use of advanced technology in the novel. Therefore, it is evident that the use of advanced technology to control emotions and depict animals in the novel is evidence of a dystopian society based on the author's experience with drugs. Second, “Do androids dream of electric sheep?” is a dystopian novel because some citizens of the novel's society live in a dehumanized state linked to the author's mental illness and his society. To begin with, humans whose genes have been damaged by radiation fallout and who are sometimes mentally deficient are classified as "special" and are not accepted by society. To clarify, humans who decided to stay on Earth instead of emigrating to Mars and who had genetic damage from radiation and were mentally deficient were classified as: Biologically unacceptable, a threat to the original heredity of the race . Even accepting sterilization, he left the story. He stopped. . . to be part of humanity. John Isidore had been special. . . but failed the minimum mental faculties test. . . what did it. . . a chicken head. (Dick 16-17) Examination reveals that there is a discriminatory hierarchical system in which specials are at the bottom of the ladder since they are not even “biologically acceptable” (Dick 16). It is particularly dehumanizing for these citizens to be called "chickenhead", as this name strips them of all human qualities referring to an animal (Dick 17). Additionally, some humans are dehumanized as they are compared to the more human-like androids, called the Nexus-6 androids. The Voigt-Kampff scale, which is the most advanced test used to differentiate androids from humans, will not work "in human schizophrenic patients, so this small class of human beings would not be able to pass the Voigt scale -Kampff. If they are tested. . . in accordance with police work, they [would] be evaluated. . . like humanoid robots. . . [and] they would have died” (Dick 38). In this way, the test suggests that humans with mental illnesses are less human than an android and would be killed. This means that these mentally ill humans are below the androids in the hierarchical structure and the androids are more human than these patients because the androids can show empathy. To relate, the classification of some humans as "special" and "chickens" and the empathy test to differentiate humans and androids are both a reaction to the author's struggle with mental illness, lack of research on mental illness in the author's time and the discrimination that occurred towards.